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The nature of george orwell 1984
The nature of george orwell 1984
The nature of george orwell 1984
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Authors often create a division between two characters that makes it difficult to see why the characters are linked. In 1984, the author, George Orwell, demonstrates this quality seen in many novels. Orwell creates a romance between two people who, on the surface seem alike, but deep down, it is clear they have dissimilar interests. Winston and Julia, characters who have seemingly made it against all odds in the totalitarian society of Oceania, are not the star-crossed lovers they believe they are. Even though Winston and Julia share similar views on the Party, their personality traits do not match up. Winston and Julia share a thought-to-be safe and hidden room above the collector’s shop in the Prole section of town. After making love, a …show more content…
He is always nervous about being caught by the Thought Police, while Julia feels as though she is too smart for the Thought Police to catch her committing thoughtcrime. “...his varicose ulcer was throbbing. This was the second time in three weeks that he had missed an evening at the community center. A rash act, since you could be certain that the number of your attendance at the center was carefully checked” (Orwell 81). Whenever Winston is sure that he is committing thoughtcrime, his varicose ulcer starts to throb and itch because his body is subconsciously telling him to do the right thing so that he does not get caught. Julia, on the other hand, believes she is too involved with Party activities to even be suspected of thoughtcrime. “‘Where did you get this stuff?’ he [Winston] said. ‘Black market’, she said indifferently. ‘I’m good at games. I was a troop leader in the spies. I do voluntary work for three evenings a week for the Junior Anti-Sex League’” (Orwell 121). Since Julia was and still is highly involved in Party activities that make her seem innocent, she thinks that she is in the clear and can get away with mostly anything. These differing relationships with The Party create a partition between these two characters because one will always either hold the other back or push the other too
She passes him a note that wrote “I love you.” Winston shows a desire; he himself had always had a thought of her. After 2 days, Winston and the girl were able to meet. She had given Winston the location where they could meet again. The two were able to meet away from the telescreen unsupervised. The girl revealed herself as Julia. Winston and Julia made love. Winston sees Julia as a great partner for the rebellion.
Julia - Julia is an enthusiastic participant in the Two Minutes Hate directed against Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston Smith, a fellow worker in the Ministry of Truth, is both excited and disgusted by Julia and has fantasies of raping and then murdering her. Winston also fears that Julia is a member of the Thought Police.
Winston expresses his feelings towards Julia in such an extraordinary way, “He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows.”(Orwell 15). When he is expressing these thoughts, he is actually talking about someone he was actrate to, Winston just had no way of expressing it besides anger. He sees this beautiful young girl, who has made this vow its remain pure and chaste and he just wants to kill her because of how frustrated about it. Although late in the book, who these same two people are alone in a place without worry, everything is different, for example “You are prepared, the two of you to separate and never see one another again. ‘No!’ broke in Julia….’No,’ he said finally.” (Orwell 173) This second moment gives us a definite second opinion about how he may actually feel towards Julia. When they are both in a safe place, and can freely state and do they things they wish to do, Winston does show that he cares for Julia, enough that he does not want to leave her. I believe that these two different feelings show us that even with the body trying to control how people feel, what they do, along with what they think they never get to have complete control of
She shows much more interest in Winston that she is supposed to. Both Julia and Winston are together but it is not equivalent to what the party expects. The Party expects the citizens to have relationships without any emotions toward one another, they are only prohibited to produce children. They are supposed to check in with the party so that it can be approved that there was no feeling toward each other. “All marriage between Party members had to be approved by a committee appointed for the purpose and though the principle was never clearly stated...the impression of being physically attracted to each other.” (Orwell 57) Which is one of the acts that shows that Julia is rebelling from what mostly affects
Orwell utilizes Julia’s character in order to capture the attitude of the oppressed as well. Winston wonders, “Any kind of organized revolt against the Party, which was bound to be a failure, struck her as stupid. The clever thing was to break the rules and stay alive all the same” (Orwell 131). Julia has no interest in overtly fighting the Party because she believes that the rebellion would never work out in her favor. Winston goes on to think:
Due to the extreme differences in the couple’s personalities, the reader is left to question whether Julia ever loved Winston. Julia embodies the qualities that Winston wishes he had. The differences in their morality, their motivation towards the rebellion and their personalities are the few reasons why they are drawn to each other, but it is bittersweet as their differences cause their downfall.
Once being proposed anything having to do with rebellion, Winston obviously would jump at any opportunity. The Party has banned any form of love, with the exception of love for Big Brother. Winston is handed a note that says ‘I love you.’ from a girl named Julia, who is also a rebel. This gesture led to a long standing relationship between the two, which is obviously banned by The Party. Winston felt love for Julia when he saw “something in your face...As soon as I saw you I knew you were against them.” (128) Winston sees Julia’s opposition to The Party as attractive, which leads him to see ‘something’ in her face, which is his love for her. Winston has a love for Julia, but since his feelings are banned, he now has another reason to hate The Party, being that they do not allow him to express his love for Julia. The love that Winston feels for Julia is unconditional, which is proven in The Ministry of Love when O’Brien asks, “‘Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you?’ Winston had stopped weeping, though the tears were still oozing out of his eyes. He looked up at O’Brien. ‘I have not betrayed Julia’ he said.” (273) Even when Winston is in the worst possible situation, his love for Julia and his loyalty towards her does not go unaccounted for at the time that he said that he had not betrayed her. Winston had not put himself before
However, he secretly harbours resentment toward these policies due to his desire to retain his individuality and character. This is evident when he goes against the law by purchasing a diary and writing the statement, “Down with Big Brother”, the person leading his government. In many parts of the book, he uses his diary to express his views on the flaws of his government. This reinforces his desire to be independent and attempt to maintain his character. Thus, it allows him to stray away from his responsibility of being a lawful citizen. Another instance of him attempting to retain his character and individuality is when he engages in sex with Julia on numerous occasions in the grove and in the room rented from Mr. Charrington. In the general, sex is a powerful symbol which represents the essence and vigour of humanity. It is tied with individuality since it allows a human being to experience pleasure and the emotions an individual experience make them unique. Thus this allows Winston and Julia to be different from their comrades. Therefore, this allows average individuals to attempt to maintain their independence and their
Love is an emotion affecting people's everyday lives. In the book “1984,”, George Orwell introduces his readers to this idea, with a compelling portrayal of this important feeling. In Orwell’s totalitarian society of Oceania, the ruling party attempts to demolish all love for anyone except Big Brother who controls them. The affection that normally exists between individuals, in Oceania, warps to exist between individuals tortured and those torturing them. This is demonstrated by familial bonds and affection between siblings, wives, mothers, fathers and children, changing and creating an opportunity for the government to monitor its citizens. In contrast the interactions between the main character, Winston and his oppressor, O'Brien exhibit true love. Real connections between regular human beings in Oceania are virtually non existent due to actions taken by the government to destroy these bonds.
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 ...
The novel 1984 is a futuristic portrayal of the world in the year 1984. The main characters Winston and Julia fall in love with each other but are caught and purified of all their wrong doings. In the end they betray each other because of the pressure of the party. The party is a group that controls society in these ways: Manipulation of Reality, Invasion of Privacy, and Desensitization.
In the novel 1984, Orwell produced a social critique on totalitarianism and a future dystopia that made the world pause and think about our past, present and future. When reading this novel we all must take the time to think of the possibility that Orwell's world could come to pass. Orwell presents the concepts of power, marginalization, and resistance through physical, psychological, sexual and political control of the people of Oceania. The reader experiences the emotional ride through the eyes of Winston Smith, who was born into the oppressive life under the rule of Ingsoc. Readers are encouraged through Winston to adopt a negative opinion on the idea of communist rule and the inherent dangers of totalitarianism. The psychological manipulation and physical control are explored through Winston's journey, and with Winston's resistance and ultimate downfall, the reader is able to fully appreciate O'Briens reasoning, "Power is not a means, it is an end."
There are many characters in the novel 1984. These characters all rebel in separate and distinctive ways from each other. In George Owell’s not so sanguine vision of the year 1984 from his standpoint in 1949, he tells of a dreary future of what the world was becoming. In this future, no one has the right to anything, including free speech, freedom of press or even freedom of thought. Even the details like the history of the known world are changed by a corrupt and ever growing political party, which is managed and run by un-emotional and odious officials. From Julia, who rebels by purely simple, sexual acts, to Winston, who dreams to overthrow the party; all the characters have their own personal way of dealing with the oppression.
It is difficult for them to hope to succeed in an area where so many of them have failed. The constant theme of betrayal in 1984 is being used by George Orwell to show how hopeless Winston’s struggle against the Totalitarian system is, giving the reader an idea of how bad this type of government is. The reader is introduced to this dark time and given hope in the form of the rebellious protagonist, Winston. However, the reader soon realises how hopelessly alone Winston is in his silent battle when they see that the government is against him, he has no support or allies, and that even his own mind can be turned against him. The message is clear and makes readers who live in a democracy happier with what they have.
Moreover, another example of Orwell’s message of love is shown through Winston and Julia’s relationship. Although Winston started out with hate in his heart towards Julia, it eventually developed into love; or did it? Throughout the novel, Julia and Winston continuously mistook their lust for each other as love, “‘I betrayed you,’ she said baldly. ‘I betrayed you,’ he said,” (Orwell 240). After multiple rendezvous, Winston and Julia were captured by the Thought Police. Soon, they betrayed each other wishing for the other person to suffer the horrid Room 101 torture. The betrayal brought by both of them shows that there was no love between the two of them, only lust. If two truly loved each other, like how Winston and Julia believed they did, they would never wish for someone to suffer or to feel pain. Furthermore, Orwell also provides another example of love through Winston’s mother. Although the party tried by all means to stop the idea of love between all people, there is no barrier large enough to block a mother’s love for her