Preview

The Nature Of Power In George Orwell's '1984'

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1161 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Nature Of Power In George Orwell's '1984'
1. Through punishment, denial of knowledge and the suppression of free thought the Party is able to maintain power in Oceania. The party’s all-seeing nature is the most effect form of control because it breeds a society that is afraid of revolt. Through the creation of print, radio, and television the Party is able to enforce “complete obedience to the will of the State” (Orwell 206). The people are now under complete surveillance and surrounded with propaganda, giving the Party the ability to see and dictate what the people do. By keeping the people in constant fear and ignorance the Party is able to maintain its power.
2. I agree with that O’Brien’s statement is misguided; I believe that absolute power is more about influence then an overshadowing of the people. Having power through authority is better than having power through suppression. The idea that power is gained from “pain and humiliation” is wrong because suppression does not
…show more content…
It is the Party’s goals that are evil, and the way in which they accomplish them is just as evil. Free thought is what makes a human human. O’Brien explains to Winston that The Party is “not interested in the good of others;” it is “interested solely in power” (Orwell 263). The Party’s goals are corrupt, their only concern is maintaining power. As a party who stands to manipulate people’s feelings and beliefs, it is clear that they do not care about the society.
8. In Winston’s case I believe that his betrayal was to get away from the torture but afterwards he could not forgive himself enough to forget what he said. When they awkwardly meet after the torture, Winston describes how in that moment you truly “want it to happen to the other person” (Orwell 292). In and after that moment his feelings for Julia may have been altered but I do not believe that it discredits the way he felt about Julia before. What it does is show that their personal pleasures have always outweighed any connection that they shared with each

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One needs to be skeptical when fighting a corrupt system. Julia is an expert in faking her loyalty while Winston is exceptional in constructing a good argument which when combined, can create a considerable opposition to the…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People never accept these Truths because many don’t know the difference between right and wrong. For example, “Ignorance is Strength”(Orwell 26). If you told someone who wasn’t educated what the quote means that person would believe you because that person hasn’t had any other form of education. The people of 1984 are controlled in every form most everyone expect for Winston believes what Big Brother says. In addition “War is Peace”(Orwell 26), is another example showing how you can manipulate people with words.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Discuss how the citizens of Oceania are controlled and manipulated by the Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four’…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1984 Contradictions

    • 2251 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In 1984, three outwardly misleading characters include Winston, O’Brien, and Mr.Charrington. Since the beginning of the novel, Winston hates the authoritarian rule of the Party and constantly expresses his hatred through suppressed means. For instance, he writes obscenities against the Party in his diary, he secretly has sex with Julia as an act of rebellion, and he attempts to join an organization that opposes the Party. Yet despite all this, he acts loyally when he is being watched; for example, he alters documents wherein he praises the Party for its numerous exploits and achievements. It is fitting that by the end of the novel, he is brainwashed to love the Party: “he had won the victory over himself. He loved big brother” (Orwell, 311). This double contrast highlights the discrepancy present within reality, as in the end, his character is directly at odds with who he initially is in reality. O’Brien is an ambiguous member of the Party who Winston initially comes to trust as a result of a dream where O’Brien says “[w]e shall meet in the place where there is no darkness” (Orwell, 2). This statement itself is contradictory, as Winston initially thinks that O’Brien is referring to the joyful time when the Party is finally overthrown and people are free, but it proves to be a bright room where Winston is endlessly tortured by O’Brien. Winston believes that O’Brien shares his enmity towards the Party, but is proven wrong when O’Brien turns out to be a member of the Thought Police and his subsequent torturer. Thus, O’Brien reinforces the discrepancy between appearance and reality, as his sympathetic character proves to be a trap. Finally, Mr. Charrington, the humble owner of a small shop with a room upstairs that Winston and Julia use…

    • 2251 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, 1984, the protagonist, Winston Smith, live in a world full of thought policies, telescreens and proletarian. In Oceania, proletarian are under watch within 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which mean they are being watched without any privacy. Also, they are not allowed to have any other thought other than what the party told them to have. For the people who do have the thought will being vaporized; never exist in the world, nobody will remember who they are anymore. The party slogan is "War is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength." It's apparently the opposite of reality, and it showed Oceania have a psychological control over their people. Every proletarian is required to be as orthodoxy as they can, but Winston still attempted to "stay human" by having thought on "Down With Big Brother."…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main questions of the novel 1984 is could Big Brother fall. There are many possibilities that contribute to the thought of the fall of Big Brother. Such as the way Big Brother pushes people around like Winston to make them want to rebel. One proven fact in history is that most totalitarian governments do not last such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union. The fact they are always at war with one of the other main super powers. "But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? The proles themselves if realized their power could overthrow the party.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    George Orwell’s novel, 1984, includes many power struggles throughout the book involving various characters. If you delve into the content of almost any novel, there’s usually always some sorts of struggle for power. The novel 1984 bases itself on the totalitarian power to control a nation. With Orwell publishing his novel in 1949, Hitler’s power over Germany during World War II shows itself significant in the story. Many parallels to 1984’s reality and actual reality exist in the novel. Goldstein symbolizes the internal enemies of Hitler that were portrayed to help control the population’s thoughts. Orwell’s use of diction, syntax, and narrative strategies show Winston’s struggle of freeing himself from Big Brother’s power, his secret freedom he feels through his sexual engagement with Julia, and his struggle to free himself from the mass torture of interrogation and false confessions during his sleep.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1984 Summer Reading

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the beginning Winston goes against the law and secretly buys a journal to write in, even though if he is caught he will be taken away forever. He would have to face Big Brother, but Winston was willing to take the chance. Many times he reads throughout the novel “ War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”. Which is the official saying of the Party. While attempting to write in the journal Winston found himself only being able to write “Down with Big Brother” repeatedly. He always found himself confused on what to do but always believed that he would never conform into one of them!…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Party controls every aspect of their nation’s media, which means it is riddled with false positive political propaganda about their own government, lying about the welfare of their nation, government, education, and a plethora of other important government owned properties and services. This means that a constant flow of biased, wrong information is being delivered to the population, creating a false sense of reality for all. Few see through the facade, but it is a spark of rebellion for some. All it takes is one unhappy citizen to develop a following, and a rebellion can begin, and a government manipulating the media to lie to citizens is a good enough reason for most to fight back, and in 1984, this rebellion takes the form of a secret society known as The…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The renowned Martin Luther King Jr know for being a social activist on the matter of equality of all races and ethnicities exclaims that, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people”. Through Martin Luther King Jr, one can presume that notion of oppression causes a society without tolerance and ethical diversity. Power is a quality desired by every human being, some people crave the notion of complete and utter dominance over any human being it is a sense of control that gives them a certainty of confront that no other desire can live up to it, the desire of power goes as far as committing atrocities such as murder, genocides and wars to gain absolute control over one…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan,‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”(page 63). The novel 1984 by George Orwell is about a totalitarian government that rules the people of a country called Oceania. One of these people is Winston, a government worker at the Ministry of Truth. The Ministry of Truth alters history, art, news, and literature to be more suitable for the government’s beliefs. In this society people are constantly watched by Big Brother, the head of the government. Also, the government controls the people through the Thought Police, a group that regulates the population’s thoughts. Additionally, there are telescreens in every house which keep track of dialogue and are constantly…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All societies are controlled by their government in many different ways. Many societies are controlled by a democratic government, while other societies are controlled by dictatorship. These styles of government both have pros and cons. The passage from "1984" by George Orwell distinctly shows that society is a horrible and harmful place to live in because there are certain rules that people have to follow. "It was Mrs. Parsons, the wife of a neighbor on the same floor (" Mrs was a word somewhat discountenanced by the Party- you were supposed to call everyone "comrade"- but with some women one used it instinctively)"( Orwell paragraph 2). In this part of the passage, it is told that there are rules that are needed to be followed in society,…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Through the exploration of the Party’s control and manipulation of information to assert power over its constituents, Orwell condemns this capability whilst privileging the role of empirical knowledge in combatting this threat. Orwell forewarns that governments empowered…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Glorious American Revolution triggered humanity to seek equal rights for all. The song of the liberty tree remains in our hearts till this day around the world. War for fair and equal human rights is not over because people are still mistreated for their gender, sex, race, and class. Global citizens may one day gain equal rights because the quest for liberty since the time of the American Revolution has moved the globe in that direction. However, after the revolutionary war the social order did not change. Reality illustrates George Orwell's metaphor all men and women are equal, but some are more equal than others (Orwell). Wealthy male Caucasians ruled the country before the war and continued to do so after the war ended while poor white men,…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    moment he began to separate from the public thought, he was a dead man. Winston holds…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays