Utopia Vs Dystopia

The world of 1984 revolves around a utopian atmosphere. This idea of a perfect world is set up by factors of mind control. Orwell continuously talks about how there is always someone watching and listening everything you do. The Party controls everything in society and no one has their own ideas or opinions. The only thing people in the novel have are a 'few cubic meters inside your skull' (Orwell 27). The Party does not want anyone to have any individual thought because they believe that will destroy the perfect society they have worked so hard to create. The government even goes to the extent of changing actual history, “This is crucial since the Party, in line with its policy of rewriting the historical record and the complementary control of memory to suit its purposes, has also attempted to appropriate the material artefacts of the city’s history to their version of the past” (Phillips 3).

The Party wants its citizens to believe only what they want them to believe. This includes what has happened in the past. The Party changes history and manipulates people’s thoughts to make themselves look better and heroic. It is part of their plan to make Oceania a perfect society. To the Party, Oceania is a utopia in which they worked very hard for. In particular, the Party created its own language called Newspeak. The purpose of Newspeak was to narrow the range of thought. The Party does not want people to be able to express their feelings of discomfort in relation to the Party and wants to ensure that there is no possibility of resistance against Big Brother, the leader of the government (Orwell 52). The Party created this language as another way to control society. Every year Oceania's vocabulary gets smaller and smaller. Essentially, the Party is destroying language so that citizens will have no words to express themselves. Newspeak limits people's knowledge (Protherough). Newspeak consists of basic root words of the English language.

The Party makes sure there is only a few words to choose from when being descriptive. They do not want there to be any way people can go against the Party and their beliefs. The Party influences all thoughts including citizen's ideas about the past and their ability to share their opinion (Stanley 241). The Party controls citizen's individualism which allows them to create a utopia. They are trying to create this perfect society where everyone thinks the same. The Party wants to control everything about society and create a world that is as perfect as possible. Dystopia is one of the main themes used in the novel 1984. The perfect world that the Party tried to create is not so perfect after all. As said in an article debating the ideas of utopia used in 1984, in Orwell’s plot the overall happiness is removed from Oceania altogether (Wanner 3). Instead of making Oceania a utopia, the Party created a dystopia which eventually stripped the happiness from society. The people have no individual thoughts or feelings and the Party controls everything about their life. They are like puppets on a string with the Party being the conductor. The people of Oceania have no feelings towards anything, besides a fantasized love for Big Brother. Although, not everyone has the same appreciation for Big Brother as the Party wants them to. In the novel, Orwell writes about the belief of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was an organization the was created to bring down the Party (Orwell 69). They were an enemy of the Party and they wanted to destroy the Party and their beliefs. The idea of the Brotherhood messes up the utopian atmosphere. A group of people plotting against the Party and rebelling shows that not everyone believes in the ideas of the Party.

Therefore, it messes up the Party's idea of having the perfect society. Oceania was a world with no true thoughts or feelings, making a perfect example of a dystopia. The dystopian lifestyle is very prominent throughout the novel. One thing that leads to a lot of disagreement is the rules with crime commitments. Thoughtcrime is the criminal act of holding unspoken beliefs or doubts that oppose or question the Party's rule or power (Orwell 19). People can get in trouble or even die from committing thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime is a constant reminder for people to act like they believe in the Party. This shows that Oceania is not perfect. If Oceania was the perfect place the Party wanted it to be, they would not have to enforce their ideas and create a system to make sure people did not rally against them. The main way citizen's commit thoughtcrime is through talking in their sleep (Stanley 239). People usually get caught for thoughtcrime while sleeping. They have either said something that goes against the beliefs of the Party or said something about plotting against the Party. They do not even realize they have said anything until they are ripped out of bed in the middle of the night and thrown into jail. When someone is put in jail, there are three levels of reintegration - learning, understanding, and acceptance (Orwell 260). In jail they are tortured and 'cured'. The Party makes them into the 'perfect' citizen. They completely change their mindset and beliefs. The Party wants every person to believe in the same ideas as them, so if one does not believe in these ideas, they are forced to.

However, if Oceania was the perfect Utopia, everyone would feel the same way and have to same ideas as the government. There should be no need for any sort of jail system or torture methods. Overall, there are multiple contributors to the idea that the novel 1984 portrays a dystopia. The use of both utopia and dystopia affect Winston throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Winston disagrees with the Party and their beliefs. This disagreement contributes to the dystopian factor used in the novel. Winston starts feeling 'outlaw emotions' and resentment toward Big Brother. He hates the idea that the Party controls everything (Jacobs). Winston starts feeling this way because of the way the Party is trying to run society. His hatred towards the Party shows a lot about both his character and the dystopian atmosphere demonstrated towards the beginning of the novel. Winston believed that the Party was horrid and he wanted it gone. Since Winston believed this way, it shows that Oceania was not united. However, because of his open mind and his feelings of resentment, he was put into jail.

While in jail, Winston’s feelings change. Because of the cruelties of the Party and the dystopia, Winston is tortured and forced to change his beliefs. Author Naomi Jacobs writes, 'In the extended torture that follows his arrest, Winston learns first-hand that the power of the body to oppose the mind's will to resistance is stronger than the body's power to oppose the mind's will to submit' (Jacobs). Winston learns that the body's power to conform is stronger than the body's power to resist. Even though Winston wants to rebel and fight for what is right, his body knows that in order to stop the pain and torture, Winston needs to conform and accept the Party's beliefs. The Party knows that the only way to keep their perfect society is if everyone believes in their beliefs. They cannot have anyone rebelling and messing up the world they tried so hard to create.

So, they use their barbaric powers and torture Winston until he changes his mindset. In the end, Winston loves Big Brother. His hatred towards Big Brother and the Party was gone and replaced with the same 'love' everyone else in Oceania has towards them (Orwell 298). Winston's whole character changed by the end of the novel. The utopian ideas got into his head and forced him to change his beliefs. It is clear that the utopian and dystopian aspects of Oceania affected Winston’s character throughout the novel.