About the Author

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. The son of a civil servant, he was born in India in 1903. His family having moved to England in 1907, he commenced studies at Eton in 1917, where he contributed to several college magazines.

Orwell served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. Years of poverty followed.

In 1936 he fought for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war, and was wounded. He was admitted to a sanitorium in 1938. During World War II, Orwell served in the British Home Guard, and subsequently (from 1941 to 1943) worked for the BBC Eastern Service. He was the literary editor of the Tribune, and contributed to the Observer and the Manchester Evening News.

George Orwell is most famous for his books Animal Farm (published in 1945) and 1984 (published in 1949). He died in London, England in January of 1950.

About the Novel

Owing largely to progress in communications and other technologies, governments and businesses today have more power than ever to monitor and influence what we buy, were we go, what we watch or read, and what we believe. Recent terrorists attacks in the United States of America (most notably, the destruction of the twin World Trade Towers in New York and the Pentagon, and the delivery of Anthrax spores to public officials and the media in the U.S.A.) has most citizens more willing than ever to give up more individual freedom and privacy in exchange for the promise of greater security. Long denied the right to violate basic individual rights and freedoms and privacy, the world's law enforcement and surveillance communities and their governments are seizing the day, and making rapid steps to pass relatively permanent legislation giving the government powers which - prior to the acts of September 11, 2001 - would have been considered by the general populace to be powers properly unleashed only for temporary periods of national emergency.

In the process, questions are being raised as to whether the surrender of individual freedom will actually result in greater security, or whether we, in giving up freedom for security, are satisfying the aim of the terrorists to begin with: to undermine individual freedom of choice, equality under the law, and the dignity of every individual.

1984 has long been the first book to which we have turned for a vivid picture of a government that has used war to justify infringement on freedom; that has used speech codes to limit everyone's ability to understand higher concepts or concepts that favour human individuality; that uses powerful media to build unwarranted consensus and rewrite history; and that has used technology to nip political opposition and individualistic or eccentric practices in the bud. Far from being a caricature, it insightfully and skillfully characterizes the tendencies and motivations of unlimited government power, and the horrifying, hopeless result of such government: humanity denied its freedom to think, to be rational, and to dissent...its freedom to be human.

If, after finishing 1984, you find yourself nervous and paranoid, then: good. You have just taken a step closer to respecting the importance of human freedom and dignity, and the dangers in allowing governments to usurp your freedom to dissent or be different. All that remains is to fight to maintain or regain your ownlife (read the book, you'll know what we mean).

Plot Summary

Winston Smith knows there is something wrong with the world. Surely it hasn’t always been tasteless food, gray, stringy clothing, a dispiriting job, and always the same fear and suspicion of everyone around you? If life did used to be different, how does he know it was? What makes him question Big Brother, who is always watching, and the Party, who is always right? Why does he instinctively avoid the all-knowing telescreen, and secretly abhor the Two Minute Hate that everyone else revels in?

These are the questions that plague Winston’s mind constantly. He knows he’s different, but doesn’t know why, and doesn’t know how to find out without detection. The world as he knows it is filled with hate, anger, and fear, but deep down he longs for answers, and for beauty. He is always wondering about the past, and whether the daily facts that Big Brother reports are the truth, or nothing but lies. The past is constantly being rewritten by the Party, and it is Winston’s job to help change the facts to suit the current day’s needs. He both loves and is horrified by his job but sees nothing he can do to change it.

Winston can’t take the monotony anymore and one day starts a very small rebellion of his own by starting a diary, which is forbidden (and punishable by death). A chance meeting with a dark haired girl at the Ministry where he works slowly leads to an illicit affair, which awakens feelings in him he never knew existed. He is filled with love and lust for Julia, and their passionate romance awakens another feeling- all out rebellion against the party. They meet secretly as often as they can, talking about the world and making love in secret rooms. To Winston, it’s paradise.

Another chance meeting leads him to O’Brien, an Inner Party member he believes to be associated with a conspiracy against the Party, part of a secret society known only as the Brotherhood. He and Julia immediately join, and promise to do whatever they can to help the Brotherhood. O’Brien promises them that nothing will ever happen in their lifetime, and their service with the Brotherhood will most certainly lead to torture and death by the Party. This doesn’t bother them in the slightest.

It doesn’t take them long to get caught, however (betrayed, ultimately, by a kindly shopkeeper they trusted, who turns out to be a member of the Thought Police), and they’re both taken to the Ministry of Love for torture and interrogation.

Winston is held there for months, getting tortured by O’Brien himself, who turns out to be a member of the Party. He holds out against him and his brainwashing for a long time, but in the end he betrays Julia, and himself. He submits to their brainwashing and learns to love Big Brother and Big Brother only. He has no individualism, no thoughts that are not approved by the party, and no love for his fellow man. He is released from his prison, considered a “perfect specimen” by the Party and safe for society.

List of Characters

Winston Smith: Winston is thirty-nine, small and frail with fair hair and reddish skin. He wears the blue overalls that are the uniform of the Outer Party. He has a varicose ulcer above his right ankle. He is dissatisfied with life under the Party and wonders what things were like before, when people were free and had human dignity. He thinks deeply about the condition of the world. Winston has a phobic fear of rats.

Big Brother: The beloved leader of Oceania and symbol of the Party. Big Brother has black hair, a black moustache and piercing eyes that seem to follow you. His face and voice are everywhere--on the telescreens, coins, stamps, banners, posters, cigarette packets and book covers. Winston sometimes doubts that Big Brother is a real person.

Mr. Charrington: The owner of the prole junk-shop Winston visits. He is an old man, with a mild, friendly face and thick glasses. He has an intellectual air. His hair is almost white but his eyebrows are still black. Later, when Winston is arrested, he sees him with black hair and no glasses, a man of about thirty-five, and he realizes that all along Mr. Charrington was a disguised Thought Police agent.

Julia: When Winston first meets Julia he doesn't know her name and thinks she is a typical Party follower--a mindless, well-behaved robot. She works as a mechanic on a novel-writing machine. She has short, thick, dark hair, a freckled face and is twenty-six years old. Around her waist she wears a red sash, a symbol of the Junior Anti-Sex League. Later Winston discovers that Julia merely participates in the Anti-Sex League and other community activities as a cover and that she, too, hates the Party. She is intelligent and less likely to be fooled by Party propaganda than even Winston, but she is more interested in evading authority and having a good time than trying to overthrow the government. Julia is a highly sexual person.

Winston's Mother: She was tall, silent and moved slowly. She had magnificent, fair hair. She disappeared when Winston was about ten or eleven years old. Winston finds it tragic that she loved him and died loving him when he was too young and selfish to love her in return.

O'Brien: O'Brien has a very important, mysterious job. He is a large, well-built man with a 'coarse, humorous, brutal' face. He wears spectacles. Winston has always hoped that O'Brien may be an ally and also against Big Brother. As it turns out, he has been toying with Winston and is in charge of his torture and’re-integration' in the Ministry of Love. The two of them do have a special kind of empathy, although O'Brien can also be very cruel and is determined to force Winston to conform: ''Do you remember writing in your diary,' he said, 'that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.' (Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 271)

Mr. Parsons: Parsons is not only Winston's neighbor but also works with him in the Ministry of Truth. Parsons is fattish but active. He is stupid, and incredibly enthusiastic about all political and community activities. He sweats a lot--he always smells of sweat and leaves damp patches on the handles of the table-tennis rackets at the Community Center. Winston thinks of him as 'one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended.' Even in the cells of the Ministry of Love, Parsons is loyal to the Party and glad to be arrested.

Ampleforth: A poet who works with Winston in the Ministry of Truth. He is quite fond of Winston in his own way. Working on a definitive edition of the works of Kipling, he allows the word 'God' to remain at the end of a line because he cannot find another suitable rhyme, and he is taken to the Ministry of Love.

Winston's Father: He was dark and thin, wore spectacles and dressed neatly. Winston especially remembers that the soles of his shoes were very thin.

Goldstein: The leader of the mysterious Brotherhood, and the enemy of the Party. He was one of the original leaders of the revolution, but Big Brother later exposed him as a traitor and forced him into exile.

Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford: Among the last survivors of the original leaders of the Revolution--who were all, except for Big Brother, exposed as traitors and counter-revolutionaries or wiped out? Like all Party enemies, they were arrested and then released for a while after they confessed, but eventually killed by the Thought Police. After their release Winston saw them in the Chestnut Tree Café. They were silent and unmoving, and Aaronson and Rutherford had broken noses. He saw Rutherford's eyes fill with tears.

Katharine: Winston's wife. They parted nearly eleven years ago and he hardly ever thinks of her. She was tall and fair-haired with strong facial features. She was very politically orthodox and not at all intelligent. 'She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her.' (Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 67) Katharine hated sex, but insisted that she and Winston should try to have children for the Party.

Martin: O'Brien's mysterious servant. A small, dark-haired man in a white jacket, with a totally expressionless, yellow face which might be Asian. O'Brien reveals that he is one of the Brotherhood. It seems to Winston that Martin's whole life is playing a part. O'Brien tells them that sometimes the organization finds it necessary to alter someone's appearance, and Winston wonders whether Martin has a synthetic face, if this is why he shows no expression.

Comrade Ogilvy: A character Winston makes up. He is the perfect Oceania citizen and even as a child had spent all his time supporting the Party. As an adult, he had designed a highly effective hand grenade and then died in action at the age of twenty-three protecting important dispatches. He didn't drink or smoke, was completely celibate and never discussed anything but the Party philosophy, Ingsoc. 'Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.' (Part 1, Chapter 4, pg. 50)

Mrs. Parsons: Mr. Parson's wife. She is about thirty, but looks older. She has dust in the creases of her face and her hair is wispy. She looks crushed and afraid.

The Skull-faced Man: One of Winston's fellow prisoners in the Ministry of Love. He looks ordinary and mean--he might have been an engineer or technician. He radiates murderous, unappeasable hatred. His face is so emaciated that it looks like a skull, and he is obviously starving to death. When the guards come to take him to Room 101, he hysterically begs them not to take him. He starts to scream and says he will do anything rather than go there--offers to confess to anything, tells them to shoot him, tells them to cut the throats of his wife and three small children in front of him, but begs them not to take him to Room 101.

Syme: One of Winston's co-workers. A Newspeak specialist who is working on the Eleventh Edition of the official dictionary. He is politically orthodox and a hard worker, but, Winston thinks, he is too intelligent. Sooner or later he will get vaporized.

Character Map

Object/ Places

Airstrip One: The territory that used to be known as Britain.

The Alcove: Winston's plan of keeping a diary is partly suggested by the fact that the telescreen in his living room is unusually placed--there is a shallow alcove in the wall next to the screen which is out of sight. The alcove was probably intended to hold bookshelves, but Winston puts a table there and uses it as a private place to write in. In the alcove he can be heard, but not seen, by someone watching him through the telescreen.

The Book: The book that contains all the truth against the Party and Big Brother. Goldstein wrote it. The book is highly illegal--copies are produced by the Brotherhood, and continually sought out and destroyed by the Thought Police. The title, as Winston discovers when he finally gets hold of a copy, is The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism.

The Brotherhood: A secret organization, led by Emmanuel Goldstein, which is dedicated to overthrowing the Party government. O'Brien tells Winston and Julia that no-one knows how large the Brotherhood is or who the members are--no single member ever meets more than three or four contacts at a time, so that they can never betray more than a handful of people. When members are finally caught, they get no help. If it is vital to silence someone, a razor blade may be smuggled into their cell so that they can kill themselves before being questioned.

The Chestnut Tree Café: Haunt of painters and musicians, the place seems ill-omened and slightly disreputable. It is associated with those out of favor with the Party--the old leaders of the Party, before they were exposed as traitors and purged, used to gather there. The specialty of the house is gin flavored with cloves.

Crimestop: Stopping short, by instinct, on the threshold of any train of thought that could prove disloyal to the Party.

Community Center: Where Party members are supposed to go after work for communal recreation--games, lectures and drinking. Party members are not supposed to spend a lot of time alone or have spare time.

The Diary: Where Winston writes his secret thoughts. He uses a real, old-fashioned pen and ink, and writes in a beautiful book with creamy paper, which he found in the junk-shop. He puts a special speck of dust on the cover so that he can tell if anyone has found the diary, but does not realize that the Thought Police actually move and replace the speck of dust so he will not know that he is being watched.

Doublethink: The practice of thought control necessary to be a good Party disciple. No Party member can ever admit that the Party might be wrong. However, sometimes reality shows something to the contrary. Through using doublethink, the Party member can deal with any problems or inconsistencies with the Party. Party members simply block all awareness of the Party's falsities from their mind and then, as another act of doublethink, they forget that they have even used doublethink.

Eastasia: One of the three world superpowers. This super-state that has the least land, but still a large population. It consists China and all of southern and eastern Asia.

Eurasia: One of the three world superpowers. Its landmass is the whole of the northern part of Asia, and Europe. In the novel, Oceania is first at war with Eurasia and allied with Eastasia, but then is at war with Eastasia and allied with Eurasia.

The Glass Paperweight: A beautiful antique that Winston finds in the junk-shop--a heavy lump of glass, curved on one side and flat on the other, almost like half a sphere. The color and texture of the glass has softness, like rainwater, and in the center is a piece of pink coral. Winston buys it because of its beauty, but it is a strange thing for a Party member to buy and it would be difficult for him to explain if anyone knew that he had it. It seems to him as if the surface of the glass is like the sky, and inside is a tiny world where Julia's life and his own are fixed, like the coral, in a kind of eternity.

The Golden Country: A landscape that recurs in Winston's dreams that he thinks he recognizes in the country area he visits with Julia. There is an old pasture (a field used for grazing animals) with a foot-track running across it and a few molehills. Nearby he can hear a stream.

Hate Week: A kind of week-long festival involving processions, speeches, films, banners, posters, etc, aiming at building hatred of the enemy.

Inner Party: The highest level of Oceania society, easily visible because of their black overalls. Regular people like Winston belong to the middle level, the Outer Party.

Junior Anti-Sex League: An organization for young people to advocate complete celibacy for both sexes. Their ideal is that all children will be the products of artificial insemination and will grow up in public institutions. Members wear a red sash around the waist.

The Junk-shop: Winston finds this shop in a slummy area of town and is fascinated. Although Party members are not supposed to go into ordinary shops, he goes in to buy a blank book, which he uses as his secret diary. Winston later returns and meets the owner, Mr. Charrington. He and Julia rent the room above the shop, which has an armchair, a mahogany double bed and an 'old-fashioned' clock with a twelve-hour face, as a private place for the two of them.

Ministry of Love: In charge of law and order; the Ministry of Love is where political prisoners are tortured. It is hard to get into, surrounded by barbed wire and steel doors, and the surrounding streets are patrolled by guards.

Ministry of Peace: In charge of war--Oceania is constantly at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia and alternates which superpower is the friend and which is the enemy at an instant's notice.

Ministry of Plenty: In charge of economic affairs and production of goods. The Ministry of Plenty fabricates shortages of everyday items, such as razor blades.

Ministry of Truth: Like the other ministries, it is housed in a huge white pyramid-shaped concrete building. It is in charge of creating and rewriting all news, education, entertainment and art.

Newspeak: The official language of Oceania. The idea behind Newspeak is to develop a language in which it is technically impossible to disagree with the Party because there are no words for unorthodox ideas. Every year the vocabulary of Newspeak becomes smaller and smaller and the language is more simplified.

Oceania: The super-state headed by the Party and Big Brother. It consists of what used to be called North and South America, the Atlantic islands including Great Britain, Australasia and the southern part of Africa.

Proles: The proletariat--the working class of Oceania. They have much freer lives than Party members and the Party spends much less time watching and controlling the proles, because they aren't worth the time and effort. The Party does not view the proles as a threat to the system. Winston believes that any change in Oceania society would have to come from them.

Records Department: The department in the Ministry of Truth which changes all records of the past, from newspapers to poetry, so as to reflect current politics and show the Party in the best possible light.

The Spies: The Party's organization for children. They wear blue shorts, gray shirts and red neckerchiefs. In the Spies children are taught to hate traitors and thought criminals. They also learn to worship the Party and Big Brother but rebel against all discipline except that of the Party, so that they become 'ungovernable little savages' and often turn on their parents.

St. Clement's Dane Engraving: Screwed onto the wall in the room above the junk-shop, a steel engraving of the church, which is an oval building with rectangular windows and a small tower. Mr. Charrington offers to sell it to Winston but it is obviously too big and awkward for him to take home. It later turns out that there was a telescreen behind the engraving, spying on Winston and Julia during their time together.

Telescreen: a square metal screen, like a dulled mirror, which works like a television screen except that it not only shows programs (all praising the Party) but also allows anyone within its range to be seen and heard by the Thought Police.

Thoughtcrime: The crime of thinking anything that disagrees with Big Brother, the Party or the Party philosophy, Ingsoc.

Thought Police: The specialized, terrifying branch of the police that detects and arrests thought criminals.

Two Minute Hate: A daily ritual. Everyone assembles in front of the telescreen at eleven hundred for a two-minute program that shows Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, and marching enemy soldiers. This is a highly emotional moment and it is impossible even for Winston to avoid joining in: 'A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.' (Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 16) At the end of Two Minute Hate, Big Brother's face appears, inspiring everyone with relief and is followed by the three Party slogans.

Vaporizing: Enemies of the party are arrested in the middle of the night and completely disappear. Their names are wiped from register and all records of any of their actions are destroyed, so that they are totally abolished--'vaporized'--and have become an 'unperson', someone who supposedly has never existed.

Victory Gin: The alcoholic beverage drunk by Outer Party members--it is colorless, oily, tastes like nitric acid and has a sickly smell. Drinking it causes an effect like being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. It is the only product in Oceania that is both cheap and easy to find.

Victory Masion: The apartment building where Wilson lives. It was built in 1930 and is falling apart. Nothing, from the plumbing to the electricity, works right. The hallway smells like boiled cabbage and old rags.

Book Summary

Book I Summary

Chapter 1

Winston, a thirty-nine year old frail man who suffers from varicose ulcer above his right ankle, climbs the staircase up to his apartment because the elevator is always not in use. On every landing, he sees a huge picture with large text: “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.”

Winston is an insignificant official of the Party, a totalitarian political regime, and although he's a member of the ruling class, he is still not excluded from the regime's oppression. In his apartment, there is an instrument called telescreen. It is always on, spouting propaganda and is thought to be an instrument being used by the Thought Police to monitor the actions of the citizens. Winston keeps his back on the screen and from his window sees the Ministry of Truth were he works. He then remembers the other ministries that exist to reassert the government's status: the Ministry Of Peace, which is responsible for waging war; the Ministry of Plenty, the one responsible for economic shortages; and, the dreaded one, the Ministry of Love, which is the center of the Party’s detestable activities.

Keeping himself out of sight in the telescreen, he brings out his diary and writes there the films he watched, his lust and hatred for a woman, and about O'Brien, a member of the Party but whom he thinks is actually an enemy of it. He feels guilty as he writes. He starts to think that the Thought Police will seize him any moment soon. Just then, he hears a knock on the door.

Chapter 2

Winston opens the door thinking the Thought Police has arrived to arrest him. On the other side of the door, instead, is Mrs. Parsons, a neighbor in his apartment building who needs a hand in plumbing while his husband is away. While in Mrs. Parson’s apartment, Winston is being tormented by the Parsons kids who are Junior Spies. The Junior Spies is an organization of children who monitor adults, especially their own parents, for disloyalty to the Party. The Parsons children are agitated because their mother won’t let them join the Party’s activity in the park that evening. Back to his apartment, Winston remembers his dreams hearing a voice telling him, “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” He believes the voice belongs to O’Brien.

Chapter 3

Winston dreams of her mother who disappeared twenty years ago. For a reason he cannot comprehend, he feels responsible for her disappearance. Then he dreams of a place called The Golden County where a dark-haired girl takes off her clothes and runs towards him an in act of freedom. He wakes with the word “Shakespeare” on his mouth then he is awakened fully by a whistle sound from the telescreen, a reminder that it is already time for the Physical Jerks, a round of exercise.

As he exercises, he thinks of his childhood which he barely remembers since there were no photographs and documents. His mind also travels to the Oceania’s relationship to other countries in the world, Eurasia and Eastasia. Then it shifts to Big Brother. As far as he remembers, no one had heard of Big Brother, the leader of the Party, before 1960, but now stories on him appears in histories as far back as 1930s.

A reprimanding voice in the telescreen brings him back to the present.

Chapter 4

Winston goes to his work in the Records Section. His job is altering historical records of Oceania. He has to change the name of a former Party official who has been exiled. Comrade Withers, one of Big Brother’s former officials had a commendation for being a loyal party member. However, he was later executed as an enemy of the Party. He needs to destroy the documents related to the commendation so it will jive with the most current record. He also needs to edit any Party record to match new documents. There should be no discrepancy no matter how small because Big Brother cannot be wrong. He is never wrong. Even when the supply of food becomes less and Airstrip One has to make do with it, they are told they are receiving more than ever, and for one reason or another, they believe it.

Chapter 5

Winston has lunch with Syme who is responsible for modifying the dictionary. Syme explains his work to Winston – he has to modify the Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Newspeak’s aim is to narrow the range of thought, erase the words related to independence, rebellious thoughts, and the likes. Syme said if there are no negative words used and seen, no one will ever be able to rebel as no one will have the capability to express such thoughts. Winston ponders Syme’s intelligence and how it will affect Syme’s future. Then there comes Mr. Parsons, their neighbor. He apologizes for what his children did to Winston when he fixed their plumbing, but he is openly beaming for his kids’ spirit.

Their conversation was abruptly cut when a message from the Ministry of Plenty announces a greater supply of chocolate ration to twenty grams. Winston reflects the increase is actually a reduction from the supply the day before. He notices that there is a joyful environment all around him. Then he feels someone is watching him, so he looks up and finds the dark-haired girl who he thinks is a Party agent.

Chapter 6

At home, Winston writes down his sexual encounter with a prole prostitute. He thinks of the Party’s hatred of sex and concludes that the Party’s real goal is to remove pleasure from the sexual act. Sex becomes a duty to the Party merely to produce new Party members. He remembers his wife Katherine. She never really likes sex and when they found out they cannot have any children, they separated. He really desires to have an enjoyable sexual affair, which he sees as an ultimate act of rebellion. In his diary, he writes that the prole prostitute is old and ugly but he still goes to perform the act. But writing down his fantasies does not lessen his anger, depression, or rebellion. He still longs to shout profanities.

Chapter 7

Winston writes in his diary that it is possible to overthrow the Party if only the rebellion would come from the proles since they make up eighty-five percent of the population. The problem is the proles do not believe they are being oppressed by the Party. They also lack both the energy and interest to revolt. Winston knows the Party cannot be destroyed from within.

Winston looks at the children’s history book to answer some of his questions. But as expected, all the words there came from the Party, thus reworded to be in conjunction with the Party’s idealism and claims. The Party claims to have built ideal cities but the building where Winston lives is already dilapidated. More often than not, there is no electricity and the people live in poverty and fear.

There was one occasion he cannot forget. It was in mid-1960s when the original leaders of the Revolution were arrested. One day, he saw Rutherford weeping, he is one of the Party members. A few days later, he saw a photograph of the group proving they were in New York at the time the Party said the group is in Eurasia committing treason.

Winston thinks his writings in his diary as a form of letter to O’Brien. Though he doesn’t personally know O’Brien except for his name, he believes he sees a strain of independence and silent rebellion in him, a conscious oppression similar to his own. He realizes that all Party members should deny the true functions of their eyes and ears. Then he thinks that true freedom is attained by being able to think and interpret things as they perceive it – like 2+2=4.

Chapter 8

Winston goes to prole district. There he enters a pub and talks to an old man, trying to squeeze out information if before people were really exploited by bloated capitalists as the Party claims. However, the old man's memory is too vague to answer his questions. Winston laments that the real link from the past, the prole, is too thin that it will break anytime.

Winston then goes to the secondhand store when he bought his diary. Mr. Charrington, the proprietor, takes him upstairs to a private room where there is no telescreen. There he shows him a print of St. Clement’s church with an old rhyme: “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s / You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s.”

As he walks toward home, he notices a figure in blue Party overalls, the dark-haired girl, obviously following him. Frightened, he imagines hitting her either with a cobblestone or with the paperweight in his pocket. Then he hurries home and decides that the best thing to do is to commit suicide before the party catches him and tortures him before killing him totally. He tries to calm himself and divert his thought to his dream where O’Brien talks to him of the place where there is no darkness. Still troubled, he takes a coin out of his pocket. It bears the face of Big Brother which reminds him of the Party slogans: "'WAR IS PEACE," "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY," "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."

Book II Summary

Chapter 1

One morning as Winston walks to the men’s room, he notices the dark-haired girl with her arm in a sling. She falls and when Winston tries to help her up, she passes him a note that reads, “I love you.” Winston tries to decipher the note’s meaning as he really believes the dark-haired girl is a political spy who monitors his behaviors. And now her note tells him she loves him. His thoughts are interrupted when Parsons arrives asking him about his preparations for the coming Hate Week.

Several days and nothing passed between Winston and the girl until one day, Winston manages to sit at the same luncheon table with her. They keep their eyes down while talking to avoid being noticed. They plan to meet at Victory Square. There, they will be able to hide from the telescreens. When they finally meet in the square, there is a convoy of Eurasian prisoners being tormented by unpleasant crowds. But still, the dark-haired girl manages to give him directions to a place where they can have their rendezvous. They manage to hold their hands briefly.

Chapter 2

Winston and the dark-haired girl meet in the country. Winston has no idea what to expect but he no longer believes that she is a spy. He worries for a hidden microphones in the bushes but later on feels calm by the girl’s obvious experience. She introduces herself as Julia then tears off her Junior Anti-Sex League sash. Then they make love in the woods as beautiful as Winston dreams it to be. Afterward, Winston asks Julia if she has done it before and Julia answers him yes, a couple of times. Thrilled by her answer, he tells her he loves her more – since it only means that more Party members are committing crimes.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Winston and Julia prepare for their return to London, to their normal lives. Over the coming weeks, they were able to arrange several brief meetings in the city. One time during their rendezvous in a ruined church, Julia tells Winston about living in a hostel and her first illicit affair. Unlike Winston, Julia is not interested in outward rebellion; she simply wants to outwit the Party. She explains that the Party forbids sex to turn people's frustration into a desire to worship Big Brother. Winston then tells Julia of an incident when he and his wife took a walk and he’s thinking of pushing her off a cliff. It never materializes. He says it wouldn’t matter anyway because it is impossible to win against the oppression he is experiencing.

Chapter 4

Winston looks around the room he is renting, the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, foolishly he thinks, so can have his affair with Julia. Both of them have been very busy in preparation for the Hate Week, and Winston has been frustrated because they were unable to meet. The situation is aggravated that Julia has her period. Winston deeply wishes that he and Julia can lead a normal married life.

Julia comes into the room with coffee, sugar, and bread – luxuries enjoyed only by those who belong to the Inner Party. She puts on her makeup and Winston is enchanted by the beauty before his eyes. Later that evening while they rest, Julia sees a rat and Winston feels aghast. He is terribly afraid of rats more than anything else. Then Julia surveys her surroundings. She notices the paperweight and asks Winston about it. He tells her it is a link to the past. They sing a song pertaining to St. Clement’s Church. Julia says one day she will clean the old picture of the church. When Julia leaves, Winston looks at the paper weight imagining Julia and him living inside it unmoving.

Chapter 5

Syme vanishes, just like Winston had predicted. The preparations for the Hate Week continue. The Parsons kids now sing different song called “Hate Song” especially written for the event. Winston is now consumed with his passion for Julia. He constantly thinks of the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop even when he cannot go there. He fantasizes that Katherine is dead and he will marry Julia. He also contemplates of altering his identity to become a prole. Winston and Julia talk about the Brotherhood, a Party enemy. Julia says she believes the war and the Party enemies like Emmanuel Goldstein are all made up by the Party. Winston is confused by her lack of concern; he admonishes her for being a rebel only from the waist down.

Chapter 6

O’Brien contacts Winston, who has been thrilled the moment he’s waiting for has finally come. Their brief meeting in the hallway leaves Winston anxious and at the same time excited. O’Brien suggests something about Syme and he tells Winston he can see a Newspeak dictionary if he comes to his house one evening. Winston thinks his life starts to cross O’Brien’s when he had his first rebellious thought. He feels depressed as he thinks he will eventually end up in the Ministry of Love. He resigns to his fate and is thrilled to have O’Brien’s address.

Chapter 7

One day in the room above Mr. Charrington’s store, Winston wakes up crying. Julia asks him what’s wrong. He says he has dreamed of his mother and he subconsciously believes he has killed her. He suddenly remembers the past that has been itched in his memory but remains suppressed till that moment. He remembers his life after his father left them. He, his mother and his baby sister spent most of their time in underground shelters, often without food. Consumed by hunger, he stole some chocolates from them and ran away, never to come back nor see them again. He hates the Party for creating inhumanity among humans, devoid of any human feelings. He believes, though, that proles are still human.

Winston and Julia are worried because they know they might be seized if the Party finds out where they are and what they are doing. They know they will eventually tell the truth but promises each other they will never cease to love the other. They plan to leave the room they rented but they cannot.

Chapter 8

Winston and Julia go to O’Brien’s place, risking their lives by appearing together. When they arrive, O’Brien turns off the telescreen which shocks Winston deeply. Believing they are free from the Party’s observation, Winston boldly tells him they are against the Party and wish to join the Brotherhood. O’Brien informs them that Brotherhood is real, so is Emmanuel Goldstein, who really exists and is very much alive. O’Brien leads them to a ritual song initiating them into the order of rebellion. He then serves them wine and Winston proposes that they drink to the past. After Julia left, O’Brien promises to give Winston a copy of the Goldstein book, the manifesto of the revolution. O’Brien tells Winston there’s a possibility of another meeting in the future and Winston asks if he means in the place where there is no darkness. O’Brien says yes, repeating his words. O’Brien helps Winston complete the missing verses from the St. Clement’s Church rhyme. Winston leaves and O’Brien turns on his telescreen then goes back to work.

Chapter 9

Winston is exhausted. He spent ninety hours for the Hate Week - changes have to be made as Oceania has switched enemies and allies in the ongoing war. At one rally, the speaker has a slip of the tongue. He says the Oceania is, and always has been, at war with Eastasia (instead of Eurasia). The people blame Emmanuel Goldstein’s agents for sabotaging them.

In the rented room, Winston reads the book of Goldstein, the one given by O’Brien – The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. He notices that the chapter titles are the same with those of the Party slogans "WAR IS PEACE" and "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." The topics trace the social classes of the current world – High Class, Middle Class and Low Class – the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. The manifesto explains the beginning of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. It explains how the three nations keep their respective populaces to protect the interests of the High Class. Goldstein also explains that war is simply a fact of life enabling the ruling powers to keep information from the masses. They believe that the masses should be ignorant of life in other places, thus the slogan "WAR IS PEACE."

Julia arrives and flings herself in Winston’s arms. She is glad to know but remains non-committal that Winston has the book. Half an hour later, the two hears a woman outside sing. Winston reads the book to Julia. Goldstein explains how the power of control benefits the Party. Winston notices that Julia is already asleep and he then he also falls asleep.

Chapter 10

In the morning, the two is awakened by a woman singing outside. Winston looks at the prole woman through the window. He admires her fertility and thinks that the possibility of throwing out the Party is in the hands of the prole people. Both Julia and Winston look at the woman and think that the woman might hold their future. Then they say, "We are dead," and a voice answers, "You are dead." Suddenly, they realize that a telescreen is present in the room, hidden in the picture of St. Clement’s Church. A familiar voice recites the last St. Clement’s rhyme: "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, He comes a chopper to chop off your head." The house is suddenly surrounded and there are echo of stomping boots outside, the black-clad troops pour in. They smash the paperweight, kick Winston and beat Julia. Winston becomes disoriented but sober enough to realize that the voice from the telescreen is Mr. Charrinton’s. He is also a member of the Thought Police.

Book III Summary

Chapter 1

Winston is in a bright, bare cell. The lights are always on – he has arrived at the place where there is no darkness. There are four telescreens in the room, constantly monitoring his every move. He pictures himself being beaten and he worries that he cannot endure the pain he will betray Julia in the process.

Ampleforth is tossed into the cell. He is the poet who did not remove the word "God" in a Rudyard Kipling translation. He soon leaves the cell, only to be taken to Room 101, the most dreaded cell. He also shares the cell with Parsons who was turned in by his own children for committing thoughtcrime.

Winston desperately hopes the Brotherhood will send him a razorblade so he could commit suicide. His mind is consumed by Brotherhood thoughts when O’Brien enters his cell, and he exclaims, "They’ve got you too!" O’Brien replies, "They got me long ago." Winston confirms his fear that what O’Brien did in his home is just an operation. Just then a guard smashes Winston’s elbow and he is consumed by inexplicable pain.

Chapter 2

O'Brien oversees Winston's torture session. He makes Winston accept that he's holding his five fingers when he's actually holding only four. He continues to torture him because he says Winston's current viewpoint is insane. Winston begins to accept what O'Brien tells him. He is also beginning to love O’Brien because he doesn’t inflict him much pain.

O’Brien consoles Winston with the thought the Party already perfected what the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets, had applied years ago. He assures Winston that the Party learns to convert them while posing to be non-existent in the eyes of the people. Slowly, Winston accepts O’Brien’s version of things and learn to apply the game of doublethink – refusing to believe memories he knows are real. O’Brien offers to answer any question that he has. When Winston asks him about Julia, O’Brien tells him the girl betrayed him at once. Then Winston compares his existence to Brotherhood’s and O’Brien denies his existence. When Winston asks O’Brien things about Brotherhood, O’Brien responds that Winston will never get hold of the answer. Winston asks what exists in Room 101, O’Brien answers him that everyone knows what waits in Room 101.

Chapter 3

After weeks of interrogation, O'Brien explains to Winston the Party's motives. He is being tortured and led to believe that the Party’s only goal is absolute, endless, and limitless power. When Winston tries to deny the possibility of altering the stars or the universe, O’Brien answers that the Party can do it because they control the mind.

Winston sees himself as gray and skeletal when O’Brien hands him a mirror; he begins to weep and blames him for what he has become. O’Brien replies that Winston already knows what will happen to him since the first day he had his diary entry. Then O’Brien acknowledges Winston’s strength for not betraying Julia. Winston feels grateful to O’Brien for recognizing such strength. But then O’Brien tells Winston he will soon be cured, though it won’t really matter since they will all be shot.

Chapter 4

Winston is transferred to a more comfortable room and the torture eases. He has the luxury to dream of Julia, his mother, and O’Brien. He begins to gain some weight and was given a small slate. Winston realizes he is foolish to oppose the Party alone. He makes himself believe in the Party slogans. He writes down on a slate: “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” “TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE,” and “GOD IS POWER.”

One day, bursting with hatred, he suddenly screams Julia's name again and again. He realizes O’Brien will torture him again for the shouting but he just cannot help himself. He realizes that no matter how he tries to accept the Party, he just cannot. He will die hating Big Brother and by doing so he will have his own personal victory. O'Brien enters his room; he tells Winston that obeying Big Brother is not enough, he must learn to love him; O’Brien then orders the guards to bring Winston to Room 101.

Chapter 5

In Room 101, O'Brien ties up Winston and clamps his head. He reminds Winston that the room contains the worst thing in the world and reminds him of his worst nightmare. O’Brien informs him that the rats are on the other side of the wall. O’Brien brings out a cage with starving rats in it and places it near Winston. He says there is a lever that one press on it will bring the starving rats onto Winston’s face. Winston thinks that there is a possibility of O’Brien’s threats – with rats just inches away from him. Winston, screaming out, betrays Julia, asking O'Brien to torture her instead. O’Brien becomes satisfied with Winston’s betrayal that he immediately removes the cage.

Chapter 6

Winston, now free, sits in Chestnut Tree Cafe, the place where the dismissed Party members go. He now accepts what the Party says and does. On the table dust, he traces “2 + 2 = 5.” He remembers Julia and the things that happened between them though he now finds having sex with her detestable. They agreed to meet again but neither wants to continue the relationship. Winston remembers the political prisoners he saw many years back and he begins to cry. He also remembers the happy moments he had shared with his mother and sister but he cannot be sure if the memories are real. He looks up and when he saw the picture of Big Brother on the telescreen, he instantly feels happy and safe. As he listens to war news, he is sure that he already has achieved victory over himself and feels the overwhelming love for Big Brother.

Character Analysis

Winston Smith

Winston Smith is the protagonist of 1984. He is the character that the reader most identifies with, and the reader sees the world from his point of view. Winston is a kind of innocent in a world gone wrong, and it is through him that the reader is able to understand and feel the suffering that exists in the totalitarian society of Oceania.

Even Winston’s name is suggestive. Winston is taken from Winston Churchill, the exalted leader of wartime England, and Smith is the most common last name in the English language, thus allowing readers to see him as Orwell intended: an ordinary man who makes a valiant effort in extraordinary circumstances. A reader cannot resist identifying with Winston: He is ordinary, yet he finds the strength to try and make his circumstances better. He represents the feelings in every human being, and it is for this reason that a reader hopes that things will change. Orwell characterizes Winston as a complete, sympathetic human being, and in doing so gives the reader a stake in the outcome of the novel.

Because Winston is so real, so common, it is easy for readers to identify with him and to imagine themselves in his place. Perhaps Winston carries even more weight for today’s reader, who can imagine the possibility of a society like Winston’s, the value of technology over humanity.

Even though Winston’s life is replete with misery and pain, Orwell allows him a brief time of happiness and love. During this time, there is hope for Winston, and subsequently, hope for the future. But Orwell makes certain that there is no happy ending. Totalitarianism does not permit such an ending; Winston must be crushed. If Winston were to escape, Orwell’s agenda of showing the true nature of totalitarianism would have been lost.

Readers identify so closely with Winston because he has individuality and undying self-determination. Winston embodies the values of a civilized society: democracy, peace, freedom, love, and decency. When Winston is destroyed, these things are destroyed with him, and so goes the reader’s faith that these values are undying and a natural part of being human. Winston represents the struggle between good and bad forces, and there is no mistaking where the lines are drawn.

Ultimately, Winston loses his spirit and his humanity, the two characteristics that he fought so hard to keep. Orwell insists that Winston’s fate could happen to anyone, and it is for this reason that Orwell destroys Winston in the end, so that the reader may understand Orwell’s warning and see that the society of 1984 never come to pass.

Julia

Julia is Winston’s love-interest and his ally in the struggle against Big Brother. She represents the elements of humanity that Winston does not: pure sexuality, cunning, and survival. While Winston simply manages to survive, Julia is a true survivalist, using any means necessary to conduct her self-centered rebellion. Her demeanor is that of a zealous Party follower, but just under that thin surface is an individual with unchecked human desires and a willful spirit, which ultimately results in her capture.

While Winston enjoys sex and intimacy, Julia is an outwardly sexual being and sleeps with Party members regularly—at least before she meets Winston. She does not do this to destroy the Party but to quench her own desires, and that is the fundamental difference between Winston and Julia. His rebellion is as much for future generations as it is for himself; her rebellion is purely incidental to her own desires.

Julia is far more intuitive and realistic than Winston. She understands the Party better than he does and is more cunning in the ways that she defies Party doctrine. While Winston is emotional about the Party and its potential downfall, Julia feels his wishes are merely fantasy and is apathetic to the Party’s dogma. She busies herself with getting around the Party, unlike Winston, who wishes to attack the Party at its center.

Julia uses sex to attack the Party, but it is far less effective a weapon than love. When Julia and Winston fall in love, they commit the ultimate offense against the Party. Note that the couple was caught at their happiest moment, the moment where they let down their guard and felt like an ordinary couple. Both had been watched for years and could have been captured at any time. But not until their love was strong did the Party intervene. Separating the couple diminishes their effectiveness: As individuals they do not understand the party wholly, nor are they capable of resistance.

Superficially, Julia seems like an uncomplicated character. She functions as a sounding board for Winston, but she is far more complicated than that. Winston has real antipathy toward women resulting from the Party’s indoctrination and from its stringent sexual codes. Winston can remember a time when affection was shown for affection’s sake and is angry at women for what the Party has done to them. Julia does not follow these strict sexual codes and, in fact, breaks them at every opportunity. She shows Winston, who once imagined raping and killing her, that the Party cannot get to the most intimate places in a human being’s mind; she is his proof that the feelings that he has been having are valid. Julia gives Winston hope, and it is the continuation of this hope that gets them both destroyed.

O’Brien

O’Brien is a prominent leader in the Inner Party, although his official title is not clear. He seems to be close to Big Brother and may even be part of a collective that makes up Big Brother. O’Brien seems to be a co-conspirator and friend to Winston until the third part of the novel, when he is revealed as a zealous Party leader who had been closely watching Winston for years.

O’Brien represents the Party and all of its contradictions and cruelty. He functions largely to bring the reader into the inner chambers of the Party so that its mechanisms can be revealed. Without O’Brien, the Party would be as mysterious to the reader as it is to Winston and Julia.

While Winston is characterized as an individual, a small man in a large society, O’Brien is bigger than life and remains so throughout the novel. This effect is partly a result of his mysteriousness and partly because the novel hinges on O’Brien’s “turnabout” actions; if he were given more time on the page, his true nature would have been revealed too soon.

O’Brien is not only duplicitous in nature, but he also seems to be able to employ doublethink very well. Whether or not he truly believes contradictory notions simultaneously, he is determined to teach Winston to do so. There is no evidence to sustain the idea that O’Brien truly believes in the concepts that he forces upon Winston beyond his statement to Winston in the Ministry of Love that the Party had gotten him (O’Brien) long ago.

This statement illustrates a consciousness that would be dangerous for an Outer Party member to have, so it is possible that O’Brien shares the same consciousness as Winston, but because of his status in the Party, has no reason to want society to change. He is not the individual being tortured, though he would have Winston and the reader believe that the “rehabilitation” once happened to him as well.

O’Brien is often seen as a father figure and a friend to Winston. O’Brien is trying, through torture, to make Winston “perfect,” to “save” him. If Winston would simply embrace the Party’s doctrine, he would be “clean.” But it is not really Winston that O’Brien and the Party want to change; the Party wants to purify all thought, believing that one stray thought has the potential to corrupt the Party.

The character of O’Brien is not so different from many of the contemporary leaders of the 20th century. For example, Hitler and Stalin used this kind of torture to keep their power and did it in the name of “purity.” O’Brien represents these leaders and others, who use cruelty and torture as their primary method of control.

Big Brother/Emmanuel Goldstein

Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein are the conceptual leaders of the opposing forces in Oceania: Big Brother is the titular head of Oceania, and Goldstein is the leader of his opponents, the Brotherhood. They are similar in that Orwell does not make clear whether they actually exist.

Using doublethink, O’Brien tells Winston that Big Brother does and does not exist. Big Brother does exist as the embodiment of the Party, but he can never die. O’Brien will not tell Winston whether Goldstein and the Brotherhood exists, but it is likely that both are merely Party propaganda; the fact that O’Brien claims to have written Goldstein’s book is a good indication of this.

Big Brother is aptly named for his position in Oceania—a name of trust, protection, and affection—another example of doublethink. Big Brother, or, the Party, is as unlike a benevolent big brother as Hitler or Stalin. Orwell gave Emmanuel Goldstein a traditionally Jewish name that is suggestive of the power structure in World War II. Noteworthy is that Emmanuel literally means “God.”

It makes no difference in Winston’s life whether these two forces exist. Winston’s fate is sealed, as is the fate of the society in which he lives, regardless of their existence. Big Brother and Goldstein exist in effect, and that is the only thing that matters to Winston. Orwell intended for these figures to represent totalitarian power structures; in essence, they are both the same. O’Brien, in his incarnation as a Brotherhood leader, asks Winston and Julia if they are willing to commit atrocities against the Party, many of which are no better that the atrocities that the Party commits against its people. Political extremism, as Orwell shows, is not positive under any name.

Interesting Quotes

Quote 1: "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 3

Quote 2: "WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 6

Quote 3: "A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic." Part 1, Chapter 1, pg. 16

Quote 4: "one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended." Part 1, Chapter 2, pg. 23

Quote 5: "We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." Part 1, Chapter 2, pg. 27

Quote 6: "The past was dead, the future was unimaginable." Part 1, Chapter 2, pg. 28

Quote 7: "With its grace and carelessness it seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm." Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 33

Quote 8: "'Who controls the past', ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'" Part 1, Chapter 3, pg. 37

Quote 9: "Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar." Part 1, Chapter 4, pg. 50

Quote 10: "Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 64

Quote 11: "She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 67

Quote 12: "Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 69

Quote 13: "They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 71

Quote 14: "If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 72

Quote 15: "Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 74

Quote 16: "a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting - three hundred million people all with the same face." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 77

Quote 17: "Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 84

Quote 18: "It seemed to him that he knew exactly what it felt like to sit in a room like this, in an armchair beside an open fire with your feet in the fender and a kettle on the hob: utterly alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sound except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock." Part 1, Chapter 8, pg. 100

Quote 19: "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St Martin's." Part 1, Chapter 8, pg. 103

Quote 20: "At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid." Part 2, Chapter 1, pg. 110-11

Quote 21: "by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind. It was as though it were a kind of liquid stuff that poured all over him and got mixed up with the sunlight that filtered through the leaves." Part 2, Chapter 2, pg. 125

Quote 22: "Not merely the love of one person, but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces." Part 2, Chapter 2, pg. 127

Quote 23: "to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under the impression that they were buying something illegal." Part 2, Chapter 3, pg. 132

Quote 24: "What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leader worship." Part 2, Chapter 3, pg. 134

Quote 25: "She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse. 'We are the dead,' he said." Part 2, Chapter 3, pg. 137

Quote 26: "The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all around him. She had become a physical necessity." Part 2, Chapter 4, pg. 140

Quote 27: "The proles, normally apathetic about the war, were being lashed into one of their periodical frenzies of patriotism." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 150

Quote 28: "So long as they were actually in this room, they both felt, no harm could come to them." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 152

Quote 29: "Even the one plan that was practicable, suicide, they had no intention of carrying out. To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one's lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 153

Quote 30: "she only questioned the teachings of the Party when they in some way touched upon her own life. Often she was ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to her." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 154

Quote 31: "He had the sensation of stepping into the dampness of a grave, and it was not much better because he had always known that the grave was there and waiting for him." Part 2, Chapter 6, pg. 160

Quote 32: "He knew that he was starving the other two, but he could not help it; he even felt that he had a right to do it. The clamorous hunger in his belly seemed to justify him." Part 2, Chapter 7, pg. 163

Quote 33: "The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world." Part 2, Chapter 7, pg. 165

Quote 34: "It's the one thing they can't do. They can make you say anything - anything - but they can't make you believe it. They can't get inside you." Part 2, Chapter 7, pg. 167

Quote 35: "You will work for a while, you will be caught, you will confess, and then you will die... There is no possibility that any perceptible change will happen within our own lifetime. We are the dead." Part 2, Chapter 8, pg. 177

Quote 36: "The primary aim of modern warfare Part 1n accordance with the principles of doublethink, this aim is simultaneously recognized and not recognized by the directing brains of the Inner Party is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 189

Quote 37: "If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 190

Quote 38: "the consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 192

Quote 39: "a mixture of psychologist and inquisitor, studying with extraordinary minuteness the meaning of facial expressions, gestures and tones of voice, and testing the truth-producing effects of drugs, shock therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 194

Quote 40: "It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 201

Quote 41: "Even the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was tolerant by modern standards. Part of the reason for this was that in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and the film and the radio carried the process further. With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 206-7

Quote 42: "the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty." Part 2, Chapter 9, pg. 215

Quote 43: "everywhere stood the same solid unconquerable figure, made monstrous by work and childbearing, toiling from birth to death and still singing." Part 2, Chapter 10, pg. 222

Quote 44: "It was more natural to exist from moment to moment, accepting another ten minutes' life even with the certainty that there was torture at the end of it." Part 3, Chapter 1, pg. 232

Quote 45: "There were times when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the guards continued to beat him but that he could not force himself into losing consciousness." Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 244

Quote 46: "The old feeling, that at bottom it did not matter whether O'Brien was a friend or an enemy, had come back. O'Brien was a person who could be talked to... O'Brien had tortured him to the edge of lunacy, and in a little while, it was certain, he would send him to his death. It made no difference." Part 3, Chapter 2, pg.255-6

Quote 47: "There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean." Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 259

Quote 48: "We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the skull." Part 3, Chapter 3, pg. 268

Quote 49: "'Do you remember writing in your diary,' he said, 'that it did not matter whether I was a friend or an enemy, since I was at least a person who understood you and could be talked to? You were right. I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane.'" Part 3, Chapter 2, pg. 271

Quote 50: "It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it. Nothing had changed except your own attitude; the predestined thing happened in any case." Part 3, Chapter 4, pg. 280

Quote 51: "For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself." Part 3, Chapter 4, pg. 283

Quote 52: "Do it to Julia! 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!" Part 3, Chapter 5, pg. 289

Quote 53: "There were things, your own acts, from which you could not recover. Something was killed in your breast; burnt out, cauterized out." Part 3, Chapter 6, pg. 293

Quote 54: "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." Part 3, Chapter 6, pg. 300

Quote 55: "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible." Appendix, pg. 303