1984 - context Flashcards
Orwell’s vision of the future was set in something that looks more like
wartime London, with technology and science that do not seem to be a huge leap from the technology at the time:
Typewriters have been replaced by dictation machines, and Orwell foretells the rise in popularity of televisions via the medium of telescreens, even turning them into wall-mounted flatscreens
This is something that would have seemed very futuristic in Orwell’s day
Many of Orwell’s technological suggestions have become very
familiar to modern-day readers, such as the use of surveillance drones and CCTV:
However, Orwell did not anticipate how people would go on to use technology and willingly relinquish privacy via things such as social media
Even the names of supplies and housing are
satirical, as they represent the opposite of what they really are, such as “Victory Gin” and “Victory Mansions”
Orwell employs irony in the naming of the Ministry of Truth, which manipulates history; the Ministry of Love, which concerns itself with re-education via torture; the Ministry of Peace, which presides over war; and the Ministry of Plenty, which governs economic affairs
Orwell himself considered the book to be a warning in the form of satire:
He did not believe that this kind of society would arrive, but that something resembling it could arrive
To do this, he drew on things that had already happened:
For example, “2+2=5” was a real political slogan from the Soviet Union, as a promise to complete the industrialising Five Year Plan in four years
Orwell satirised this as an example of how totalitarian regimes suspend reality and create their own realities
1984 is a product of an era that encompassed an
ideological struggle between capitalism and communism
Orwell drew on Stalin’s authoritarian rule of the Soviet Union, as well as Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews, to imagine a society that extended already horrific regimes to an exaggerated degree:
Big Brother is interpreted to have been modelled on Stalin, and the choice of a Jewish name for Emmanuel Goldstein reflects the Nazi party’s anti-semitic rhetoric and ethnic cleansing policies
The rise of Hitler and the scapegoating of the Jews and other “undesirables” had a profound effect on Orwell
He realised that mass media was a key factor in Hitler’s rise to power
The use of propaganda, parades and telescreens are drawn from Nazi Party public propaganda and its marches and large-scale rallies
Goldstein is also modelled on the
exiled Soviet Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky:
Trotsky was an influential politician during the beginning of the Soviet Union, but was expelled from the Communist Party after a power struggle with Stalin
This mirrors Goldstein’s character in the book, as he is rumoured to be one of the founders of Oceania, along with Big Brother, but left to found the Brotherhood
Orwell positioned himself firmly against
communism and considered himself to be a “democratic socialist:
He wished to see ordinary people in control, and was not comfortable with the communist idea of an intellectual elite taking power on the workers’ behalf
The dangers of this are reflected in the fact that the members of the Inner Party have more freedoms than the average citizen, such as being able to turn off their telescreens and live in wealth rather than poverty
The pessimistic view of the society in 1984 leads the reader to question whether there is potential for opposition to the totalitarian state, or if the book offers only despair:
Winston believes that “if there is hope, it lies in the Proles”
However, there is little to suggest that any form of organised resistance actually exists
Even the Appendix, although written in the past tense, is ambiguous
This suggests that Orwell’s novel is positioned firmly as a warning, rather than offering any form of solution
1984 was published in 1949, and Airstrip One resembles
a mixture of post-war London and a communist state:
Examples of post-war austerity in Britain are evident throughout the novel, such as the poor quality Victory products and the rationing of chocolate
In 1941, Orwell took a position with the BBC as
the person in charge of broadcasting to India and Southeast Asia:
However, he disliked this as he was essentially in charge of disseminating propaganda to these British colonies
the idea of thoughtcrime was similar to the
USSR’s attempts to quieten and discredit political dissidents by committing them to psychiatric hospitals and “treating” them with psychoactive drugs
Stalin also encouraged a secret police to spy on citizens, and for citizens to spy on each other
“The Great Purge” was a major period of assassinations of anyone who disagreed with Stalin and the Communist party, similar to 1984’s “vaporisation”
The novel’s perpetually warring superstates are reminiscent of the constant threat of nuclear conflict following the Second World War
