98 pages • 3 hours read
1984
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Themes
The Psychological Toll of Constant Surveillance
The Party employs technological advances to constantly watch the populace, and throughout the novel, this surveillance—or its threat—takes a significant toll on the characters’ psychological wellbeing. The telescreen acts as a two-way television and radio that operates in live-time, giving those in control the ability to watch over individual movements and listen in on conversations at any given moment. Party members use speakwrites to compose messages and written material, a device that requires people to say words aloud and therefore puts them in danger of being recorded. Writing with an old-fashioned pen might be looked upon suspiciously, and an ink-stained hand is “exactly the kind of detail that might betray you” (36) if someone begins asking questions about what and why a person might be writing with a pen instead of a speakwrite.
Modern readers are familiar with the idea that personal devices might transmit and record data, but this was not the case in the late 1940’s when Orwell wrote the novel. The idea of constant surveillance via technology was not a daily reality for readers when this novel was published, and readers at that time would have looked upon such widespread government use of technological devices as even more extreme.
The threat of surveillance is just as bad—if not worse—than surveillance itself. Winston and fellow Party members live in constant fear that someone might be watching them but are rarely certain. This uncertainty contributes to the suspenseful and anxious atmosphere of the novel, creating a setting in which tension never fully eases because the possibility of being watched is constant. The novel judges these tactics as unethical because they create social order through fear and erodes interpersonal trust in the community.
Winston and Julia briefly escape Party surveillance—or so they assume—when they meet for their first sexual encounter in the countryside. The natural setting in the country is strikingly different from the urban decay of London, signifying an escape from the Party’s reach. Still, concerns over potentially hidden microphones among the trees and flowers demonstrate the extent to which people are accustomed to being monitored. Winston and Julia agree that their minds are still places where they can experience ideas and feelings outside the watchful eye of the Party. The Party can watch their every move and listen to every conversation, but “they can’t get inside you” (367). This proves to be wrong, though, as both Winston and Julia betray one another, breaking their promise to never give in to the Party in their hearts and minds. Despite not seeing thoughts, the Party’s constant surveillance provides enough context and detail to follow and incriminate people for their ideas.
The Lack of Bodily Autonomy Under Totalitarianism
The Party controls the bodies of its members just as it controls their minds. The removal of bodily autonomy, or an individual’s control over their basic physical functions, is another way the Party erodes resistance and ensures conformity. Morning exercises—the “Physical Jerks”—push Winston to physical discomfort. The exercises are assumed to be the Party’s way of ensuring physical health among its members, but they are not individualized for different body types, comfort levels, or physical ability. Winston goes through the motions mechanically, loathing the routine and the discomfort it creates. This allows the Party to dictate not only the movements, but also the moods and mindsets of its members.
Physical control extends even to sex, with the Party propagating sex as a biological function performed for the sake of producing future Party members. Sex between married Party members is looked upon as a “duty to the party” (85), stripping the physical act of any emotional attachment or enjoyment. Both Winston and Julia understand that “the Party was trying to kill the sex instinct, or, if it could not be killed, then to distort it and dirty it” (84) for the sake of controlling even the most intimate of acts between individuals.
Newspeak is designed to strip individuality from language, another mode of expressing bodily autonomy. By making Newspeak the official language of Oceania and by continuously trimming away at the language, the Party ensures that only Party-approved words, phrases, and even expressions of ideas are available for use. By slowly reducing the language of Newspeak to only Party-approved and Party-supporting words, phrases, and ideas, the Party gains systemic control over communication and thought. As Syme explains to Winston, the beauty of Newspeak is in its continuous shrinking of vocabulary, “the range of consciousness always a little smaller” (67) as a result. Syme confirms that “the Revolution will be complete” (67) when Newspeak is perfected in such a way as to eliminate the chance that a person could have a recognizable or articulate thought not already approved by the Party.
Just as the Party takes physical control to the furthest possible individual level by politicizing sex, it also seeks to control the innermost depths of the mind by decreeing anti-Party thoughts a criminal act. Thoughtcrime keeps individual thoughts within Party approval, and Doublethink keeps individuals’ minds stuck in a continuous cycle of believing lies:
The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated (270).
Even the names of the Party’s ministries go against what they actually do—the Ministry of Truth employs swarms of people to rewrite history and develop propaganda; the Ministry of Love is a place of torture; the Ministry of Peace oversees the ongoing war; and the Ministry of Plenty doesn’t provide even basic razor blades adequately—yet their seemingly misaligned names and actions go unnoticed by individuals whose bodily autonomy has become so eroded that they unquestioningly accept the Party’s actions.
Propaganda, Emotional Manipulation, and Conformity
The Ministry of Truth controls the production of all approved newspapers, films, books—“every conceivable kind of information, instruction, or entertainment” (55)—and all of these materials are created to influence people’s thoughts and emotions. To maintain Oceania’s societal hierarchy, separate materials are created for the proletariat and Party classes. To maintain Party loyalty, these materials are consistently destroyed and rewritten to serve the Party’s changing needs.
The Two Minutes Hate establishes a regular propaganda routine for Party members. Even Winston, who instinctively controls his emotions and his facial expressions during the Two Minutes Hate, feels his loathing for Big Brother turn to adoration when he’s surrounded by fellow Party members focusing on hate-inducing images. The Party utilizes this daily propaganda routine to build and maintain hatred for Party enemies, ranging from foreign nations to distorted anti-Party individuals, while strengthening solidarity through the members’ shared emotions.
Hate Week takes the Two Minutes Hate to an even more extreme level, requiring months of preparation and even involving the proletariat class. Enormous posters of foreign enemies add to the already-established feeling that eyes are constantly watching over everything, but this poster brings an additional element of fear in the image of the enemy’s gun that is constantly aimed at the public, just like Big Brother’s eyes are constantly watching. Whereas Big Brother’s constant watch might have felt oppressive before, his stare becomes protectively watchful when juxtaposed against threatening images of a common enemy.
The Party focuses much of its propaganda on children to indoctrinate them early and keep them from developing their individuality. Children in Oceania are taught to fear and hate enemies of the Party, and at Hate Week the schoolchildren are “among the most savage yells of all” (229). Children are guided towards revering the Party over their own families and encouraged to turn in their own family members for anti-Party thoughts, establishing a divide between individuals and their families from an early age. The Parsons children serve as an example of successful Party propaganda: They are eager to see a Party enemy hanged and turn in their own father to the authorities. They are not horrified by the hanging—children in this society are accustomed to seeing such a public spectacle on a monthly basis. The Party dictates the children’s clothing, speech, and activities, systematically turning them into “ungovernable little savages” (31) for their parents and little Party loyalists, who will internalize the Party’s beliefs and reinforce them as they grow up and have their own children, perpetuating the cycle of indoctrination.
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