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Theme Of Romantic Love In 1984

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Love’s Power In the novel, 1984, the author, George Orwell, explores the chaotic and inhumane world under an all controlling and manipulative government. In an age of threatening, powerful governments, Orwell combats the support of these powers through subtle motifs throughout the book. The symbolic government of Big Brother controls a society in which the main character, Winston Smith, tries to navigate through while preserving his human nature. Criticizing this form of government, the author uses romantic love to highlight the deprivation of humanity through Big Brother’s laws and by give the reader a little hope for romance just to destroy it in the end. By employing Big Brother’s unnatural view of romantic love, Orwell clearly illustrates how totalitarian governments can strip society of its natural aspects of life, all the while dehumanizing them. The Party’s creation of the Junior Anti-Sex League and the Thought Police were preventive measures against any romantic relationships that may occur or even think about existing. The “undeclared purpose” of Big brother “was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act” so much that its citizens would never desire it. Instead of romantic love, Big Brother turned people’s love into love for Big Brother (65). The Party went to the measure of creating the lowest pornography called “Pornosec...which no Party member...was permitted to look at” (43). The only way not completely despised was prostitution, “so long as it was furtive and

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