STO.

DOMINGO INSTITUTE
STO. DOMINGO NABUA CAMARINES SUR
S/Y 2018-2018

NOVEL
ANALYSIS
OF

1984
SUBMITTED BY:

SUBMITTED TO:

Ms. Joana Marie G. Cedron Franziene A. Bacsain

9-COURAGE
Title:
Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English writer George Orwell
published in June 1949.[2][3] The novel is set in the year 1984 when most of the world population have
become victims of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and propaganda.
Author:
George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950),[1] better known by his pen name George Orwell,
was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, whose work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of
social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.[2][3]
Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the
allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). His non-
fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working class
life in the north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences on the
Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, are widely acclaimed, as are his essays on politics, literature,
language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers
since 1945".[4]

Settings:
In 1984, both the setting and the time are important because they complement the novel's key themes and
help Orwell to develop his message.
The setting, for example, is in the future, though not far away from the time of publication in 1948.
England has experienced a revolution and transformed into Oceania, one of three superpowers in the
world. The living conditions in Oceania are generally squalid, as we learn in Orwell's description of
Winston's apartment block in the opening chapter:
The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats...It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of
times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours.
The use of irony here is striking: Victory Mansions is neither victorious nor like a mansion. In contrast, it
is oppressive and depressing and, therefore, is symbolic of life under the Party. Inner Party members, like
O'Brien, however, live in relative luxury and comfort. O'Brien drinks wine, has a servant and is able to
turn off his telescreen whenever he wishes. This sharp contrast highlights the inequality which is
prevalent in Oceania and supports Goldstein's belief that the Party uses poverty to keep people in a state
of submission.
In addition, Orwell uses the concept of time to develop Winston's sense of rebellion. Winston can
remember, for instance, snippets of life before the Party came to power and, in Part One, Chapter Eight,
he speaks with an old prole man in a pub in the hope that he can gain a better insight into the past. For
Winston, then, the past represents a sense of freedom which he wants to recapture. Similarly, Winston
develops a concept of the future which is filled with hope and optimism because he believes that the
proles will eventually realise their oppression and will overthrow the Party. The problem is that Winston
is stuck in the present and must overcome the Thought Police if he is ever to realise his dreams of
freedom.

Characters:
 Winston Smith - A minor member of the ruling Party in near-future London, Winston Smith is a
thin, frail, contemplative, intellectual, and fatalistic thirty-nine-year-old. Winston hates the totalitarian
control and enforced repression that are characteristic of his government. He harbors revolutionary
dreams.
 Julia - Winston’s lover, a beautiful dark-haired girl working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry
of Truth. Julia enjoys sex, and claims to have had affairs with many Party members. Julia is
pragmatic and optimistic. Her rebellion against the Party is small and personal, for her own
enjoyment, in contrast to Winston’s ideological motivation.
 O’Brien - A mysterious, powerful, and sophisticated member of the Inner Party whom Winston
believes is also a member of the Brotherhood, the legendary group of anti-Party rebels.
 Big Brother - Though he never appears in the novel, and though he may not actually exist, Big
Brother, the perceived ruler of Oceania, is an extremely important figure. Everywhere Winston looks
he sees posters of Big Brother’s face bearing the message “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.”
Big Brother’s image is stamped on coins and broadcast on the unavoidable telescreens; it haunts
Winston’s life and fills him with hatred and fascination.
 Mr. Charrington - An old man who runs a secondhand store in the prole district. Kindly and
encouraging, Mr. Charrington seems to share Winston’s interest in the past. He also seems to support
Winston’s rebellion against the Party and his relationship with Julia, since he rents Winston a room
without a telescreen in which to carry out his affair. But Mr. Charrington is not as he seems. He is a
member of the Thought Police.
 Syme - An intelligent, outgoing man who works with Winston at the Ministry of Truth. Syme
specializes in language. As the novel opens, he is working on a new edition of the Newspeak
dictionary. Winston believes Syme is too intelligent to stay in the Party’s favor.
 Parsons - A fat, obnoxious, and dull Party member who lives near Winston and works at the Ministry
of Truth. He has a dull wife and a group of suspicious, ill-mannered children who are members of the
Junior Spies.
 Emmanuel Goldstein - Another figure who exerts an influence on the novel without ever appearing
in it. According to the Party, Goldstein is the legendary leader of the Brotherhood. He seems to have
been a Party leader who fell out of favor with the regime. In any case, the Party describes him as the
most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania.

Plot Analysis:
1984 follows a three-part linear narrative structure that enables the reader to experience Winston’s
dehumanization along with him, creating tension and sympathy for the main characters. Time in 1984
generally proceeds in a linear fashion, except for a few flashbacks to Winston’s career at the Ministry of
Truth, his disastrous marriage, and his early life with his mother and sister, memories sparked by events
taking place in his present. In the novel’s early exposition, we immediately learn that we’re in a world
where normal rules don’t apply: “It was a cold day in April, and clocks were striking thirteen.” We learn
about the existence of Big Brother, meet the protagonist Winston Smith, and see glimpses of the society
he lives in. Through details such as the smell of the building and the electricity that has been rationed in
preparation for Hate Week, we learn that the book takes place in a repressive society with few creature
comforts. The initiating incident that sets the plot in motion occurs when Winston begins to write his
subversive thoughts in his diary. He begins to think of himself as “already dead,” suggesting he has
abandoned the impulse for self-preservation, and his life has little value to him, making him ready to
sacrifice it to a cause.

Conflict:
The central conflict of the novel 1984 is Man vs. Society, which is represented by Winston Smith vs. the
Party (Big Brother). In the dystopian nation of Oceania, individualism is virtually extinct, and the Party
controls every aspect of society. The citizens are under constant surveillance and suffer under the
oppressive regime. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles to maintain his individuality under the
watchful eye of Big Brother and even attempts to undermine the Party by joining the Brotherhood.
Winston is completely opposed to every aspect of society and takes enormous risks, which eventually
result in his arrest and torture.
One minor conflict that is presented throughout the novel and highlights the major conflict of Man vs.
Society is Man vs. Self. In the novel, Winston struggles with the decision to remain alive in the dystopian
nation or rebel against the Party. Winston fears being tortured and is fully aware that he is risking his life.
However, Winston is inherently motivated to oppose Big Brother regardless of the consequences.
Winston's desire to remain human and exercise independence conflicts with his will to survive. The
conflict between Truth vs. Propaganda also emphasizes the central conflict of the novel. Mutability of the
past and the overwhelming state-sanctioned propaganda disguise the truth, which makes Winston
continually question his approach to rebelling against Big Brother. Winston desperately searches for
concrete evidence to prove that life was better before the Revolution but cannot attain accurate historical
records. Overall, the central conflict of the novel is Man vs. Society and the minor conflicts highlight
Winston's struggles against Big Brother to warn readers about the dangers of totalitarianism.

Point of View:
1984 uses a third-person limited, or close third-person point of view to show the reader both the internal
and external experience of living under a totalitarian government. In the novel, we have access to Winston
Smith’s thoughts and memories, but no other character’s. Because Orwell uses third-person (referring to
Winston as “he”) rather than first-person (referring to Winston as “I”), the narrative simultaneously
describes Winston’s thoughts and feelings while commenting on them. For example, Winston thinks
about the proles and realizes that they have “stayed human,” then recalls, “without apparent relevance,”
kicking a human hand into the gutter a few weeks earlier. The relevance is not apparent to Winston, but
Orwell uses the third-person point of view to alert the reader that there is in fact a connection: unlike the
proles, Winston has lost much of his humanity. Orwell gives the reader a sense of understanding
Winston’s psychology better than he himself does. While Winston questions his memories and
motivations, the reader clearly sees that his gradual dehumanization is the result of an ongoing,
systemized program to rob citizens of their individuality and free will.

Themes:
Totalitarianism
In writing 1984, Orwell's main goal was to warn of the serious danger totalitarianism poses to society. He
goes to great lengths to demonstrate the terrifying degree of power and control a totalitarian regime can
acquire and maintain. In such regimes, notions of personal rights and freedoms and individual thought are
pulverized under the all-powerful hand of the government. Orwell was a Socialist and believed strongly in
the potential for rebellion to advance society, yet too often he witnessed such rebellions go wrong and
develop into totalitarian rule.
Propaganda
A major factor in the Party's rule over Oceania lies in its extremely well organized and effective
propaganda machine. The Ministry of Truth, which is ironically where Winston works, is responsible for
disseminating all Party publications and information. All figures and facts come from the Ministry of
Truth, and all are dictated by the Party. In other words, the Party chooses exactly what to tell the public,
regardless of what is accurate.
Love/Sexuality
The Party works to quell all physical sensations of love, and depersonalizes sex to the point where it is
referred to as a "duty to the Party" (for the purposes of procreation). Some Party organizations even
advocate complete abstinence and procreation only through artificial insemination. Winston suffers the
Party's removal of personal fulfillment or enjoyment in relationships in his failed marriage with
Katharine. Later, when he finds Julia, Winston relishes the freedom of being able to love someone in a
physical and emotional way. So much of Winston's seeming rebellion turns out to be guided and
influenced by the Party (Mr. Charrington, O'Brien, the Brotherhood), but his relationship with Julia is not.
Winston is only able to rebel against the Party through his affair with Julia, even though this love is
destroyed in the end.
Independence/Identity
Through its effective psychological manipulation tactics, the Party destroys all sense of independence and
individuality. Everyone wears the same clothes, eats the same food, and lives in the same grungy
apartments. Life is uniform and orderly. No one can stand out, and no one can be unique. To have an
independent thought borders on the criminal. For this reason, writing such as Winston does in his diary
has been outlawed. People are only permitted to think what the Party tells them to think, which leads to
what Syme refers to as "duckspeak." Independent thought can be dangerous, as it might lead to rebellion.
Music
Songs appear throughout the novel, most often when Winston is reflecting on the state of the world.
Music appears to inspire Winston and allows him to see beauty and simplicity in an otherwise violent,
ugly, and frightening world. He sees a powerful sense of tragedy in "Under the spreading Chestnut Tree,"
hope for a brighter future in the beautiful thrush song, respect for the true, untouchable past in the "St.
Clement's Dane" rhyme, and freedom and hope in the passion with which the prole woman sings while
hanging her laundry.
Loyalty
The Party is fueled by loyalty, and thus demands that its citizens support any and all actions it takes in
pursuing a greater Oceania. For the Party, loyalty means accepting without question or hesitation.
Ironically, when Winston pledges his loyalty to the Brotherhood, he also agrees to accept the goals and
requirements of the Brotherhood without question or hesitation. Winston agrees to do anything the
Brotherhood requires, even if that means murdering innocents.
Poverty vs. Wealth
Oceanian society presents a clear dichotomy in living conditions. The small Inner Party lives luxuriously,
with servants and lush, well-furnished apartments. Party members, on the other hand, live in run-down
single-room apartments with no amenities and low-quality, tasteless food. The proles live in absolute
poverty. The chasm between poverty and wealth in the novel is striking, and is most noticeable during
Winston's forays into prole society.
Technology
As previously noted, technology is an extremely important tool that the Party uses to maintain control
over its citizens. Without telescreens, the Thought Police would not be nearly as effective, and
propaganda would not be so widespread.