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The 1984 Adaptation Of George Orwell's 1984

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Censorship in 1984 In the 1984 adaptation of George Orwell’s classic, Nineteen Eighty-Four, the director, Michael Radford, plays on the ideas of censorship and control of all citizens. As one of the biggest themes that is presented in the film, the Inner Party makes it their mission to stop all citizens of “free thinking”. Citizens are not allowed to think poorly of the government, nor are they allowed to think impure thoughts. Those who try to condemn the government, and those that question the morals of said government, are considered “Thoughtcriminals”. Radford’s own imagination of Orwell’s novel makes the film seem as though it makes place in the near future and that its narrator is in a dream-like state. The message that is sent to…show more content…
According to the main character, Winston Smith, who was played by John Hurt, “freedom is the freedom to say two plus two equals four if that is granted, all else follows” (1984, 0:47:58). By this, it could be assumed that Smith is referring to the idea that if, and when, the people of Oceania are given the power to believe that two plus two equals four, then perhaps it would be possible for them to gain the ability to believe other thoughts to be true. In this dystopian society, all individual thoughts are prohibited. As a way to prevent individual thoughts, a language has been created as a way to minimize the vocabulary of citizens. This language is known as Newspeak and it has taken the previous version of English and condensed it in such a manner that there is only one word to describe good and one word to describe something that was not good, otherwise known as “ungood” (Orwell 53). By controlling language and limiting the amount of words that citizens have to describe the way that they feel and think, the government is able to prevent its citizens from having original ideas. This idea of censorship also helps to prevent any stray, negative thoughts about the government. By oppressing language, the government has censored its people and has stopped them from believing in original ideas. The film gives small glimpses into
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