'1984'- Critical views

Question 1

Complete Roger Luckhurst’s View on the novel:

“1984 explores the (1) ________ of private (2) _________ to resist the state’s rewriting of history and explores the reserve of the (3) ________.

Answer 1

1) Power
2) Memory
3) Unconscious

Question 2

What themes does Tom Moylan’s view link to in the novel?

“The critical dystopia…uses the portrait of a nightmare future in order to launch a political critique of the present.”

Answer 2

• Social flaws

- Power and control

Question 3

What does Douglas Kellner describe ‘Airstrip one’ as?

Answer 3

“A totally oppressive society”

Question 4

Complete Robert Coll’s view on the novel:

“1984 envisages the end of England by the wiping out of its (1)___________, the brutalisation of its people, and the (2)______________ of its language, truth and (3)___________.”

Answer 4

1) Identity
2) Manipulation
3) Logic

Question 5

What did Orwell say about the moral of the novel?

Answer 5

“The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.”

Question 6

What does Douglas Kellner say about the effect of Oceania’s society on the reader? Complete the quotation:

“The (1)____________ environment, scarcity and squalor makes one yearn for a society of abundance, health and (2)______________ _______________.”

Answer 6

1) Dismal

2) Creature comforts

Question 7

Douglas Kellner questions Orwell’s perception of totalitarianism and bureaucracy in society, complete his quotation about his idea towards the subject:

“In 1984 Orwell was articulating a (1)_____________ vision of bureaucracy as terroristic (2)_________________ and was not developing a political theory of bureaucracy.”

“However…he tends to equate a (3)________________ economy with state terror and repression in his (4)_____________ of totalitarian society.”

Answer 7

1) Novelistic
2) Repression

3) Centralised
4) Conception