1984 Flashcards
1
Literature plays a vital role in representing the intricate relationship between collective and individual experiences, offering insightful lessons about the complexities of the human experience as a whole. Such is effectively explored through George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 (1949) wherein he examines both polarities of the human experience: the control totalitarian governments exercise, and how this paradoxically fosters an individual’s rebellious response to it and hence maintaining self-expression. He further examines the provocative notion of love in its raw form, manifesting physically and emotionally between humans Winston and Julia beyond the confines of authoritarianism. Hence Orwell encourages audiences of all zeitgeists to not only reflect upon their understanding but to ignite new ideas regarding extremist authority’s power to dismantle the human condition.
2
Orwell criticises the deliberate mishandling of power by a dominant imposing body, resulting in enforced collective submission and the constriction of personal values. Orwell warns us of this concern within Winston’s imagined future, consisting of “three hundred million people all with the same face… thinking the same thoughts”, wherein the hyperbolic metaphor details the population’s “same” faces to represent the collective unconsciousness of this society through mindless conformity, enabling the government to facilitate the omission of authentic human experiences through social contract.
3
Orwell suggests these political systems merely restrict free thought to maintain the en-mass subservience by engineering autonomous individuals - Winston and Julia - into a collective social order that suppresses natural emotions such as bravery. Orwell describes Winston’s environment as a sphere infiltrated by omniscient governance, where ‘Every sound you made was overheard… every moment scrutinised’, by “telescreens”. These electronic Panopticons of Foucauldian surveillance create an environment of permanent visibility, enabling the totalitarian regime to penetrate an ideology into the collective consciousness.
4
The freedom of society’s ability to think independently is further obstructed by the destruction of words and their meanings, as represented through the machination of ‘Newspeak’, which dictates their aim of “narrow[ing] the range of thought…”. This is further evidenced in Syme’s resolutely high modal admission to Winston that “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible”, to achieve a state of being wherein the cognitive disobedience of individuals is known to the government. The first-person assertion instils fear within the audience and hence exposes the government’s machiavellian regime to diminish characters’ independence- a powerful necessity of the human experience.
5
Reflective of his post-WWII epoch, Orwell didactically warns audiences of all contexts against the misuse of power as well as succumbing to it by illustrating its potential to corrupt an individual’s organic human experience.
6
As the novel’s heroic protagonist, Winston’s ideological and physical participation in the rebellion against Big Brother is symbolic of the preservation and strength of individuality that exists beyond the parameters of the Party’s ideal. It’s illustrated in his acceptance that in the totalitarian world of Big Brother “Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull”, a hyperbolic metaphor within Winston’s diary that operates as both a motif of his love for rebellion and as a means of carrying on our “ancestral memory” that has been lost. Through this, Orwell warns audiences of governmental impingement on an individual’s right to liberation.
7
By positioning Winston within his society as a metaphorical “lonely ghost” - symbolically elucidating how his identity and voice are reduced to meaningless invisibility - Orwell emphasises the ultimate futility of “uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear”. Orwell, while acknowledging the futility of his storytelling, provocatively exemplifies the abstraction of memory as critical to human expression, depicting it as a ubiquitously important tool in the rebellion against oppression, one critical for the gaining of freedom for Winston and his society.
8
Furthermore, Winston continues his rebellion to achieve freedom by engaging in sexual acts, firmly claiming that “The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion.” explains that sexual “Desire was thoughtcrime”. The neological irony in his observation that sex has become a weaponised vessel of rebellion, underscores Winston’s deep-rooted urge for insurrection, which also manifests in his relationship with Julia. Their passionate union reignites a romantic love that symbolizes individuality and freedom of choice, in defiance of the oppressive regime.
9
Their initial expression of such love serves as a “political act” of rebellion, akin to a metaphorical “blow struck against the Party”, rather than a moment of affectionate intimacy. This showcases how sex is appropriated as a political statement, effectively embodying Winston and Julia’s defiant resistance to the government’s obsessive control.
10
Winston is Orwell’s fictive testament to the resistance against extensive attempts at intrapersonal infiltration committed by hegemonic political systems similar to those within his mid-1900s context. Thus, he encourages audiences to maintain the individualism necessary to powerfully resist socio-political monism.
11
Similar to power, love is a significant and inherent component of both collective and individual human experiences due to its ability to motivate an individual’s emotions and desires. This is the case in 1984 as illustrated through Winston and Julia’s relationship, wherein the illegality of physical love forces individuals to exist without the satiation of sexual desires, provoking its weaponisation as a rebellion device.
12
Emotional repression assuming the form of revolt is voiced through O’Brien’s declaration to Winston, asserting with high modality that “We shall abolish the orgasm.. no love, except the love of Big Brother” in which short truncated phrases simplify the semi-urgency and confidence in O’Brien’s tone. The harshness of the verb “abolish” reveals the length to which the government will go to completely manipulate the societal need for love by changing the collective view that an “orgasm” satisfies oneself, redirecting that emotion towards accepting Big Brother’s “love”.
13
This effectively portrays the malleable nature of love to be easily weaponised as a political stance against the government, as further portrayed in Winston’s claim to Julia, “The more men you’ve had, the more I love you”. The paradox of “more” establishes a sense of urgency, coupled with provocative emotion that overpowers even the restrictions of totalitarianism on the collective perspective of love within Winston’s society. Orwell is therefore able to effectively prospect the weaponisation of raw emotion such as love when corrupted by domineering governing bodies. Hence, Orwell’s motif of love as a provocative component of the human experience successfully proves its necessity and prevalence above all else, due to its potential to be weaponisation.
14
An individual’s human experience is deepened by provocative and meaningful experiences and one’s ability to act autonomously, motivated by powerful emotions like love and the desire for freedom when faced with abusive power. By offering audiences a fictive landscape governed by strict rule and unquestionable order, Orwell’s dystopian novel ultimately warns his universal audience against the timeless emergence of extreme political ideologies and their powerful perverseness of one’s authentic existence.
