Winston Smith is the main character of a novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four written by George Orwell and published in 1949. The novel presents an imaginary future of 1984 governed by a group known as the Party, whose ruler and dictator is a Big Brother. The Party controls all aspects of people’s lives, including their thoughts. The name of the state is Oceania where Winston is a resident. He loathes the social systems that govern the citizens therein. They are ruled by intense fear. They have no civil rights and liberties. The people are segregated into three different social classes: the Proles (poor), the Party (middle class) and the Inner Party (the rich). No one could however, question the Big Brother’s system of ruling. Thinking about questioning the government’s principles would also be a crime (Orwell 34). Winston secretly hates the Party and starts to rebel. He starts a diary in which he exposes his rebellious thoughts. He does this even though he knows that keeping a diary is a crime and that one day he will be caught by the police and most probably killed. This act of rebellion and others discussed below first reveal him as a hero. However, it ultimately denied of his heroism by his giving in to the party’s rule. He is a hero that fails. He does not fit properly in Orwell’s definition of a hero: an ordinary person doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they can’t possibly succeed. Orwell’s
When Orwell introduces Winston Smith, he does not describe some special chosen hero ready to liberate the world of repression. Instead, he describes a regular man, living life in this tough world. Winston “was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle” and “went slowly” because of his frail deposition (Orwell, ch. 1). Orwell begins the novel describing Smith’s weaknesses, like his older age and his health problems. These details quickly clash against what Smith is about to do, something that is punishable by the thought police. In a book, which was “a compromising possession”, he was about to “open a diary” (Orwell, ch. 1). Although what he was doing was not illegal, “if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death”, since INGSOC never said their citizens could have a diary. He began to write trivial things in his diary, like movies he
In George Orwell’s 1984, Winston Smith is a prime example of the oppressed fighting against the oppressor by his actions of minute resistance, giving his love to another, and joining a secret activists group.
Winston Smith, George Orwell’s main character from 1984, contributes greatly to the novel in many ways. While he is presented to be a simple man, Winston adds many complex ideas to the classic piece of literature. Orwell uses internal and external characteristics, symbols, and significant quotes to develop Winston’s role in 1984.
Orwells’ book is set in a totalitarian state where all who live there must accept and comply with every one of the Party’s rules, ideas and orders. The main character in this novel is Winston Smith. Winston decides to rebel against the Party and soon after this results in his capture and torture from the Party. By the end of the book Winston
Winston Smith is a hero. Despite his anticipated and inevitable failure at the end of 1984, he personifies humanity’s nature to resist subjugation and repression. Actions and intentions are the true measure of a hero and Winston Smith is not found lacking in either. His failure does not diminish his status as a hero. On the contrary, he is the precise representation of Orwell’s definition of heroism: an ordinary man doing whatever he can to change a system that is devoid of decency; in spite of the obvious futility of such an endeavor.
In Orwell’s 1984 we follow Winston Smith, a man who feels the oppressions of the
The main character in George Orwell’s book 1984 is a thirty-nine year old man with the name of Winston Smith. Winston Smith creates thought crimes, he also has anti-Party views. The story “1984” tells about all of Winston Smith’s struggles. In an effort to avoid being monitored, Winston physically conforms to society, however mentally he does just the opposite. Winston is a thin, frail and intellectual thirty-nine year old. Winston hates totalitarian control and enforced repression that are characteristics of his government. Winston hates being watched by Big Brother. He always has revolutionary dreams, he feels like he would be protected. Julia is Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark- haired girl working in the
In 1984, a classic novel by George Orwell, Winston Smith struggles to learn and become independent in a society that bans individual thought and shared relationships. Winston Smith exists in a world where government control is so strong and encompassing that not even the personal space in
“We are taught that the hero’s journey is the journey from weakness to strength. But...[this is] wrong. The real hero’s journey is the journey from strength to weakness.” The real hero shows the ability to rise above challenges, even in a state of weakness, and wind up victorious. The real hero is flawed, but his courage, selflessness, and sacrifices for the greater good will rise above all. Winston Smith of 1984 is described as a “small frail figure” with a “varicose ulcer above his right ankle.” This is evidently not the image conjured when one imagines a hero, but due to the deceiving nature of appearances, we must consider his actions. What does Winston do? He writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” repetitively in his diary, he engages in a
Winston's Predicament in 1984 The dystopian world George Orwell created for 1984 is a bleak, emotionless place, grey shaded and foul smelling, full of hate and distrust. The humans that inhabit it do not live, they are simply expected to exist for the good of the sinister Party, a totalitarian government, while their leader gazes down at them from every wall, watching their every move. One of these humans, and our protagonist, is Winston Smith. His problems when simplified may seem like the problems of any other person: his lack of freedom, his repressed emotions and his desperate loneliness.
In the novel 1984 by george Orwell, Winston Smith is an anti-hero because he openly challenges society, realizes the corruption of the party, and is ultimately brainwashed at the end to conform to formenity. As the novel began to progress
In a world ruled by three totalitarian superpowers that are constantly in war with one another; lack of expression and ideals, undermine the character of a person or society; as a consequence, fears invade the person who is going through that phase of their life. Manipulation sooner or later by political superiority can destroy a human being easily, if they don’t fight against their rights. Winston Smith, the protagonist of a dystopian novel published by George Orwell named 1984; created an ordinary character who stood up for his oppressed Oceania citizens. An important main point this story covers is the question, if Winston was a true hero, can readers admire and emulate him due to his heroism? Winston Smith, a 39 year old man who was a low-ranking member of the ruling party in London in a nation called Oceania worked at the
How does Winston further develop in this section of the book? Winston follows a path similar to a classic tragic hero and in this part of the book he reaches the stage of Crisis and Tragic Force. In part two: chapter nine and ten, Winston’s rebellious natures further increases as he begins to read Emmanuel Goldstein’s book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Goldstein is the public enemy number of the Party and any one caught with propaganda of his could be subjected to very harsh punishment.
Despite being portrayed as a very ordinary man, Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984 is the epitome of a tragic hero. Winston has a tragic flaw, impulsiveness, as well as another more immediate cause of his downfall, his trusting nature. Winston also follows the standard rise and fall path of a tragic hero. Although it takes place in a dystopian world in the nearby future, 1984 still features the classic literary character of a tragic
In the novel 1984 Winston Smith is a disappointment. Winston displays activities that would lead one into trusting that he truth be told, is a saint. Winston endeavored to oppose society and over through the gathering. Winston about accomplishes saint status and therefore, his disappointment is significantly all the more destroying. George Orwell made Winston as a disappointment with the goal that Winston could work as a notice to others that the world is going in a negative bearing.