O’Brien’s Crave For Power
The power that one has over another can be dangerously addicting, but depending on how one defines power, it can be looked at differently. One can measure it by wealth, strength, or dominance. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines power as “possession of control, authority, or influence over others” (“Power”). The “possession of control” that results from power is clearly evident in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. In the novel, the government does not just have a physical influence over its people, but it also has power that manipulates the mental state of mind. A character from the novel, O'Brien, has a great influence on other characters, which is especially evident with Winston. O’Brien has power over Winston’s thoughts
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O’Brien is already aware of Winston and Julia’s thoughtcrime, but he does not turn them in. He knows that the more he can hold against them with their illegal activities, the more control he will hold over them. To obtain this control, he begins to develop a relationship with these two characters. O'Brien invites Julia and Winston over to his place in order to make sure they are ready to join the Brotherhood. By making others be part of this group, it holds them accountable to carry out their tasks. O’Brien knows that this relationship will enable him to manipulate these two characters, thus increasing his control over them. O’Brien portrays himself as the leader of the group and tells Winston that “When you receive orders, they will come from me” (Orwell 144). Winston agrees to give almost anything to O’Brien and responds, “We want to put ourselves at your mercy. If you want us to incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are ready” (Orwell 140). The dedication that Winston has, makes it easier for O’Brien to control …show more content…
Even when O'Brien's true self is revealed, his control is still strong as ever. “It was O’Brien who was directing everything...He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend” (Orwell 201). O'Brien is so caught up in the Party’s ways that he is determined to make sure no “criminal” dies without being cured. O’Brien fears that if someone dies believing that they stood up against the Party then it will cause others to revolt as well, which could lead to less power. Therefore, O’Brien makes it a priority to have complete control, including control of the mind. When O’Brien is explaining his control to Winston he says, “We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories" (Orwell 204). O’Brien also has physical power over Winston. The tortures are indescribable and makes O’Brien feel powerful, which he explains to Winston when he says, “How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?... By making him suffer” (Orwell 219). Similar to O’Brien, the government thirsts for physical power over its people by making them work out each morning. By having both the physical and mental control, the power lies within the hands of the government and O’Brien. But as O’Brien explains, the want for power is always increasing. "But always – do not forget this, Winston – always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing
What is power to a human? As time has gone by, there have been many forms of control and influence in the world. Many strive to achieve total rule over a society or group of individuals. Yet the question still presents itself to the average man. Why does man desire power so greatly even though there is visible trouble that follows? Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, whether through the situation or the character themselves, depict the evils and hardships due to an imbalance and poor management of power.
O'Brien - The protagonist Winston Smith, living in a dystopian society governed by the Party, feels strangely attracted to Inner Party member O'Brien. Winston suspects that O'Brien is secretly opposing the Party. Eventually O'Brien approaches Winston with some leading remarks which seem to confirm Winston's suspicions. Winston finds the courage to approach him and openly declares himself an enemy of the totalitarian state. Winston's intuition seems to be correct: O'Brien presents himself as a member of the "Brotherhood" seeking to overthrow the Party.
Firstly, O’Brien, a member of the inner party, uses technology to accomplish complete control over the public through the means of telescreens, hidden microphones and torture machines, ‘Any sound that Winston made… could be picked up by [the telescreen]. [Winston] could be seen as well as heard’. This emphasises to the reader the extent of control that the party can exercise over the public, enabling them to eliminate any potential rebels. Furthermore, this loss of freedom and individuality exterminates any real friendship, family or love forcing the public to turn to Big Brother for companionship. This in turn minimises the chance of rebellion as everyone views Big Brother as a figure of comfort and security, ‘As he seemed to tower up, an invincible, fearless protector…’ O’Brien also uses a torture machine on Winston, ‘[He] had never loved [O’Brien] so deeply as at this moment’. This machine enables O’Brien to manipulate Winston’s views, personal opinions and even feelings. O’Brien is able to make Winston view the world as he wants him to, even to the extent of making Winston love him, his tormentor, the person inflicting the pain. ...
Rolf Carle’s father in Eva Luna parallels this nature of power. Lucas Carle has total control over his wife and children, to the point where he treats his wife more like a prostitute, and his children hide from him when he comes home because they fear a beating from him. It is this fear of being punished if one does not obey that gives Lucas Carle his power, and as in the case of the General, if the only reason to give in to someone’s power is fear of the consequences if one doesn’t, then this power gains no respect from those it affects.
Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
Power, is a small word with a strong meaning behind it. Being able to control anything and everything is what everyone seems to want in today’s society, everyone wants power. The government is the guiltiest of being power hungry. They want to be able to control everyone in the country, taking away the rights that our country was founded upon. This concept of the government wanting to take over its people is similar to that of Big Brother. Big Brother is the party that controlled the people, in George Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty – Four. Nineteen Eighty – Four was published in 1949 where Orwell predicts what might come to Great Britain if the government, and surrounding governments, kept up with the way it was behaving. In 1949, World War
When Winston is tormented by O'Brien, eventually Winston deludes himself into thinking that O'Brien was not the reason for his pain, instead he felt that “O'Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside" (Orwell 250). Even the realization that O’Brien betrayed Winston and was the main reason for his arrest, does not change Winston’s love for O’Brien. Having a special bond with O’Brien while being abused by him, may be a result of the “Stockholm Syndrome”. According to the free dictionary, the Stockholm Syndrome refers to “a group of psychological symptoms that occur in some persons in a captive or hostage situation." Reported instances indicate that hostages express empathy, sympathy and have positive attitudes toward their captors. This can be a clear explanation to the bizarre way Winston feel about O’Brien after considerable time being a hostage tortured in the Ministry of
In 1984 Winston has to deal with power through his government named The Party. The Party wanted the power over Oceania and no one else to have it even over a person’s own body and mind. This is where the main character Winston has a problem, in the book everyone must love The Party and they must never do anything the party denounces. They have telescreens and microphones all over and Winston hates the party and goes against it in his own little way but the party puts out his little fire and remain in power even over him. In Hamlet the struggle for power is by Hamlets uncle Claudius wants to have power so bad that he goes and causes the deaths of multiple people. With Claudius he wants power but he does not retain what he earns because in the end he winds up dead also. He tries to get power but he cannot keep it because of the way he took it and tried to retain it. Through their use of how power and control make people selfish for power, makes people do things that are irrational, and how it makes people paranoid, Orwell and Shakespeare both demonstrate how power will take control of the lives of the people being affected by it and how it will eventually lead to death.
When somebody abuses a great amount of power, that individual can lose all of their power. The struggle against someone who abuses power is perfectly depicted in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. When someone abuses their power, they can impose certain feelings and actions on others. If someone tries to conceal their personality. Finally, if someone abuses power and is constantly challenged by another individual who is trying to take the power abuser’s power away from them, the power abuser will always be frightened of his or her challenger.
Characters have played a large role in setting the theme of abusive power; they gain power over a group of individuals and misguide them. One obvious example from Lord Of the Flies was Jack. Towards the beginning of the novel, when the “elections” for the leader of the group took place Jack tried to get power. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m the chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’” (Golding 22). After losing the election to Ralph, he became the head of the hunters. Here he abused the miniscule powers given to him over the small group of boys formerly known as the “choir”. Jack’s influence possibly corrupted the minds of the young boys and made them into cold blooded killers going from killing pigs for food to harming humans for enjoyment. “The circle moved round. Robert squealed in mock terror then in real pain… Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife.” (Golding 114). The significance of this was that it was the first major point that lead to the collapse of society on the island. Jack thought that Ralph did not appreciate what he was doing for the group by gett...
In this case, the government has to use severe actions to ensure they will never act in this way again. Winston Smith, is a minor member of the ruling Party and is aware of some of these extreme tactics. Since Winston is not completely brainwashed by the propaganda like all the other citizens, he hates Big Brother passionately. Winston is one of the only who realize that Big Brother is wiping individual identity and is forcing collective identity. He is “conscious of [his] own identity”(40-41) . Winston continues to hold onto the concept of an independent external reality by constantly referring to his own existence. Aware of being watched, Winston still writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER”(21) in his diary. Winston believes whether he writes in his diary or not, it is all the same because the Thought Police will get him either way. Orwell uses this as a foreshadow for Winston's capture later on in the novel. Fed up with the Party, Winston seeks out a man named O’Brien, who he believes is a member of the ‘Brotherhood’, a group of anti-Party rebels. When Winston is arrested for thought crime by his landlord, Mr.Charrington, who is a member of the Thought Police. Big Brother takes Winston to a dark holding cell, to use their extreme torture strategy to erase any signs of personal identity. Winston's torturer is O’Brien, the man he thought to be apart of the brotherhood. Winston asks
In 1984, Winston’s torture had a purpose of brainwashing, where the themes of control is explored and alienation is hinted and introduced in his interrogations with O’Brien and his time in room one-oh-one. Firstly, Winston is imprisoned in Miniluv (Ministry of Love) for his rebellious sexual activity with Julia, and the reader will assume that this is repression of opposition by the government. But once O’Brien is revealed to be Winston’s interrogator, it is clearly established that the purpose of this torture has never been repression, but rather controlling the thoughts of the few individuals that were “insane”(253) enough to rebel against government. O’Brien described this procedure as curing, as he also describes Winston as insane, and made it distinctively clear to Winston that his goal was not to punish or indulge “in the overact”(253) but rather the thought. While the goal is instead of destroying our enemies, “we change them.”(253) In this stern explanation from O’Brien, the...
At this moment, Winston feels powerless against the seemingly unstoppable Party, knowing that his life is at the mercy of O’Brien. Thus, Winston’s already weak willpower continues to wither away, rendering him more vulnerable to further reformation. The final procedure in completely transforming Winston’s personality occurs in the dreaded Room 101. To achieve his ultimate goal of breaking Winston’s loyalty towards Julia, O’Brien exploits Winston’s deepest fear of rats in a rather gruesome manner.
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it" [Lord Acton, British Historian]. It is human nature that the more power one desires, the more corrupt actions they have to commit to attain power. Power is the ability to have control over people and/or things. People who are powerful can, and in most cases will, create an illusion of anything they want you to see about them. This illusion can make people blind to their true intentions.
Power is not generally bad, but each individual contains an evil desire to posses it, and with this