In Orwell’s 1984, the actions of Winston and the government demonstrate the themes of the book. An illuminating moment of the story occurs when the opposing figures of the party, Julia and Winston find a lead to the resistance of the Inner Party, in a conversation with O’Brien showing that trust can easily be replaced with betrayal as a Winston begins to believe and pour his loyalty into O’brien’s double agent role. O’Brien’s responses and questions represent his personality and job as they are a double entendre, working for and against Winston and Julia. When O’Brien barrages Winston and Julia with questions that determine how far these individuals will go for the cause of overthrowing the party, O’Brien asks if “[They’re] prepared to give [their] lives”, and to “betray [their] country for foreign powers”. But when asked about Winston and Julia separating and never seeing each other again, Julia immediately replies no but Winston hesitates to answer. This hesitation shows Winston’s loyalty already given to the …show more content…
Winston described O’Brien’s tone and fluency “as though this were routine.” This describes O’Brien’s past interactions with people similar to Winston and Julia as they pursue to follow the Brotherhood which in reality was created by O’Brien to punish and capture citizens who wish down with Big Brother. This explains the final question that if Winston or Julia is caught, they’ll need to “give him a new identity” to a point that can be “[altered] people beyond recognition.” This foreshadows the outcome of trusting so deeply into someone, as Winston and Julia come out scarred from the Ministry of Love. The root cause of the downfall of Winston and Julia was due to the way information of the Brotherhood spreads and O’Brien’s structural design of the
The relationship that was formed between Winston and Julia is another example of betrayal between the characters. After their arrest, Winston and Julia were separated and forced to betray each other. When Winston asked O’Brien what happened to Julia, he replied, “She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately-unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her...It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case" (Orwell 259). However, Winston did not betray Julia right away. Naomi Jacobs, a Professor and Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences wrote, “For we know—as, of course, did Orwell himself—that minds do not always break under torture, that some people suffer appalling pain and fear and yet refuse to betray their loved ones and their comrades in arms” (14). Unfortunately, it was inevitable that the
When Winson was about to be exposed to hisgreatest fear - rats - he tells O’brien to hurt Julia instead of hurting him. Was this not the womanthat he was head over heels for five pages ago? Due to the fact that Winston pulled a switcheroo,that makes this betrayal all the more terrible, but also shows just how much relationships makepeople who they are. Once Winston lost his individual relationships, he was completelysubmissive to Big Brother, doing whatever they wanted to. One of the points that Orwell wastrying to make by showing this was that without individual relationships, people can lose theiroverall identity.The point of Winston being brainwashed was so that he would quit rebelling against BigBrother and be just another number amongst the ranks of people. So in this sense, Winston didn’thave complete control over what he was saying or doing because when he betrayed Julia,O’brien had been trying to brainwash him for quite some time already. He did still betray Juliathough, telling O’brien that they should torture Julia instead. When Winston did this, he wentagainst what he and Julia had talked about earlier about how the only possible betrayal for eitherof them would be to stop
Winston at first hates Julia, because he believes she is spying on him and wants to report him to the Thought Police. One day, Julia gives a note to Winston saying “I love you”. They start a dangerous love affair which can get both of them killed or sent to a labor camp, but Winston and Julia don’t care because they have finally found someone who hates the Party as much as the other. O’Brien invites Winston over to his apartment to look at something work related. Winston takes this chance to confront O’Brien about the rebellion and he tells Winston that he is, in fact, part of the brotherhood and gives him a book to read about it. Right after he reads this book, the Thought police arrest him and Julia and send them to a government building called the Ministry of Love to torture
Towards the end of Orwell’s novel that presents a dystopian society, the antagonist, O’Brien, a close member of the inner party, warns Winston, the protagonist and one of only two reasonable people left, that “We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them” (319). Winston, who has been taken prisoner for his political dissent, receives this grave warning tied down to a chair with O’Brien’s face staring at him from above. This alarming solution to the infamous mystery frightens Winston a significant amount, who after sacrificing so much, has just learned his fate. Orwell has brought about this fate to emphasize the perpetual triumph of the party over its enemies. In George Orwell's 1984, the author creates the totalitarian state of Oceania to warn the reader of the potential corruption and oppression of such a government.
Tired of feeling the way he is, with the monotonous struggle of everyday life Winston decides to oppose the party in more real ways; and begins to deviate from certain set behaviors to free himself from this bondage of the party. “To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone-to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone”(25-26). He has realized what the government does to people; how everyone is made to be the same, where no one is allowed to think on their own. The party is omnipotent in all affairs and he will not go along with it anymore. Winston has made up his mind; he is going to do everything he can to bring down the party. He and Julia go to O’Brien’s apartment one afternoon, and Winston’s true hatred is revealed. “We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret organization working against the Party,
Winston is left shocked by Julia’s mindset on the matter, especially after she has made known multiple times that she has no care for anything their government does. Her response to the war’s reality demonstrates how, similar to Syme, Julia has a profound understanding that may be fatal towards the end of the regime of Big Brother. Despite Julia’s insistence that she will evade capture, Winston’s deteriorated physical and emotional state, coupled with his advanced age, will undoubtedly hinder her chances of survival, regardless of her professed love and high regard for him. Winston will be the cause of Julia’s death and it will be a burden that will haunt him forever, being responsible for the death of the one person who fully understood
In George Orwell’s 1984 novel, Julia and Winston stand out as contrasting figures in their fight against the Party. Their ways of defying the Party and the results of their actions show us a lot about their character and the power of the totalitarian regime they resist. While both characters want freedom from the Party's control, their methods and outcomes are very different, highlighting the complexities of resistance in a dystopian world. Winston rebels against the Party, mainly through his thoughts and ideas. He is deeply upset by the Party's control over truth and reality and tries to fight it by keeping a secret diary where he writes his true thoughts.
When Winston learns that a secret Brotherhood really does exist, he and Julia are eager to join, even though O'Brien tells them the horrific consequences. Winston and Julia feel so strongly in their hatred of Big Brother and the Party that they are willing to do anything to help the Brotherhood, with one exception: they refuse to never see each other again. The couple's honesty with O'Brien ultimately leads to their destruction as a couple, an irony that comes back to them at the end of the novel. O'Brien tells the couple that, if they survive, they may become unrecognizable to each other, that they may become entirely different people. Here Orwell foreshadows later events.
While interrogating Winston, O’Brien tells him, “[Julia] betrayed you Winston. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness – everything has been burned out of her” (272). Through systematic torture, Big Brother was able to change everything Julia believes in and who she is as a person. When placed in Room 101 and faced with his greatest fear, rats, Winston exclaims, “Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” (289). Winston loved Julia, but has been tortured and broken to the point where he is willing to betray her to save himself. As Winston looks up at a picture of Big Brother on a telescreen, he feels happy and safe and acknowledges that “he loved Big Brother” (300). Winston once passionately loved Julia and hated Big Brother, but torture has changed him to accept and love everything the Party says and
Individuality vs. Conformity: Rebellion in Orwell's 1984. George Orwell’s Dystopian Novel “1984” is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale that presents a chilling vision of a totalitarian society ruled by the omnipresent Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother, and follows Winston Smith. In the novel, we read about the characters Winston Smith and Julia, who both emerge as symbols of resistance against the oppression by the Party-led regime. It’s evident that while both protagonists share a desire to rebel against the suffocating totalitarian rule of Big Brother, their motivations, personalities and ultimate goals are significantly different. Julia's approach to rebellion is purely incidental to her own desires.
This friendless situation makes Winston and Julia desperate for allies, also explaining why they are so eager to trust O’Brien and Mr. Charrington at first, both of which turning out to be more dangerous than the people they work with in the Ministry of Truth. This betrayal reinforces the fact that no one can be trusted, that they have no allies, and that they are alone against an army of double thinkers.
Winston did not realise was that O'brien is very crafty, he used these characteristics to deceive Winston and Julia into confessing their secret crimes as well as their thought crimes, he had both of them wrapped around his finger. I decided to pick O’brien for this essay owing to the fact that I found his character extremely interesting, he fouled at the start of the book.
As Winston is captured by the government, he is told that there are three stages of his “reintegration”; learning, understanding, and acceptance. Winston refuses to betray his lover Julia until the last stage as he yells to his tormentors, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia. Not me!” (300). , Orwell) Spewing such harsh and petrifying phrases about his past lover, showcases that Winston under the torment and oppression of the Party has capitulated and accepted Big Brother while breaking the final bonds of his romantic relationship with Julia. Instilling oppression on romantic love ensures that the citizens of Oceania love Big Brother and the government with their full capacity; confirming that the individual will never favour their loved one over the government. Once a courageous individual rebelling against the government, using his relationship with Julia as a weapon, now merrily a shadow of his former past, broken down by the oppression instilled by the government. By betraying his lover, Julia, Winston demonstratesions that the government has won. Contradictory to his initial feeling towards Big Brother, Winston’s love is now dedicated towards the government. In the aftermath of his “reintegration”, “[Winston] loved Big Brother,” (311) , Orwell) leaving no additional room in his damaged heart for Julia. However, Winston is not the only character who suffers with the decision of betraying their loved
Believing that O’Brien is a member of the Brotherhood and he too is opposed to the Party, Julia and Winston pay him a visit at his apartment. O’Brien tells the two that they must be willing to lose their own lives in order to take down Big Brother; however, when he asks if they would be willing to betray one another, they refuse. Winston’s hatred for Big Brother has accumulated so much that he is now willing to die solely for the sake of taking down the Party. At the start of the novel, Winston could not stand the thought of his own death. The thought haunted him, and he was not prepared for that to happen. As the story progresses and Winston is being oppressed in more and more ways, he despises the Party more than ever, and eventually is
Winston is always fearful while Julia is more pragmatic and optimistic. They meet O Brien and believe he’s a member of the Brotherhood. O Brien confirms to Winston that he hates the Party. and gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein’s book. But in fact, O Brien is a spy from the