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Essay On Winston Smith's Character In 1984

Decent Essays

Winston Smith’s character in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Winston Smith is probably the most important and complex character in George Orwell’s masterpiece, namely Nineteen Eighty-Four. Throughout this essay I will try to explain the different aspects of Winston’s role in the novel from the question of the narrative perspective through his rebellious tendencies to his psychological problems.
I am going to start by examining the genre of the novel. 1984 is one of the most popular novels of George Orwell’s work. When defining the genre, we can state that it is a dystopian, or negative utopian novel, since the writer aims to portray the worst human society imaginable to persuade readers to avoid any path that may lead towards it, while a novel of utopia does the exact opposite.
Orwell has written this novel with the intention of warning people …show more content…

Most of the plot takes place in London, the "chief city of Airstrip One", that “had once been called England or Britain”.
The first really interesting aspect of the novel is the question of the narrative perspective. Novels often have an easily identifiable character as a narrator or the narrator can be anonymous as well as he can be part of the storyline, can be an outsider or even a sufferer of the events. Which is unique in the case of Nineteen Eighty-Four is that the reader collects information through Winston’s eyes, can feel his emotions and understand his thoughts. However the narrator is obviously not Winston Smith, but it is a third person. Nineteen Eighty-Four uses limited third person narration:
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with

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