The dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is set in a relatively near time - the novel having been written in 1948

and published in 1949. In 1984 the world is divided into three great powers - Oceania, astasia and urasia -who alternately !ight each other all the time. Oceania includes the two "mericas, the #ritish Isles and "ustralia. $inston %mith, the main protagonist lives in &ondon, a degraded city in what is called "irstrip One, that is the #ritish Isles, under a !orm o! government called I'(%O), that is nglish %ocialism. There is only one party in power, its leader being #ig #rother. &i!e in Oceania is regulated by special rituals that continually inter!ere with people*s privacy. +eople must coe,ist with the telescreen which spies their single gestures and !acial e,pressions- they must do gymnastics - called . +hysical /er0s. - whenever the order is given through telescreen- they must listen to the numerous speeches that #ig #rother gives in order to soothe, !righten or encourage them. #ut by !ar the most signi!icant ritual is the .Two 1inutes 2ate. which is meant to prevent people*s deviations !rom political orthodo,y by canali3ing their anger and !rustrations towards either an imaginary or a real enemy, the target o! the Two 1inutes 2ate. The ever-present target is mmanuel (oldstein, an e, party leader who is accused o! being engaged in .counterrevolutionary. activities and who has mysteriously disappeared. The present and momentary enemy is represented by urasia against which Oceania is waging a war when it is not engaged in a war against astasia. &iving in the &ondon o! 'ineteen ighty-4our is s5ualid and uncom!ortable, to say the least. 4ood is scanty and poorly coo0ed- even the most elementary needs cannot be satis!ied -soap is a rarity, most people*s clothes are torn and outworn, cigarettes and ra3or blades are assigned in insu!!icient rations, etc. #ut li!e can be even worse than that. +eople are obsessed at the possibility o! being accused o! treason, o! thoughtcrime even thin0ing in a slightly di!!erent way !rom the o!!icial truth o! the +arty is a crime -, o! being secret supporters o! (oldstein. 'or is !amily li!e more rela,ed because children are taught to spy and denounce even their parents and relatives to the all-power!ul Thought +olice. #esides conditioning people and children to an acritical and !anatical loyalty to the +arty, and besides controlling the present by conditioning their lives and thoughts, the +arty controls also the past. The 1inistry o! Truth - an ironic name !or the place o! all !orgeries - provides that news, events, boo0s belonging to the past should be consistent with the present news and events. Tor e,ample, when Oceania is at war with urasia all news concerning the previous peace!ul relationships between the two countries are erased6 no trace o! the past must e,ist because the only truth is the truth imposed in the present moment. .$ho controls the past, controls the !uture6 who controls the present controls the past.. This +arty slogan ma0es it necessary !or hundreds o! +arty members to wor0 in the 1inistry o! Truth in order to manipulate the undesirable in!ormation in con!ormity with the orders the +arty. %uch a wor0 is called .7eality )ontrol.. $inston*s wor0 consists in re-writing articles, history boo0s, even #ig #rother*s previous speeches when they are no longer in accordance with the present situation. Other people wor0ing in the 1inistry o! Truth are, at the same time, busy reducing 8ld spea0, i.e. standard nglish, into 'ewspea0, i.e. a language that ma0es .doublethin0. possible. .9oublethin0. stands !or the +arty*s possibility to use the language to mean one thing and at the same time its opposite. $inston*s loyalty to the party is rather lu0ewarm and his attention is 0een on detecting in other people that critical attitude that he cannot avoid having towards the orthodo,y re5uested by the +arty. 2e thin0s he has !ound a companion mind in O* #rien a member o! the Inner +arty, who seems to encourage him and lets him imagine the possibility o! a plot against #ig #rother. "nother person, /ulia, a girl $inston !alls in love with, gives new vitality to his hopes !or a change in Oceania. $ith her he shares a passionate love story, :ust the 0ind o! e,perience that the +arty condemns, not !or puritanical reasons but because any passion can divert men and women !rom their duties as submissive and resigned sub:ects. #ut everything turns into $inston*s !inal de!eat. #etrayed by O*#rien, who is a member o! the Thought +olice, $inston and /ulia are imprisoned in the 1inistry o! hove and tortured to the point o! not only con!essing their treason but o! becoming convinced that what the +arty states is the only truth. Nineteen Eighty-Four presents the structure of the utopian or dystopian novel in a slightly modified version. Unlike Huxley's Brave New World the visitor/traveller does not come from the outside; he is a witness. Winston lives in London !irstrip "ne "ceania and has always lived there. #et he is criticai of the state of things there. $ircumstances will make him gradually more convinced of the necessity of re%elling %ut he is finally crushed %y &ower and left with no more hopes and future. 'herefore he is another (defeated( hero like the )avage of Brave New World, %ut unlike this

1984

latter he will know the a%*ection of accepting everything he has fought against. Winston' s (trip( is purposeless and has no positive conse+uences either in the pre,sent or in the future. !s "'-rien says to him while torturing him (.f you want a picture of the future imagine a %oot stamping on a human face , for ever. ( !nd he adds the words that condemn even the most dedicated %eliever to despair (/othing will remain of you not a name in a register not a memory in a living %rain. #ou will %e annihilated in the past as well as in the future. #ou will never have existed.( 'he intellectual mechanism that sets the story in motion is not the mistrust in science and the extremes to which it can %e employed %ut the fear , and indeed the experience , of uncontrolled political power. )ignificantly Nineteen EightyFour was written in the years immediately following the )panish $ivil War and World War .. i.e. it was written in 0123 when the /a4i and 5ascist dictatorships had *ust %een defeated %ut others still prospered like )talin's whose worst crimes had not yet %een fully revealed. !s in all Utopian or dystopian novels it is actually the present not the future that the author has in mind when he envisions his fictional world. "rwell creates a world dominated %y a single party and %y the figure of -ig -rother no matter whether he is a really existing man or a permanent and ever,present menace. 'he 6urope of the 'hirties and of the 5orties had produced dictatorships almost everywhere. 7ust think of 5ranco in )pain )ala4ar in &ortugal 8ussolini in .taly Hitler in 9ermany )talin in the )oviet Union plus other minor dictators. With such models in mind "rwell created -ig -rother as a not impro%a%le character and has made him convincingly true to life %y attri%uting to his party the notorious techni+ues that have always %een adopted %y all dictatorships: diverting people's attention to imaginary enemies ;9oldstein in the 'wo 8inutes Hate<; waging war against external powers ;6urasia or 6astasia in turn<; conditioning people %y means of an unrelenting propaganda ;the ever,lecturing telescreens<; destroying individual life and feelings ;sex is admitted only for procreation not as an act of love<; killing or humiliating political adversaries to prevent all opposition ;the 8inistry of Love<. 'he vision that comes out of this scenario is one of moral and material s+ualor of resignation for the ma*ority of people and of ruin and death for the committed few. 'he fact that such a perspective has luckily lost some of its actuality at least in most 6uropean countries does not allow us to neglect possi%le developments in the future or in other countries. 'his makes "rwell's desolate world of Nineteen Eighty-four still credi%le and dis+uieting over fifty years and more after its pu%lication. 'hemes The Political Theme 'he novel enacts the useless re%ellion of the individual , Winston )mith , against the power of the &arty. .n "'-rien's words (the &arty seeks power for its own sake( and (&ower is not a means; it is an end.( !gainst this power Winston , (the last li%eral( or (the last humanist( as "'-rien contemptuously calls him , can do nothing. /ot only does &ower destroy him physically %ut it degrades him into an assenting automaton. 'he &arty cannot tolerate martyrs; it must deprive man of his dignity and of his self,respect. 'he man who is guilty of the worst of all crimes , the use of a critical intelligence called thoughtcrime , must finally %ecome a puppet in the hands of the &arty. "nce Winston has %een annihilated to his own eyes %y even repudiating the last trace of humanity he has defended until then i.e. his love for 7ulia he cannot %ut %ecome one of the applauding mass: (He loved -ig -rother.( The Destruction of Language and of the Past =estroying the wealth of the old language , "ldspeak or standard 6nglish , means destroying the possi%ility of thinking and therefore of unorthodoxy and re%ellion. /ewspeak will reduce the voca%ulary to the minimum necessary for people to o%ey orders and guarantee their loyalty to the &arty and to -ig -rother. 'he aim of this operation is that %y eliminating certain words from the language the ideas that they represent will also %e eliminated. /ewspeak a%ove all makes dou%lethink possi%le. =ou%lethink is a privilege of the &arty and it consists of the use of contradictory statements or terms at the same time or of the systematic denial of what has %een proclaimed true up to that moment. 'his allows the &arty to manipulate people's minds and to reverse their policy without apparent contradiction. !s for the past it must %e destroyed %ecause it is a witness that may disprove the credi%ility of what is %eing decided at the present moment. "r it may serve to destroy all trace of opposition as when people are made to %ecome (unpersons( i.e. people who were never %orn. Family, Friendshi , Love 'he 0132 masses are conditioned to do without love to mistrust other people and to trust only -ig -rother. He is a su%stitute for the remains of emotional life they are allowed to experience. ! man cannot love his wife or mistress he

has no friends he is condemned to a desolate solitude interrupted %y the 'wo 8inutes Hate perhaps the only exciting experience in his life or %y his enthusiastic love for -ig -rother. .n dealing with this theme "rwell relied on 5reud's psychoanalytic theory. He accepted the principle that love is one of the primary drives in human life. !s sexual love concerns the individual's most private sphere it cannot %e easily controlled from the outside. .n "ceania therefore the &arty prohi%its intense sexual involvement as a possi%le source of re%ellion to conformity and canali4es it into three directions: hatred of the enemy of the moment or of the arch, traitor 9oldstein; energy spent at the service of the &arty; undifferentiated love for -ig -rother. -ut worst of all it is children's loss of a life of feelings that %ecomes the sym%ol of all that has got wasted %y the political interference in human life. 'hey are taught to hate to spy even their parents in search for a sign of treason they are stimulated to en*oy violence whether in the form of games or in disgusting shows like the hanging of the so, called traitors. .t is the definite loss of innocence that makes "ceania a repulsive place to any reader. !nter ersonal "ommunication )olitude and the impossi%ility to communicate constitute another feature of life in "ceania. Winston's story is paradigmatic. His search for intellectual and affective communication is marked %y three different experiences: firstly he entrusts his diary with his thoughts of re%ellion to the dra%ness of life; secondly he %elieves he has found a solution through the physical contact of sexual love with 7ulia; finally his need for intellectual sympathy will involve him in a sort of political plot with "'-rien who only intended to %etray him. #et it is "'-rien's understanding that Winston keeps on asking for and appreciating even among the tortures of his reha%ilitation. Winston's need to talk to %e understood overcomes his resentment against his persecutor. "'-rien's victory is complete when Winston's spontaneous sympathetic response to his fellow creatures is replaced %y the emotional externally controlled response to -ig -rother. Dra#ness 'he s+ualor of the places in which the story evolves the physical infirmities of most characters , Winston's varicose ulcer and %ent shoulders the roughness caused on his face %y the use of %lunt ra4ors , the scanty poor food that must %e forgotten through the ingestion of an e+ually %ad gin the a%sence of the relief deriving from natural landscapes the dominating presence of -ig -rother's posters of the telescreen of the police helicopters are not only the realistic rendering of a setting %ut %ecome metaphors of a nightmarish and not totally unlikely future. /ames "rwell paid great attention to the choice of names. 'he protagonist's name is particularly significant. When "rwell wrote his novel Winston was a popular name as it was reminiscent of Winston $hurchill the &rime 8inister during World War 'wo. !s for )mith it is perhaps the most common surname in -ritain. 'he full name therefore characteri4es the protagonist as %eing %oth representative of 6veryman ;)mith< and as %eing highly individuali4ed ;Winston<. 'he name of the girl 7ulia relates to the romantic character of )hakespeare's 7uliet even if 7ulia is a very practical, minded and matter,of,fact young woman. We never know her surname which seems to indicate that she is the universal woman. -ig -rother has %ecome a well,known denomination of a dictator and certainly sounds like the name given to )talin Little 5ather. 5inally the enemy of the party 6mmanuel 9oldstein suggests a 7ewish origin and is pro%a%ly inspired %y Leon 'rotsky the other leader of the )oviet >evolution whom )talin exiled when he took power. 6mmanuel furthermore means the (saviour( the messiah %ut since he is a product of the &arty he is a false messiah.