'1984' OBH's Flashcards
First quote of book
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”
- Instant setting of tone in dystopian world, off-putting
INGSOC
English socialism –> egalitarian, all should be equal.
Shared property and wealth.
Working together for common good.
Party slogan
“WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
- Corrupting logic
Winston questioning Julia’s identity
“she might be an agent of the Thought Police”
- Comparison to The Handmaid’s Tale –> not able to trust anyone, the eyes vs the thought police & not being able to fully trust
Emmanuel Goldstein
AO3 - Representation of Stalin’s enemy, Trotsky - Represented by Snowball in Orwell’s Animal Farm
Past being updated/altered
“Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was being brought up to date”
History being altered all the time
“All history was a palimpsest”
- A manuscript which is constantly being written over
- Comparison to THT: You can see what once was but it has been written over by a new regime, imposed onto what was USA
–> “a palimpset of unheard sound”
Statistics
“Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version”
Winston’s pleasure in his job
“Winston’s greatest pleasure in life was in his works”
- Contributes to horror of dystopian society
Lies in records
“the chosen lie would pass into the permanent records and become truth.”
Comrade Ogilvy
“Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago”
- Replacing Comrade Stakhanov
Words
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words”
Orthodox thinking
“Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”
- Not allowing any expression whatsoever
- Conventional normal
Parson’s child forcing an arrest
“My kid made sure he was some kind of enemy agent”
Propaganda - Hate week, gratitude to Big Brother
“New, happy life”
Sex instinct
“The Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it”
Sex as rebellion
“The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion. Desire was thoughtcrime”
Proles, hope
“If there was hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the Proles”
Proles, free
“Proles and animals are free”
Winston understanding the past
“I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY”
- Manipulation of the past
Freedom, +=
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four”
- Foreshadowing the end
Facecrime
“Not to let one’s feelings appear in one’s face was a habit that acquired the status of an instinct”
Feeling of love instilled by Julia
“At the sight of the words ‘I love you’ the desire to stay alive had welled up in him”
Emotions
“No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred”
- corruptness of society
Sex as a political act
“There was a direct, intimate connection between chastity and political orthodoxy”
Family as police
“The family had become in effect an extension of the Thought Police”
Glass paperweight significance
“It’s a little chunk of history that they’ve forgotten to alter”
Mr Charrington’s room
“Getting there was difficult and dangerous, but the room itself was a sanctuary”
Sanity
“Sanity is not statistical”
- not something that can be controlled by the Party
We are…
“We are the dead”
Parson’s irony
“It was my little daughter”
“Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh?”
“It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway”
- Caught him saying “Down with Big Brother” in his sleep whilst “listened at the keyhole”
O’Brien trying to save Winston
“I shall save you, I shall make you perfect”
“Only a rebel…
…from the waist down”
Party slogan - control
“Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past”
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces…
…and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing”
“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not…
…interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power”
- O’Brien
“the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought… we shall make thoughtcrime…
…literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it”
- Syme
“If they could make me stop loving you…
…– that would be the real betrayal”
“They can’t do that”
“The more men you’ve had,…
…the more I love you.”
“I hate purity, I hate goodness!”
“in a room…
…with no telescreen”
- Foreshadowing
“falls to the floor,…
…uncovering a telescreen behind it”
- “We can see you”
“the danger of…
…concealed microphones”
“the shabby little room…
…above Mr Charrington’s shop”
Julia - picture
“I bet that picture’s got bugs behind it”
Doublethink
“to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully-constructed lies”
“consciously to induce unconsciousness”
“Watch everyone…
…all the time”
