1984 Chess Analysis

Along with Victory gin, another symbol within the novel is the chess board. In part one the novel references to Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. Men involved in a past rebellion.
Winston sees the men at the Chestnut cafe, “There was a chess board on the table beside them, with the pieces set out but no game started,” (Orwell. 76) The chess board next to them represents the party waiting for Winston to make a move. The pieces are set and ready, all that is needed is for Winston to take action. The three next to the board show how the party defeated them, their effort was for nothing. Later in part two, Winton is attending a class called “‘Ingsoc in relation to chess.’” (Orwell. 108) Ingsoc refers to English socialism, the government system the party uses. By saying “‘Ingsoc in relation to chess,’” it tells of how the party (chess) is directly related to socialism, the government controlling Oceania. In part three, Winston is sitting
Winston looks up at a portrait of Big
Brother and thinks, “White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it is so arranged.(Orwell. 289) Winston is saying that the white chess pieces always win, and the white pieces represent the party. No rebellion effort had ever been able to defeat the party, they always win. By saying “it is so arranged,” it means that even before the rebellion starts, the rebels have already lost. The chess board contributes to plot parts, like
Winston seeing Rutherford, Aaronson, and Jones and the picture, to him sitting alone in the
Chestnut cafe; by showing the outcome of everyone's intention of rebellion before they even occur with the arranged white chess pieces, it shows Winston's fate before even he knows it. It helps develop the theme of people freely giving up their power, and being unable to get it back, by showing how the party always wins and have never