A Critical Analysis OfTheBook "1984" By George Orwell

1984: A critical analysis

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell was born on the 25th of June, 1903 in Motihari, Bengal. His father was minor British official in the Indian Civil Service and his mother was partly French. Orwell’s parents can be best explained in Orwell’s own words. In the novel, “Keep the Aspidistra Flying”, he talks about “landless gentry”, people who belonged to the most dismal of all classes, the middle-middle class. Orwell was thus brought up in an atmosphere of impoverished snobbery.

After returning with his parents to England, he was sent to a boarding school in Sussex where he stood out due to his intellectual proficiency. But he was pretty unpopular and lonely. In a short story, “Why I write”, Orwell writes,” I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays”.

George Orwell was heavily influenced by the amount of fighting happening around him at that time. He bore witness to both World Wars and that has played a big role in the way he writes. Other notable works of George Orwell include “Homage to Catalonia “, “A Hanging” and “Animal Farm”. "Orwellian" is now a universal shorthand for anything repressive or totalitarian(Guardian)

In honour of George Orwell, the Orwell Prize is handed out to the best political writing in Great Britain. It is Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. To quote Felicity Lawrence, winner of the prize in 2017 for her work “Exposing Britain’s Social Evils”, “The Orwell prize is the prize for political writing, the one you really covet as an author, and getting the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils feels a wonderful affirmation, especially if you are reporting from outside the Westminster bubble.”

Plot analysis

1984 is about totalitarianism. A totalitarian political system is one in which there is only one political party which controls everything and does not allow any opposition parties. The government constantly has its eyes on the people and their actions, who they are in contact with and what they say. A totalitarian government also has a control of what people believe and what they think. Orwell was greatly influenced by contemporary totalitarian governments such as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Orwell wanted to give his readers a glimpse of a free country, such as England, under totalitarian rule and the probable consequences of such a rule.

Orwell himself claimed that he was partly inspired by the meeting of the Allied leaders at the Tehran Conference of 1944. Isaac Deutscher, an Observer colleague, reported that Orwell was "convinced that Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt consciously plotted to divide the world" at Tehran.(Guardian)In Orwell’s dystopian future 1984, people routinely disappear and all their records of existence are erased. It seems as though they vaporise into thin air. In the book, the earth has been divided into three zones- Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia.

These three zones are constantly at war with each other. The action takes place in London, the main city in Airstrip 1. London is described as a depressing place. There is never enough to eat, the food is disgusting, there is heavy demand but limited supply of daily requirements such as shoes and razor blades. The city is in dire straits, with paint crumbling and buildings tumbling. In between the mess lie the Government buildings that rise above the landscape. They look like white pyramids and are many storeys tall. The Government is always watching people. Inside their homes, everyone are required to have a tele-screen, which is a two way camera and a microphone and they must be switched on at all times. Outside there are huge posters reading ‘big brother is watching you’ and has the image of a man with a moustache and an intimidating stare.

Big brother is the Some of the things the government has banned are having friends, being in love, dating and having sex. The thought police patrol the streets to make sure no rules are broken and if someone violates them, they are sent to a forced labour camp where they are tortured. Some rules which have to be followed without fail are watching the government supplied news and exercises. Everyone must participate in ‘the hate’ which is a small rally against the ideas and actions of Emmanuel Goldstein, a rebel and the author of the book, . The government endorses “doublethink” which links contradictory beliefs. The main slogan is “War is peace”, “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is strength”.

Character analysis

The protagonist of the book is Winston Smith, a 39 year old man and works as a writer in a government office. His job is to translate the English news to Newspeak, the official language, and make the Big Brother appear as a hero at all times. Winston lives a dreary life with no friends or hobbies. He is married to Katherine, who is brainwashed. They live separately as she is unable to provide children and the law prevents divorces, so they have no choice.

The only hobby Winston has is writing a diary, in which he explains how much he hates the current regime and tries to imagine a different life. He does not remember what happened when he was young as the government has changed all records of the past but he remembers some traumatic moments from his life. If he was caught writing a diary, he could be killed. Something which was very evident throughout the book was how badly Winston wanted to change things in the current world. In a special edition of the book, published in 2013, Thomas Pynchon writes in the introduction about how the character Winston Smith was inspired by Winston Churchill and how he “evokes an idea of resistance and the fighting back of an oppressive regime/government.

Winston Churchill wanted to bring peace and freedom, whereas Winston Smith wanted to gain his own personal freedom”. ( Orwell, George, and Thomas Pynchon. 1984. Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2013. Print.)Another key character is Julia. She is described as a young and attractive woman. She works in the same building as Winston as a mechanic. Winston initially hates her as she is pretty and he cannot have her. He is also afraid of her as she always voices out her hatred towards Goldstein in the hate and that she might be a part of the thought police.

However this all changes one day when she hands Winston a note saying “I love you”. It is very hard for them to start an affair due to the amount of security. One day, they manage to stray into the country-side. When Julia asks if Winston wants this to continue, he incredulously replies 'I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife that I can't get rid of. I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth.'Julia’s response of 'I couldn't care less,' shows the readers her true feelings for Winston. And thus, they start a happy but dangerous love affair. They continue by renting rooms whenever possible from Mr. Cherrington, an antiques dealer. They knew the risks of continuing the affair but nevertheless the joy they felt when they were together triumphs all other feelings.

This was a huge victory for Winston and Julia and it is described in the following lines "Not merely the love of one person, but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the party It was a political act" Part 2, Chapter 2, pg. 127O’Brian is described as a portly and intelligent. He is a part of the inner party and pretty high up in society. Winston becomes good friends with him as he thinks O’Brian will understand and share his feelings. During the hate, O’Brian is usually silent and this drives Winston to think of him as a friend who hates the government. One day, he invites Winston and Julia to his apartment. Winston sees this as a chance to confess his affairs and rope in another rebel. O’Brian initially is kind and agrees to keep their affair a secret. He gives Winston a copy of “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism” which was a rebellious book written by Emmanuel Goldstein.

Winston decides to read it and is blown away by it. However, after he finishes the book, the thought police bust in and imprison him and Julia in the ministry of love. This was a neatly planned plot by O’Brian and he had successfully lured Winston into believing him. He tells Winston that this was the only way the government can exercise its power over rebels like Winston and Julia.

In the ministry of love, Winston is tortured in all sorts of horrible ways. He is beaten up, his teeth were broken, he was shocked electrically every day and was starved. Winston confesses to all his accusations and tells him everything he knows about Julia. If this was not enough, he was subjected to more torture in Room 101, where they do exactly what one is afraid of. Winston is afraid of rats. He turned on Julia only when he was threatened to be exposed to rats in a cage. Thus, the government was successful in removing the rebel in Winston and let him free. Winston has changed his mind completely. He does not want to think about anything rebellious anymore.

The book ends on a creepy note saying “He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” The ending signifies how the Party has power over everyone’s minds and that even the biggest rebels bow down to the Big Brother.

Analysis of the language

The most striking feature of 1984 is the use of Newspeak. Newspeak is an altered form of regular English designed and controlled by the state in order to suppress free thought, individualism, and happiness. Orwell’s language is a study in where linguistics and psychology meet, despite Orwell having expert knowledge in neither field The primary aim of Newspeak is to reduce the meaning of language as well as the number of words possible. To this end, Newspeak removes all synonyms and antonyms. Bad instead becomes ungood,warm becomes uncold, and so on. Some of the most famous words in newspeak are thoughtcrime, doublethink, blackwhite and ingsoc.

1984 is best described by The Independent as a political thriller. “The book succeeds because it is no manifesto, but an absorbing, deeply affecting story”. The Guardian provides us with information nobody knows about how Orwell wrote 1984. Orwell was suffering with a serious bout of illness. At the end of May 1947 he told his publisher, Fred Warburg: "I think I must have written nearly a third of the rough draft. I have not got as far as I had hoped to do by this time because I really have been in most wretched health this year ever since about January (my chest as usual) and can't quite shake it off."Mindful of his publisher's impatience for the new novel, Orwell added: "Of course the rough draft is always a ghastly mess bearing little relation to the finished result, but all the same it is the main part of the job." Still, he pressed on, and at the end of July was predicting a completed "rough draft" by October. After that, he said, he would need another six months to polish up the text for publication.

Midway through his book, he collapsed with "inflammation of the lungs" and told Koestler that he was "very ill in bed". Just before Christmas, in a letter to an Observer colleague, he broke the news he had always dreaded. Finally he had been diagnosed with TB . In 1947 there was no cure for TB - doctors prescribed fresh air and a regular diet - but there was a new, experimental drug on the market, streptomycin. Astor arranged for a shipment to Hairmyres from the US.Richard Blair believes that his father was given excessive doses of the new wonder drug. The side effects were horrific (throat ulcers, blisters in the mouth, hair loss, peeling skin and the disintegration of toe and fingernails) but in March 1948, after a three-month course, the TB symptoms had disappeared. "It's all over now, and evidently the drug has done its stuff," Orwell told his publisher. "It's rather like sinking the ship to get rid of the rats, but worth it if it works." Nineteen Eighty-Four was published on 8 June 1949 (five days later in the US) and was almost universally recognised as a masterpiece, even by Winston Churchill, who told his doctor that he had read it twice.

Orwell's health continued to decline. In October 1949, in his room at University College hospital, he married Sonia Brownell, with David Astor as best man. It was a fleeting moment of happiness; he lingered into the new year of 1950. In the small hours of 21 January he suffered a massive haemorrhage in hospital and died alone. (Guardian)After Donald Trump’s inauguration as the president of the United States, the best selling book in Amazon was 1984. (Independent) It has been 69 years since the book was published. So far, we have not experienced anything even remotely close to Orwell’s predictions.

There have been a few scares here and there but nothing significant. It has been 73 years since the last world war. Wars still happen but they are restricted to the countries fighting. The United Nations are doing a good job in maintaining peace. There are a few alien governments under the rule of controversial leaders. The world is better connected and people are becoming smarter by the day. New inventions have eased the way we live life. Orwell’s dystopian future has not become true so far, but all it takes to become true is just a small spark.

The book gives readers a glimpse of a world in which the government has complete control over the people. The action takes place in the streets of London, which is in a state of ruin. The world is divided into three superpowers and London, situated in Oceania, is under the control of Big Brother. The Government keeps an eye on all the citizens at all times. There are a set of rules everyone must adhere to and if not, the rule-breakers are tortured and killed. Winston Smith works for a newspaper. He usually changes and edits the news from Oldspeak or English to Newspeak, the official language. He has a rebellious mind and notes his thoughts in a diary. He is approached by Julia, whom he likes but is afraid of. They start an affair, a risky one considering the consequences if they are caught.

O’Brian, a friend of Winston, lures Winston to believe that he is a rebel as well. However, O’Brian is a spy and Winston and Julia are imprisoned. They are tortured day and night until Winston is completely brainwashed and pledges loyalty to the Big Brother. The novel ends with how Winston returns to the cycle of daily life but this time around, loves the Big Brother.

References:

http://www.telelib.com/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/prose/KeepAspidistraFlying/3.html

https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-prize/about/about-the-prize/

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/totalitarian[bookmark: _Hlk525302722]

Orwell, George, and Thomas Pynchon.b 1984. Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2013. Print. 5.

https://sites.google.com/site/devinsallusions/semester-2/history/winston-smith-and-winston-churchill

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/1984-by-george-orwell-book-of-a-lifetime-an-absorbing-deeply-affecting-political-thriller-10360789.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/10/1984-george-orwell

https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/09/30/george-orwell-newspeak/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/2017-isn-t-1984-it-s-stranger-than-orwell-imagined-a7555341.html