The Anti-Feminist Message in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

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George Orwell displays a tendency to disregard women in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, showing none of his female characters to ever be equal to a male character, whether physically or intellectually. Orwell's portrayal of women shows them in a very unflattering light. Firstly, the female characters base the relationships they form solely on sex and are unwilling to form any other type of relationship. Furthermore, the women are all two dimensional characters, lacking the brains and personalities the male characters all posses. Finally, women are presented as having no interest in world issues and no differences of opinion with the Party on anything that truly matters. These presentation of women as inferior to men is obvious at all times; accordingly, the female characters in Nineteen Eighty-Four reveal an anti feminist bias on the part of the author.

To start off, Orwell's sole inclusion of women who base their relationships with men exclusively on sex demonstrates Orwell's negative beliefs about women. Despite Julia's claims to love Winston, their relationship is not about “the love of one person, but the animal instinct”(132). Julia has been in similar relationships to her and Winston's “hundreds of times”(131), relationships that look only at the sexual side and never at the emotional. She refuses all of Winston's attempts to expand their relationship, having “a disconcerting habit of falling asleep”(163) whenever he persists in talking. And although Winston cares for Julia more than he cares for Katharine, Katharine also bases her relationship with Winston completely on sex. When Winston reflects on their time together, he thinks, “he could have borne living with her if it had been agreed that they remain celibate... It ...

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...men only care for trivial and selfish things. Therefore, Orwell's portrayal of women is discriminatory, showing them to be less intelligent than men.

Orwell's Belief that women are inferior to men is clearly exposed through Nineteen Eighty-Four. Women are shown to form relationships for only sexual purposes and to not care about becoming emotionally close to anyone. As well, all the female characters require more development, causing them to be very dull characters. And finally, women show a complete lack of interest in the exploits of the Party, unbothered by things that do not directly relate to themselves. In conclusion, Orwell attributes nothing but shallowness and pettiness with women through his novel making it seem impossible that he saw men and women to be equals.

Works Cited

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Toronto: Penguin Books Ltd., 2008. Print.

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