Chapter- 5
Future as visualised by George Orwell in his work Nineteen Eighty Four
It is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale by English writer which was published on 8th June 1948 and Orwell’s ninth and the last novel completed in his life time. Thematically it centres on the results of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation. As Orwell had composed this novel in 1948 so he had model of Hitler and Stalin as autocrats before him. Though Hitler had ended by the time this novel was composed but Joseph Stalin became General Secretary of CPSU (Communist Party of Soviet Union) in 1922 when Lenin was still in power and finally after Lenin’s death in 1924 he became Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union in 1941. So Orwell had observed fairly a long time Russia under Stalin and must have observed the authoritative tendencies growing in Russia under him. After the whole world had witnessed the totalitarianism in Germany, that led to disastrous Second World War in Nazi Germany under the rule of Hitler. More broadly the novel examines the role of truth and facts within societies and the ways in which they can be manipulated.
The story takes place in an imagined future in the year 1984, when much of the world is in perpetual war. Great Briton, which is known as Air Strip One has been reduced to a province in one of the three large states into which the world had been divided named Oceania which is ruled by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by an organisation Thought Police. The other two states of the world are Eurasia and Eastasia who are also ruled by similar ideologies of totalitarianism hardly distinguishable from each other. While the ruling ideology of Oceania is INGSOC ( English Socialism), it is Neo Bolshevism in Eurasia and an ideology named in Chinese in Eastasia that means Death Worship or obliteration of the Self. In every state there is a pyramidial structure, the same worship of “ a semi-divine leader, the same economy existing by and for continuous warfare” (183). There is a state of continuous warfare between these states in which no state can score a definite and final victory. In fact the character of war has changed as its primary aim “ is to use up the products of machine without raising the general standard of living”(155) so that people of all the three states live in the perpetual poverty. The current world is “ a bare, hungry, dilapidated place compared with the world that existed before 1914” (157). In Oceanic Society, which is pyrmidical, at the apex comes The Big Brother, who is omnipotent and infallible. He “is the guise in which the Party chooses to exhibit itself to the world (172)”. Below Big Brother comes the Inner Party that comprises of six millions which is less that 2 % of the entire population of Oceania. Then comes the Outer Party- if the Inner Party is brain of the Party then The Outer Party is its hands. Below that comes the masses known as The Proles, who comprise nearly 85% of the population. Though Wiston thinks that only hope of change and rebellion lies with proles as they are a vast majority of population but O’Brien thinks that proles cannot revolt even in million years as they are totally unorganised and resourceless and meant to be ruled for ever.
Though Science and Technology were developing at prodigious speed, and it seemed natural to assume that they would go on developing but this failed to happen “ partly because of the impoverishment caused by a long series of revolutions and partly because scientific and technical progress depended on the empirical habit of thought which could not survive in a strictly regimented society” (157). The search for new weapons continues unceasingly, and is one of the very few remaining activities in which “ the inventive or speculative type of mind can find any outlet” (160). In fact there is no word as Science in the official language of Oceania, as “ the empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc” (160-161). Technological progress only happens when its products are in some way effective and useful in “diminution of human liberty”(161). In fields such as war and police espionage- innovation and “ empirical approach is still encouraged, or atleast tolerated” (161). This nation is governed by four ministries who are working in contradiction with their names- Ministry of Peace is involved with war, Ministry of Love with hate and fear, Ministry of Truth with spreading lies and Ministry of Plenty with chronic shortage of food and other material that has reduced the people to the perpetual poverty.
The two aims of The Party are “ to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought”(161). Through the Ministry of Truth party engages in omnipresent official surveillance, and constant propaganda to persecute individuality and independent thinking. The protagonist Winston Smith is a diligent mid-level worker at the Ministry of Truth who secretly hates the party and dreams of rebelling against it. He keeps a forbidden diary and begins a relationship with Julia and they learn about a shadowy resistance group known as Brotherhood but their contact within this organisation turns out to be party agent that led to Smith’s arrest. He is subjected to months of psychological manipulation and torture by Ministry of Love and is released once again he has come to love Big Brother. Some of the terms have become thought provoking like thought crime, Newspeak and 2+2=5, doublethink, and the like. Though Orwell described this book as a satire and a display of the perversions to which a centralised economy is liable while also stating that he believed that something resembling it could arrive but the parallels the novel’s plot and the real life instances of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom of expression among other themes.
The brief storyline of the novel is that the protagonist of the novel Winston Smith is a member of Outer Party and a middle level worker working in Ministry of Truth, whose work is to modify, alter and rewrite facts of the past so as to bring them in line with the current stance of the Party and every citizen has to accept it as absolute truth. He has some colleagues in his Ministry like Syme, who goes out of favour with the administration and simply disappears and becomes an unperson as his every record is deleted from every document and the fact held by the party is that such a person never existed at any point of time. Then there is his neighbour named Parsons who is a very motivated and enthusiastic worker of the party, and even his own daughter turns him to thought police for shouting Down with Big Brother in his dream. Then there is poet Ampleforth who is arrested just because he could not find any work other than God to rhyme with Rod and so he had used it in one of his poem. Then Wisnton comes across another fellow worker Julia who meets him in deserted place in the countryside and then in the room above Mr. Charrington’s Curiosity Shop. Winston comes to know that there is some secret underground organisation known as Brotherhood working under the leadership of Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston buys a diary from Mr. Charrington’s shop and notes down heretical ideas in it. Then Winston comes across an inner party member named O’Brien who meets him in his own residence and promises to send a copy of banned work by Goldstein entitled “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”. While Winston and Julia are reading this book while they are resting and enjoying in the room above Mr.Charrington’s shop, they are arrested by Thought Police and Winston comes to know that both Mr. Charrington and Mr. O’Brien are members of Though Police, and O’ Brien has written that book himself to nab the possible sources of rebellion in the state. Though O’Brien succeeds in reforming and curing Winston intellectually but still emotionally he is at fault as he has still not betrayed Julia, so O’Brien takes him to dreaded Room No. 101 and subjects him to the objects he dreads the most that is hungry rats and he betrays Julia at once and feels only unconditional love for Big Brother.
In 1984, civilisation has been ravaged by world war, civil conflict and revolution. Airstrip One ( formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super states that rule the world- the other two being Eurasia and Eastasia. It is ruled by The Party, of course Socialist or Communist party under the Ideology of Ingsoc( a short form of English Socialism) under the mysterious leader Big Brother,who has an intense cult of personality. The Party brutally purges out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime, using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through telescreens ( Two way televisions), cameras and hidden microphones. Party as the Omnipotent force is the source of absolute truth. Any body who even thinks or imagines in his memory some fact contrary to it is a thought criminal. As O’Brien tells Winston that past totalitarian regimes failed as they could not look into the mind of the man and were contented with just lip obedience. He admits that German Nazis and Russian Communists came very near to them in controlling the thought of the people. The second thing for him to realise is that “ power is power over human beings” (218). He further tells Winston that “ we control the matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull. You will learn by degrees. There is nothing that we could not do” (218). For the party obedience is not enough like past oligarchies, unless he is suffering how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own ? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. It is “ in tearing human mind to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing”(219). Those who fall out of favour with The Party simply become unpersons, disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed. One day Winston’s colleague Syme simply disappears and becomes an unperson and all his record is erased.
The protagonist of the novel Winston Smith is a member of Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical records to conform to the state’s ever-changing versions of history. Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes, which lead to an immense furnace. He secretly opposes the Party’s rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a thought criminal and is likely to be caught one day.
While in a prole neighbourhood he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes criticisms of The Party and Big Brother. To his dismay when he visits a prole quarter he discovers they have no political consciousness. While working in Ministry of Truth he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy, and develops an intense hatred for her. He vaguely suspects that his superior, an Inner Party Official O’Brien is part of an enigmatic resistance movement known as the Brotherhood formed by Big Brother’s reviled political rival Emmanuel Goldstein. One day Julia hands Winston a love note, and the two begin a secret affair. Julia tells him that she also hates The Party but Winston observes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime. Initially meeting in the forest, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington’s shop. During the affair Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of 1950’s and his tense relationship with his estranged wife Katherine. Weeks later, O’Brien invites Winston to his flat where he introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends him a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein. Meanwhile during the nation’s hate week due to some international developments Oceania’s enemy changes from Eurasia to Eastasia that goes mostly unnoticed. Winston is called to the Ministry to help make the necessary revisions to the records. Winston and Julia read parts of Goldstein’s book which explains how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans and the concept of perpetual war. The book argues that the Party can be deposed if proles rise up against it. Winston never gets time to read the chapter that explains why the party is motivated to maintain power.
Winston and Julia are captured when Mr.Charrington is exposed as Thought Police agent and both of them are imprisoned in Ministry of Love. O‘Brien also turns out to be Thought Police agent who tells Winston that he will never know whether the Brotherhood really existed and that Goldstein’s book was written collaboratively by him and other party members. Over several months Winston is starved and tortured to bring his beliefs in alignment with the beliefs of The Party. One day O’Brien takes Winston to Room.No. 101 for his final stage of education that contains each prisoner’s worst fear. Since Winston is afraid of rats so he is brought before a cage of frenzied rats and he denounces Julia to save himself, and pledges allegiance to the Party. Winston is released back into public life and continues to frequent the Chestnut Tree Cafe. One day Winston comes across Julia who was also tortured and both of them confess that they have betrayed each other and so they are no longer in love. Back in the cafe a news alert celebrates Oceania’s supposed massive victory over Eurasian army in Africa. And Winston finally realises that he has learnt to love Big Brother.
O’ Brien tells the protagonist that the future of the world will be “ children will be taken from their mothers at birth, the sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm”(220). There will be no loyalty left or tolerated except loyalty towards the party, there will be no love “ except the love of Big Brother” (220). Even Children will be used as spies to keep eye on their own parents. Winston’s neighbour Parsons, who is an enthusiastic party worker cries in his sleep Down with Big Brother and he is reported and turned in by his own daughter. O’ Brien also tells Winston that in their rule a criminal is not punished, rather he is cured and reformed so as to bring him in line with party ideas even in his memory and dreams and he does not violate them even in his sleep. He tells Winston that proles cannot revolt and depose the party as the rule of the party will be for ever. O’Brien further says “ if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on human face for ever” (220).
Protagonist of the novel is still confident is holding the last foothold of his rebellion against the ideas of the party and he tells O’ Brien that he still has not left his love for Julia by betraying her . O’ Brien also feels that though he has improved intellectually but still emotionally he is at fault as he cannot love anybody except Big Brother. So he decides to take Winston to dreaded Room No. 101 to cure him emotionally too. He also tells Winston that “ the thing that is in Room no. 101 is the worst thing in the world” and “the worst thing the world varies from individual to individual. It may be a burial alive,or death by fire, or by drowning,or by impalement, or fifty other deaths” (233). In the case of Winston it is rats. O’ Brien tells him “ The Rat although a rodent is carnivorous....within quite a small time they will strip it to the bones. They will attack sick or dying people (235). When O’Brien brings a cage of hungry rodents and touches the gate of the cage with the face of Winston, he at once panics and betrays Julia by crying “ do it to Julia, do it to Julia. Not me, Julia. I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to bones” (236). The last stronghold of Wisnton’s revolt falls and his struggle was finished and party has succeeded in making him love Big Brother with full commitment and unconditionally.
This novel expands on various themes like Nationalism, Futurology, Surveillance, Poverty and Inequality and the like taken up in Orwell’s other work Notes on Nationalism which is an essay about the lack of vocabulary needed to explain the unrecognised phenomena behind certain political forces. In the work under study, the Party’s artificial minimalist language Newspeak addresses the matter. About positive nationalism the novel is clearly states the citizen’s perpetual love for Big Brother. Author argues in the essay Notes on Nationalism that ideologies such as Neo-Toryism and Celtic Nationalism are defined by their obsessive sense of loyalty to some entity like Big Brother. Negative nationalism is depicted in the work under study by Oceania’s perpetual hatred for Emmanuel Goldstein. Novelist argues that in ideologies such as Trotskyism and Antisemitism are defined by their obsessive hatred for some entity like Goldstein. Novel also takes up the theme of transferred nationalism when Oceania’s enemy changes, an orator makes a change mid sentence and the crowd instantly transfers its hatred to the new enemy. Orwell argues that ideologies such as Stalinism and redirected feelings of racial animus and class superiority among wealthy intellectuals exemplify this. Transferred nationalism swiftly redirects emotions from one power unit to another. In the novel suddenly the enmity shifts from Eastasia to Eurasia during the Hate Week’s party rally against the original enemy and then Winston had to rewrite all the historical documents again. During the Hate Week the crowd goes wild and destroys the posters that are now against their new friend, and many say that they must be the act of an agent of their new enemy and former friend. Many of the crowd must have put the posters before this development but think that the state of affairs had always been the case.
Since this book looks into the future world so the Party’s viewpoint about the future counts the most which is aptly described by O’ Brien in Chapter III of Part III
There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always- do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face- forever.
One of the most notable themes in the novel under study is Censorship, especially in Ministry of Truth, where photographs and public archives and records are manipulated to rid them of “unpersons”( people who have been erased from history by the Party). On the telescreens, almost all figures of production are grossly exaggerated or simply fabricated to indicate an ever growing economy, even during times when reality is opposite. One sample of the endless censorship is Winston being charged with the task of eliminating a reference to an unperson in a newspaper article. He also proceeds to write an article about Comrade Ogilvy, a made up party member who allegedly displays great heroism by leaping into the sea from a chopper so that the dispatches he was carrying would not fall into foe’s hands.
In Oceania, the upper and middle classes have very little true privacy. All of their houses and apartments are equipped with telescreens so that they may be watched or listened to at any time. Similar telescreens can be found at workstations and public places, along with hidden microscopes everywhere. Written correspondence is routinely opened and read by the officials before it is delivered. The Thought Police employs undercover agents, who pose as normal citizens and report any person with subversive tendencies. Children are encouraged and given incentive to report unsuitable persons for the establishment and some even denounce their parents. Citizens are controlled and the smallest symptom of rebellion even something as small as a suspicious facial expression, can result in immediate arrest and imprisonment. Thus citizens are yoked into obedience.
According to Goldstein Book, almost the entire world lives in poverty. Hunger, thirst,disease and filth are the norms of the world. Ruined cities and towns is a common sight resulting from perpetual wars and extreme economic efficiency. Social decay and wrecked buildings surround Winston. Apart from ministries headquarters, little of London was rebuilt. Middle class citizens and proles consume synthetic foodstuffs and poor quality products such as oily gin and loosely packed cigarettes coming under Victory Brand that can be seen as a parody of low quality Indian made Cigarettes which were supplied to British soldiers during World War II and they had no option but to smoke these low quality cigarettes. Bureaucratic red tape is at the prime as even the repair of a window, according to Winston, requires approval of a committee which can take several years and so most of those living in these blocks usually do the repairs themselves. All upper class and middles class quarters contain telescreens that serve both as outlets for official propaganda and surveillance devices that allow Thought Police to monitor the activities of the people. These telescreens can be turned down but the ones in middle class residences cannot be turned off.
In contrast the upper class of the Oceania society reside in clean and comfortable flats in their part of the town, with well stocked pantries full of wine, real coffee, tea, milk and sugar all of which are denied to the masses. Winston is surprised to find the lift working in the building where O’Brien resides. He even has a luxury of an Asian man servant named Martin. Not only O’Brien but all the upper class citizens are attended by the slaves captured in the disputed zone. The novel even suggests that elite of this society have their own cars and even choppers. But despite their privileges this class was still not exempt the government’s brutal restriction of thought and behaviour, even while lies and propaganda apparently originate from their own ranks. Oceania Establishment offers facilities to upper class in exchange for maintaining loyalty to the state though the non-conformant upper class citizens can still be arrested, condemned, tortured and even executed just like the common man.
The Proles – common man- live in poverty and are kept sedated with pornography just as the society is sedated by soma in Brave New World. Some of the other methods to lure the proles is a national lottery whose winners are rarely paid out and gin which the proles are not supposed to drink. At the same time the proles are freer and less intimated than the upper class as they are not expected to be patriotic and hence the level of surveillance they are subjected to is low. In the novel it is indicated that the Party believes that since the revolutions originate in middle classes and not the lower classes so the model advocates the tight control over middle classes with ambitious Outer Party members being neutralised by promoting them to be members of Inner Party or reintegration by the Ministry of Love and proles can be allowed intellectual freedom since they lack intellect. But still Winston believes that future belongs to the proles.
The standard of living of the common man is extremely low overall. Consumer goods are scarce, and those available through official channels are of low quality. Despite Party’s claim of increase in production of boots more than half of the populace goes barefoot. The Party believes that poverty is a necessary sacrifice for the war effort. But it also indicates that the purpose of perpetual war is to consume surplus industrial produce. In fact society is designed to remain on the edge of starvation as in the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance.
Nineteen Eighty Four projects the totalitarian regime legitimized under the socialist or the communist rule. The myth of Big Brother with dense moustaches reflect the image of Joseph Stalin who succeeded Lenin in Russia. The caption Big Brother is watching you everywhere flashed on telescreens shows how technology like hidden mikes and other espionage equipment has been used effectively to control even the thoughts of an individual. Though many of the dictators the world has seen who have tried to ravish the individual freedom and liberty of thought had moustaches like Hitler in Nazi Germany, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Gen. Ayub Khan in Pakistan but world has even seen totalitarian regimes whose leaders did not have any moustaches like Mussolini in Italy and Col Gaddafi in Libya, Mao-TseTung in China and Kim Jong in North Korea. As the rulers in Brave New World use the drug of Soma to control the people and stop them from rebelling similarly in this society the rulers have given the carrot of lottery, whose winners are never rewarded to lure the people and by promoting the ambitious members of the inner party to the outer party and thus neutralising them to avoid any sort of revolt against the existing system. As there was Savage reservation modelling old way of life in Brave New World, similarly there are semi-nomad tribes living in the remote corner of the country in reserved pockets from them and they are not allowed to cross the boarders of barbed wire and come to the mainland. They are separated so that they may not influence the people of the mainland and trigger some rebellion against the existing autocratic rule in the society.
This novel has been termed as dystopia and science fiction. As discussed earlier dystopia is a noun that can be defined as an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice ,typically one that is totalitarian. The society projected in the work does not brook discontent of any sort and for that they have not only used modern technology like telescreens and hidden microphones to trace the dissenters but also children and toddies of the state are used to trace the rebels and they are not only arrested but they are punished in such a way by bringing them before the things and objects that they detest the most in their life. Technology is used to control even the thinking and though process of the individuals and an indepth psychological analysis of every individual is made so as to ascertain what one hates the most in his or her life so as to bring him in line of the party ideology. In the case of the protagonist of the novel Winston he is arrested along with his friend Julia from the shop on whose first floor they come to stay as the shopkeeper turns out to be the agent of the Party and turned them in. A cage of hungry rats is brought in the cell of Winston as Thought Police knows that Winston detests and fears the rats the most in his life and the moment the cage full of rats is brought in his cell he confesses at once and betrays Julia to save his skin. Later on he comes to know that Julia has also betrayed him by confessing before the authorities perhaps much more earlier than Winston. Thus the rulers have achieved by bringing these two individual in line with the party thinking and accepting their heresy.
Nineteen Eighty Four projects the future of the world if any philosophy, even other than communism turns totalitarian so much so that not only speech and expression will be controlled but even the thinking will be controlled. Though Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World and George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty Four were associated as Huxley taught French to Orwell at Eton College and even Orwell or Eric Blair , as he was known at that time had appreciated Huxley flair for linguistics. Orwell and his fellow students spoke highly of Huxley’s excellent command of language. Both of these authors have given to the world dystopian science fiction in the form of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty Four but the later work is much more negatively dystopian than the Brave New World as the individuality has been totally stands crushed in Nineteen Eighty Four and life of a thinking man is horrible and miserable. Though the life of a thinking individual like Bernard Marx and Helmut is also full of difficulties and troubles but still the life of common man is full of pleasures and comforts though they have been addicted to Soma drug by the administration to control the people. But still the people of Oceania are unable to bear the stress and tensions of life while the common man living in the society of Brave New World faces the troubles much easily with the help of Soma though they can not survive without it so the rulers of this society can control the people with much ease though the dissenter in this society have also to face exile to some distant country like Iceland and people do not want to get out of favour with the establishment as they fear living solitary life in some remote corner of the world. But the tortures and methods used by the establishment in Nineteen Eighty Four are much more cruel and gruesome than in Brave New World. Hence though both Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty Four are dystopian fiction giving negative, bleak and dark future of the world but certainly Nineteen Eighty Four gives the negative future of the world more than the other work.
End of Chapter V
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