Charaters

Winston Smith—He is the protagonist of the story. He is middle aged and in an unkempt state with a big ulcer on his leg. He is skinny and weak since he doesn’t get enough to eat. Winston is rebellious against the party internally but on the outside he is a loyal member. He is rebellious enough to test the powers of the party because he has hope that he can beat the system. Also his personality lets the reader into his world and how everything works. He explains things about the party through his eyes. From the beginning he foreshadows his capture. So it is his knowing of his capture that leads him to rebel further since he thinks of himself as a dead man. He also under estimates the power of the party and thinks that even if he is captured they won’t be able the change how he feels about certain things like his love for Julia. The party does however change him in the end and Winston is changed from being someone to being a cell in an organism which will never die in other words the party.

Julia—she is another rebel against the party much like Winston. She however has different views on the party and what it meant to rebel. She likes to live in the moment and not worry about the larger issues like what the future holds for mankind. Julia sees rebelling as private acts in which see doesn’t want to get caught. She lives her life on temporary highs and wants to keep it that way. The main thing that keeps her with Winston is their hate for the party and the sex. Aside from that they don’t have much else in common which is why maybe she betrayed him before he betrayed her. She thinks that the party will stay in power and that they can’t be defeated on a large scale. That is why she only rebels ona small scale.

O’Brian—He is an inner party member who betrays Winston. He is an example of double-think because he is Winston’s enemy and friend for some time in the story. Through him the audience of the book is able to see the inner party and its functions. Through him we learn how inner party members live and operate. By some of his actions it raises some questions about him and the story, like when O’Brian tells Winston that the party got him a long time ago. Does this mean that he was once rebellious like Winston and was tortured extensively and brain washed until he became true party member? Or that maybe he is sympathetic towards Winston to gain some trust and toy with him?

Emmanuel Goldstein—He is an enemy of the party which we don’t actually meet. Some think that he is a party invention along with others that are used to keep the people in line. It it’s something that the two lower classes can direct their anger and frustration at. He is also supposedly the leader of the Brotherhood and whatever else the party accuses him of. His is also that at times Winston looks up to as a rebel.

Big Brother—Another character that the reader doesn’t actually meet. He is the leader of the party and looked upon as a godly. He represents the party and his image is often used for propaganda. He is too an example of double-think since he is a leader but at the same time he is fictional to the main characters in the story.

Parsons—They are Winston’s neighbors and Mr. Parsons is his co-worker. They are an example of the supposedly middle class even though the live in inadequate conditions. Mr. Parsons is eventually caught for thought crime and ends up with Winston in the ministry of Love. His daughter hears him down talking big brother in his sleep so she reports him. This is an example of what sometimes happened in World War II in parts of Europe. Kids were often brain washed to spies on their parents and report them if they broke the law or committed act of treason.

Syme—He is an example to the reader of what happens when you get too smart within the party. He was really smart since he was working on the New Speak dictionary and Winston recognizes this and knows that he will eventually be vaporized. This is done to keep the people dumb so that they don’t realize what is going on and rebel on a large scale against the party.

Mr. Charrington—He is the person that owns the shop with all the antiques. He also owns the room above the shop where Winston and Julia meet. He is a spy working for the thought police and eventually helps with the capture of Winston and Julia. This is also related with World War II where people would help others by hiding them only to turn them into the authorities later.

Context

George Orwell’s real name is Eric Blair. Orwell was just a pen name he used and eventually just stuck. He was born in India in 1903 and later moved to England. During his education he considered himself an outsider. He was not poor but still struggled throughout his life. He felt as an outsider because in school he was there because of scholarships while other student’s parents could afford to pay for them. After his education he went out and lives with the lower classes for some time and wrote books about what he saw. In the mid 1930’s he went to Spain and observed the Spanish Civil War. In 1945 he wrote a book called Animal Farm which was his view on totalitarianism and politics. After that book in 1949 he wrote yet another novel 1984. Some saw this book a warning towards political authority in a nation. The book was based on what he observed in the lower classes, and in Spain during the war. He also got the idea for big brother form some of the evil leaders of the world which were in power at the time like Stalin or Hitler.

Settting

The setting that Orwell gives for this book is depressing and gray. It is set in what was considered future day London 1984 or as Winston refers to it Air Strip One. The world is also divided up into three super nations, Oceana where Winston lives, Eastasia and Eurasia. Winston lives in Victory Mansions which is a rundown apartment complex. We also learn that where ever Winston goes or anyone else for that matter they are monitored by things called telescreens. It allows for citizens to be view and recorded. Along with the telescreens being everywhere there are posters of Big Brother on almost every building. Under them is the famous caption “Big Brother Is Watching You”. Every so often rocket bombs from an enemy blow up. They keep the war real and at home for the people in the city. It could be best related to what an eastern European county might have been like during World War II. The setting is depressing because Orwell based it on some personal experience and his perspective on the time period. He makes the world be at war or seem that every place on earth in a similar state so that Winston can’t escape. This allows for the story to play out differently and with a different effect.

Synopsis

Winston is the main character who lives in a city called Air Strip One. This resides in one of three residing nations Oceana the other two are Eastasia and Eruasia. All three nations are at war with each other. The description that Winston gives of this world is cold, gray, hopeless and dark. The people that he works with at the ministry of truth are inhuman. The people in control are known as party members. The inner party members are like the government and the proles are the third class. He himself is an outer party member which is like the middle class. The party has various inventions that it uses to keep people in like. An example is Emmanuel Goldstein or double-think. Winston finds an empty Journal in a junk shop that he begins to write in. This is illegal since the party would consider it thought crim. Winston delays his punishment by doing it secretly in a part of his house that the telescreen can’t see. At his job Winston rewrites history to suit the party. One day Winston’s gaze meets with O’Brian an inner party member and fell that perhaps he too is against the party. After he gets a not from the girl that he thinks is with the thought police. It says that she loves him and it throws Winston off for a bit. We find out that her name is Julia and the two meet in various place like out in the country, in an old church and mainly in the room above the junk chop. As the story continues Winston rents the room and his feelings for Julia becomes love. This is when Winston gets a book from O’Brian and is initiated along with Julia into the Brotherhood. It is an underground organization that wants to overthrow the party. It works much like terrorist cells where each person only knows so much of the whole puzzle. Winston reads the book with Julia but find that it contains that about the party which he already knows. Julia and Winston are the captured in the room above the shop. There was a hidden telescreen behind a portrait which the party used to monitor them. We don’t know exactly what happens to Julia but the reader can only assume that she was taken to a different part of the ministry of love. This I like a correctional facility for dysfunctional party members. There Winston meets O’Brian again but it turns out he was a party member all along and had been watching Winston for some time. Here Winston is tortured and broke down both mentally and physically. There are three stages to Winston’s treatment and after he has completed the first three he moves on to the third. The last stage is room 101 where he is forced to betray Julia by being confronted with is deepest fear which is rats. After this Winston is let back into society not as himself but as a true party member. When he meets Julia again on the outside he no longer feels anything for her. She also doesn’t feel for him and they continue about their lives now fully accepting the party and Big Brother.

Analysis of Themes

The slogan of the Party is explained in the pages between 152 and page 179 of chapter 9. Winston is given a book on oligarchical collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein after Winston's meeting with O'brien. The parts of "Ignorance is Strength" and "War is Peace" are explained in chapter 9 while "Freedom is Slavery" is explained by O'brien later in the book.

"War is Peace" is a way to explain the economic stability of Oceania. As one of three powers, Oceania's industry produces so much of everything that it can produce a surplus. To counter this, Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia are at constant war in order to use up the surplus. As the book explains, the war is not meant to be won, it's endless so that the surplus is used and economic stability is achieved.

"Ignorance is Strength" is the means by which the Inner Party keeps a hold of their status. In history, there is always a lower class (the proletariats), a middle class (Outer Party), and an upper class (Inner Party). The lower class is the one that usually causes the revolt with some middle class members in tow. The reason for the upper class' fall is either because of their incompetence or the lower and middle class thinking in a political manner that leads them to revolt against their tyrannical rulers. By learning, they gain the intelligence necessary to overthrow tyranny, but by keeping them ignorant and having a hold on all education no one would bother rising up due to the futility or the lower classes being satisfied.

"Freedom is Slavery" is explained by O'brien as how the people are seen as a whole. The individual is just one person who will eventually die, but the entire community is a being in itself that will never die as it always gives birth to new members. Furthermore, if everyone's minds have the some ideas and by having people give up their freedom of thought, everyone will have one-like-mind and the people will only think of Big Brother as if they were all one working entity and will be immortal.

Symbols

The Paper Weight

In itself, the paperweight is a symbol of the past and a time that was different. You wouldn't find any coral in that regime so it's a rare find. It represents how Winston could break away from the control and think on his own. It could also symbolize Julia where you've got a delicate thing surrounded by glass in a way that Julia and Winston set up their love and protected themselves.

Important Quotes

"Big Brother is Watching You"

This one is pretty much self-explanatory as Big Brother has telescreens and microphone meant to keep an eye on you at all times. This the Inner Party and Big Brother can keep surveillance on everything everyone is doing.

"We are the Dead" pg 182

After reading Goldstein's book, Winston knows that his generation and class will never be able to rise up. The people who will are the proletariats of another generation, and even then Winston and Julia will be long dead. A revolt will never happen in their life-time so they are stuck in this regime.