Response To George Orwell's '1984'

Winston eventually went mad, confessing the psychological abuse was more severe than the physical he experienced while in the prison. He began begging for mercy, and went as far to ask others to be put in his place to relieve him from the torture that seemed to occur “hour after hour” (Orwell, 199). This is proof the dignified man that was introduced in the beginning of 1984 was lost to the Party’s power and manipulation and completely stripped of his ethics.

Winston conceptualizes the inescapable desire to be free through the diary he kept where “The first step had been a secret, involuntary thought; the second had been the opening of the diary. [Winston] had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions” (Orwell 160). Unfortunately, the very people Winston conspired with turned out to be government agents.

In the novel, Winston is a character who lacks "hero" traits as he has more traits of an everyman than a hero. Winston is an out of shape, average man with a "varicose ulcer above his right ankle" (3). Considering the typical hero, not only does Winston lack the physical strength, he lacks the mentality as well. Throughout the novel, he consistently talks about "overthrowing the Party," but he never actually does it. Instead of overthrowing the Party, he rebels by purchasing a diary and writing sentences such as "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" (20) and " I don’t care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck" (21). Winston chooses to write these into his diary as he is too cowardly to say this in public. As time passes, his

The language of this passage, illustrates Winston’s frantic thoughts and worries, by having long, and sometimes grotesque sentences, describing life, death, and suicide, the current topics circulating Winston’s mind. Prior to this passage, Winston’s had just had an encounter with the dark-haired girl, where he believing her to be a spy who was following him, contemplated killing her, but found himself unable to. In this passage he’s very overwhelmed by this past event and his thoughts are portrayed in long, sentences, that show the current hopelessness he feels. He thinks to himself; “On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues you are fighting are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralyzed by fright or screaming with pain, life

The fictional novel, 1984 by George Orwell is about a world run by a totalitarian government, called the Party, which takes away all the freedoms of its citizens by watching over them with high surveillance technology. In addition, the Party uses dishonesty and betrayal to expose people’s true feelings of Oceania, the country where the story takes place. Betrayal is seen throughout society in Oceania through government manipulation and actions made by Winston, Julia and O’Brien, the main characters. Winston’s true self-betrayal comes when he realizes his new passionate love for Big Brother, the leader of the Party and Oceania. The Party fears a rebellion against them, as a result they use different methods to eliminate trust between

Nevertheless, a telescreen hidden behind a painting in Winston’s room reveals to the duo that they have been found out, followed by the Thought Police rushing into his room to arrest the both of them. Winston’s torture starts in real earnest and is presided over by O’Brien himself. At first it is sheer brutal physical torture, incessant blows all over, reducing him to a cowering animal confessing to anything and everything, implicating everybody if only the pain would stop. Then the guards are replaced by the intellectuals of the Party who inflict subtler kinds of pain and reduce him to an abject cringing wreck crying from sheer humiliation and exhaustion. In between, he is administered frequent drug injections which sometimes increase his pain and sometimes knock him out completely.

Winston was not only compared to a sack of potatoes, but was also said to be “as shameless as an animal” (263). This was due to his behavior after being punished so much that he would roll around the floor agonizing in pain. All of those torturing tactics caused him to confess to real and imaginary crimes. This results in readers feeling extremely sorry for the proceedings that were occurring. Orwell explains, “He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed whatever was demanded of him” (265). This was referring to how Winston had taken too much damage and was capable of agreeing or doing anything that the thought police told him to do. He wanted to make them stop completely, it was horrific how he would confess to anything in order to make them stop hurting

While under the custody of the Party, Winston faced various methods of torture including beatings. During one of the sessions O’Brien asked:

Appearance vs Reality is the struggle which the protagonist , Winston, faces throughout the novel. “The outward appearance which conforms, the inward life which questions” could be most suitable to describe Winston’s dilemma. Winston is forced to conform outwardly because it is a crime to show any face expressions of doubt or wonder, also known as facecrime, which indicates thoughtcrime, the action of simply thinking and questioning the beliefs enforced upon a person. Winston’s continuous struggle of maintaining a perfect countenance was almost inhumane, however, during the two minutes hate, he admits that “he could not help sharing the general delirium”, “it was impossible to do otherwise, to dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, was an instinctive reaction.” That, however, was not the first sign of his struggle. As Winston finally reached his apartment, he walks over to his window with his back to the telescreen “It was safer; though, as he well knew, even a back can be revealing,” staring out at the Ministry Of Truth, his workplace. When he turned around, “He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen.” Winston’s incredulous nature refused to accept the formidabile lies they fed. He craved an insurrection which explained why his body screamed in pain every

The book, 1984 by George Orwell, is about the external and internal conflicts that take place between the two main characters, Winston and Big Brother and how the two government ideas of Democracy and totalitarianism take place within the novel. Orwell wrote the novel around the idea of communism/totalitarianism and how society would be like if it were to take place. In Orwell’s mind democracy and communism created two main characters, Winston and Big Brother. Big Brother represents the idea of the totalitarian party. In comparison to Big Brother, Winston gives and represents the main thought of freedom, in the novel Winston has to worry about the control of the thought police because he knows that the government with kill anyone who

The first impression of Winston is a weak, worn down individual. His body was getting older, as illustrated by his limited ability when participating in the daily stretches. Orwell only explains his physical characterization in the beginning and end of the book when he is being tortured. The middle of the book is more focused on characterizing Winston's mind. The reader is constantly wondering how many rules Winston is willing to break at the risk of torture. At first is seems as though his follower-type personality will only let him risk

He loved Big Brother” (Orwell 298). Orwell does not directly state that Winston is dead, but it is clearly obvious that he is because previously in the novel Orwell states, “It would not matter if they killed you at once. To be killed was what you expected. But before death (nobody spoke of such things, yet everybody knew of them) there was the routine of confession that had to be gone through” (Orwell 103).

Unlike the typical heroes of past stories, such as Odysseus from The Odyssey or Harry Potter, Winston is flawed and plain, similar to many modern anti-heroes. The author, George Orwell, created a character that seemed relatable to the readers, and was not “dehumanized” with extraordinary gifts or pure perfection. Winston “..was thirty-nine, and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle.” (1) Winston Smith did not have any special features. He was not

This is shown in part 3 of the novel where Winston feels the full extent of the brutal power of the Party when he is taken to the Ministry of Love where he is tortured and brainwashed so he can’t remember things that have happened, he is made to be like everyone else in Oceania. This is shown when O’Brien tries to persuade him:

In the book, 1984, the main character, Winston Smith, chooses to go completely against the grain of the accepted and enforced form of totalitarianism. Unlike most, Winston chooses to carry out rebellious thoughts and desires against the government. Though realizing his consequences, Winston pushes his thoughts even further into action. These thoughts and, later, actions eventually catch up to Winston and land him in jail. While in jail, Winston,