The Gaze In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

1984 examines a future under the rule of a totalitarian society. One of the unique notes about Orwell's 1984, is the views that Orwell presents on humanity, and human nature. Orwell presents humanity as divided into two sides- the dominant, and the submissive, with few quickly-eradicated anomalies in between. Human nature, however, is universal, and all humans

The world that Orwell presents in Nineteen Eighty-four has often been called a nightmare vision of the future. Writing sixteen years into that future, we can see that not all of Orwell’s predictions have been fulfilled in their entirety! Yet,

According to Foucault, power does not belong to the individual, but to the system, to the institution. In his essay on Discipline and Punish, Foucault presents his idea of the panopticon mechanism, a mechanism in which visibility is a trap. With little importance over the actual individual in the role of the observer or of the observed, the object of the system is total power over the observed. Due to the unique shape of the panopticon, there are no corners and thus no blind spots for the observed to hide in. The private space is replaced by the public one. Furthermore, as final evidence of total control, the observed never knows for sure if they are being watched or not, as they can’t see the observer (Foucault 200-205). Foucault further argues that this system is followed by any government institution, placing the society under permanent observation. Individuals might try to evade the system, but achieving liberation and freedom is not something that anyone could do. Dostoevsky’s famous novel, Crime and

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell uses draws upon his experiences of witnessing political authority in Spain, Russia and the Soviet Union exploiting advanced technology for potentially violent purposes. He also draws upon the idea of McCarthyism, in the continuous theme of monetarisation and the feeling of consistently guarding thoughts – rather than a hunt for communists, Oceania hunts for thoughtcriminals. And it is this knowledge of constantly being watched that changes your behaviour. When describing a portrait of Big Brother on the cover of a history book, Orwell describes the eyes as “hypnotic,” using diction to suggest that the eyes literally changed the behaviour of any individual that looked at them by simply being there. Orwell also states that upon seeing this portrait, “it was as if some huge force were pressing down on you – something that penetrated your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs”, using a simile to suggest to the audience that the image of Big Brother could enter your mind and control you.

Margaret embodies the belief in Foucault’s assertion that prisoners are seen but do not see. Margaret is manipulated by the panoptic structure into sticking to the idea that the women are in complete continual solitude. “It was a curative, she thought, as gazing at fish in a tank”. It is this idea of being watched that increases Margaret’s vulnerability. Margaret initially believes that it is she who is watching the prisoners.

While being visible, the prisoner's in the cells would be unsure if those in the guard tower were consistently watching them from the same place, and this combination of fear and confusion would cause them to become docile and complaint to the will of the wardens. French philosopher Michel Foucault argues that the Panopticon model is how power functions on all levels of society, and according to his thesis, power depends on a combination of isolation and ignorance of the nature and extent of the power's control (Foucault). Relating to this definition of power the differences between the “subject,” or the individual subject to a greater power, and the “self,” the self-determined individual free of power's constrictions and a comparison to a larger power (Nealon&Giroux). In the context of Bentham and Foucault's work, the individuals occupying the cells of the Panopticon are subject to those in the guard tower—literally in the structure and in the structure as applied as a metaphor for power in society. The principles presented here as to how power functions and protects itself can be applied to both novelist Bram Stoker's Dracula and abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth's speech Ain't I a Woman?.

The author of the essay “Panopticism”, Michel Foucault gives his opinion on power and discipline in Panopticism. He describes Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon”, a tower in the centre of a room which has vision to every cell, generalized for prisoners. In simple words, it functioned in maintaining discipline throughout the jail. It’s most distinctive feature was that; prisoners could be seen without ever seeing. Prisoners would never really know when they are watched and when not. They are always under the impression that someone is keeping an eye on them continuously and if anything goes wrong, or they make mistake, they would be punished severely. Since, a prisoner would never know when he/she is watched, they have to be at their best. In a

Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in London, in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party's seemingly omniscient leader, a figure known only as Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people's history and language. Currently, the Party is forcing the implementation of an invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.

“Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests bodies in depth; behind the great abstraction of exchange, there continues the meticulous concrete training of useful forces; the circuits of communication are the supports of an accumulation and a centralization of knowledge; the play of signs defines the anchorages of power; it is not that the beautiful totality of the individual is amputated, repressed, altered by our social order, it is rather that the individual is carefully fabricated in it, according to a whole technique of forces and bodies. (pp.333-34)”

Applying modern theoretical lenses to historic works can lead to an alternate understanding of a text - perhaps one the author did not intend. Novels, like George Orwell’s 1984, can be analyzed through multiple lenses. The strongest analysis, however, can be conducted through the lenses of Marxism and psychoanalysis. Through these complementary lenses, readers gain an understanding of social constructs (Marxism) and the effects of these constructs on human behavior (psychoanalysis). Relating these lenses, then, to the life of Orwell’s Winston Smith, readers can assess his place in society and understand how his role in the re-writing of history affected his life.

This book was written during the time of WWII and Orwell had witnessed Hitler’s attempt to subjugate much of Europe and Joseph Stain (leader of the Soviet Union) to consolidate oppressive power in Russia. During that time the possibility for government domination was not a fantasy, but a stark reality. Orwell is warning us against the actions of a totalitarianism government, who squish individual thought, choice and action. He has shown his definition of dystopia through the ways that the individuals are monitored, through the danger of totalitarianism and through psychological manipulation.

In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four the author George Orwell created how he felt the world would be in the year nineteen eighty-four. In this fictional world, there were three super-states Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania; Oceania was the main super state where the novel took place. In Oceania, the government controlled everything: the citizens had no rights; the people were living in poor conditions, everyone was brainwashed, and hatred controlled everything. The novel focused on the rebellious ways of the protagonist, Winston and his love interest, Julia. During the novel, Winston and Julia do everything the government does not allow their citizens to do, such as their relationship. During this novel, Julia is not properly portrayed as a contemporary American woman.

Orwell’s cynical, pessimistic view is compounded in the novel’s tripartite structure which sets up an incredible dystopian reality, harshly reflecting the forms of political fundamentalism that have become commonplace in society, coinciding with the rise of Stalinism. Orwell uses an impersonal and omnipresent third person perspective to foremost illustrate the totalitarian values and panoptic vigilance within the society, where the capitalised threat “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” dramatically imparts the idea of a demagogical leader’s paranoia. Such paranoia breed insecurities which necessitate the need for indoctrination, revealing the nature of how an absolute political authoritarian regime operates in society. As a result, Orwell illustrates the necessity for indoctrination in a totalitarian society through the notion of anti-intellectualism and the destabilisation of language. The removal of the literary canon functions as a form of indoctrination through creating the inability to express oneself, leading to orthodoxy where “Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” This is compounded with the thought police, an extension of the panoptic vigilance of Big Brother parallel to the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police who acquired vast punitive powers

The development of a theme of a dystopian society is present throughout 1984 due to Orwell’s constant use of analogies. It is necessary for the Party to control all aspects of its world so that there is complete control. In relation to the theme,

Across the world, History instructors educate their students with fundamental facts about wars dating back to 2700 BCE and so forth, and also the affirmative or cynical aftermath of costs, alliances, and materialistic items relating to the wars. However, a handful of teachers bypass and omit the most interesting parts of warfare, such as the development of citizens during and after these vicious conflicts. Author, George Orwell, seeks to find the effects of citizens in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell witnessed “nightmarish atrocities committed by fascist political regimes,” (1984) on citizens of Spain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The government of Spain, the Soviet Union, and Germany captured “tens of thousands of civilians and refugees who [died] in concentration camps and prisons” (Process of Extermination). These vicious acts lead Orwell to fear the idea of a totalitarian society. Moreover, Orwell wrote 1984 to warn people of the dangers associated with a totalitarian society, because he believed that one-day history would repeat itself. Furthermore, Orwell includes his vision of “a post-atomic dictatorship in which every individual would be monitored ceaselessly by means of the telescreen [that] seemed terrifyingly possible” (1984). In addition to the stalking telescreens, Orwell introduces the effectiveness of thought control. Orwell uses characters and organizations such as The Party, who controls its citizens’ thoughts, as well as their feelings, to show