“The ultimate end of any ideology is totalitarianism” (Robbins). In 1984 by George Orwell, the main character is Winston Smith who battles with oppression in Airstip One, Oceania; previously known as Great Britain, a place where the Party monitors human actions with Big Brother. Going against a ban on individuality, Winston commits rebellious acts express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with Julia. These criminal deeds bring Winston to his own downfall as he meets O’Brien who gains his trust only to break it and to manipulate him in order to “correct” Winston. Through the character of Winston Smith and the author’s minor character of O’Brien, Orwell portrays how rebellion is suppressed through the manipulation of a totalitarian government.
Additionally, Orwell’s inspiration to write 1984 came from his experience from WWII and the effects of war on society. Orwell incorporates similar methods that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and etc. used to portray how Big Brother rules Oceania. The Two Minute Hate is a daily period in which party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party’s enemies and express their hatred towards them for exactly two minutes. Winston’s hatred is pointed towards Big Brother but to blend in with everyone else. “he chanted with the rest, it was impossible to do otherwise to dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, was instinctive reaction” (Orwell 17). During WWII many countries were oppressed by dictators, due to fear people were unable to rebel. From Orwell’s time he portrays a society in which not only do the citizens of Oceania have to cooperate with Big Brother, they are manipulated to believe his methods are appropriate. In Thomas Horan’s Revolutions from the waist downwards: desire as rebellion in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, George Orwell's 1984, and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, he describes the role of rebellion in these dystopian novels. Horan states, “Passion is morphed into patriotism, to this end, rallies, marches, public executions, and carefully contained, localized, intensive riots know as 2 min hate are employed to channel primal tendencies toward hatred of pubic scapegoats and love for big brother” (Horan). The Two Minute Hate is similar to methods some politicians use to strengthen their position when felt threatened. The politicians will invent a common enemy to channel the public’s rage towards the enemy. In order to survive the people of Oceania are forced to obey Big Brother until even their own conscious betrays them. Every aspect of the citizen’s lives are not only just controlled by The Party, they work to strengthen the government. Winston works as a records editor in Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. Opposing to the name, The Ministry of Truth is where lies are manufactured as Winston’s job is to recreate any records to match The Party’s words, the old articles are incinerated so that there are no evidence to be used again The Party. Winston believes that the truth no longer in records as he puts in “the substitution of one piece of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world” (Orwell 40). Winston does his job despite the fact that he provides false information in order to strengthen The Party’s hold on the citizens of Oceania. The Ministry of Truth’s main role is to help control the population through misinformation, outright lies and lack of information so that the state can maintain total control over the citizens. This method of making The Party look good is similar to how propaganda was used in war as it usually contained misleading or biased information and was used to promote a certain political viewpoint. David Dwan’s “Truth and Freedom in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four” talks about the distortion of truth and the power it has to lead to freedom. Dwan states, “for something to be believed, it must be deemed true and for something to be true, it must at least make sense, yet much of what The Party endorses is senseless” (Dwan). Despite the fact that The Party’s history has flaws, and what they endorse is senseless the people of Oceania still believe them. That is because with The Ministry of Truth at work, people have lost sight of what the truth actually is which leaves them to believe The Party because that’s all the information that is provided. This reflects the ideals of The party that power is the only truth and that those who have power can mold the truth into whatever they want. Orwell created similar methods that dictators used during WWII used to portray how totalitarian governments control the citizens to prevent rebellion.
Furthermore, Winston’s initial hatred towards Big Brother fuels his sense of rebellion but towards the end of the book succumbs The Party’s deals. Winston wasn’t afraid of getting caught rebelling against The Party as he still wrote in his diary despite the fact he knew it was a crime. Winston has two types of entries, he records his memories and his thoughts. After recalling the events of the Two Minute Hate and seeing the same hatred he had for Big Brother in O’Brien’s eyes Winston writes malice commentary of The Party and Big Brother. Which is considered a crime, thinking anything that could jeopardize Big Brother’s control is considered a “Thoughtcrime”. Winston continued to write because “whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or Whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same” (Orwell 19). The diary is the beginning of Winston’s rebellion as he exposes his thoughts out in the open, outside of his mind which is a crime. Winston knew that he would get caught because the government monitors everything but he didn’t care because Winston despised Big Brother to the point that he wanted to show The Party his hatred, he wanted to get caught for expressing his true emotions. Though “Assent, Dissent and the Body in Nineteen Eighty-Four” Naomi Jacobs discusses the repressed needs of the body and its effects in 1984. Jacobs states, “It is at the prompting of such outlaw emotions that winston writes “down with big brother” in his diary, his hand moving without the direction or even assent of his mind, as if his dimly felt rebellious impulse could be brought to consciousness only through an independent act of the body” (Jacobs). Winston processes a sense of identity that the citizens of Oceania lack and this is what leads to his rebellion. Winston usually conceals his inner thoughts but his hatred for Big Brother is so strong that his real emotions slip past his facade which is what leads to his rebellion. Oceania doesn’t just control the actions of party members, they also control their thoughts in order for people of The Party to remain isolated so that no one can band together and rebel like the Proles. Winston meeting Julia reassures him that he is not alone in his fight against Big Brother which further his sense of rebellion to a physical level. Winston meets Julia at the Ministry of Truth, where they both work. Due to the constant exchange of eye contact, Winston believes that Julia is a spy but one day she slips him a note that reads “I love you”, being intrigued Winston meets Julia secretly and they start their affair which takes place in a place above Mr. Charrington’s shop. Due to his affair, Winston feels that “the process of life had ceased to be intolerable, he had no longer any impulse to make faces at the telescreen or shout curses at the top of his lungs” (Orwell 150). Once Winston meets Julia his sense of rebellion is fueled as he has an affair with her. They establish a safe haven that allows Wiston to freely speak his thoughts of the party. However, the fact they are hiding portrays the grip that the government has on the citizens, Winston wants to rebel but won’t because he fears the consequences. Jacobs explains that, “To winston, both the simple animal instinct the act itself and the primitive emotions and intimacies to which it gives rise carry a revolutionary potential nurturing a place in the heart that the regime can never touch” (Jacobs). Winston reached a point of suffering and melancholy where the small acts of rebellion made him feel alive and free, especially the vital intimacy of the sexual relationship with Julia. The Party prevents citizens to feel passion so they wouldn’t be able to develop emotions that would allow people to turn away from The Party’s senseless ideals. The moment Winston believes that 2+2=5 is him losing his sense of rebellion. Winston and Julia are caught having an affair by Mr. Charrington and are turned into the the Thought police where O’brien tortures Winston to “correct” him. Winston loses sight of himself but thinks to himself that “it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory himself. He loved Big Brother” (Orwell 290). By the end of the book Winston evolves from hating Big brother to being completely under Big Brother’s control. O’Brien tortures Winston mentally and physically in order to crush Winston’s sense of identity to have him submit to the ideals of the government. In the article, “the underground man as Big Brother: Dostoevsky's and Orwell's anti-utopia” Adrian Wanner compares the similarity between these two books and explains the method that The Party uses to convert citizens who have commited a crime. Wanner states that, “By means of electric shocks winston is forced to acknowledge that 2+2 can make 5 if the party wished so. The treatment is successful that at the end winston actually sees five fingers when his torture o’brien holds his hand with the concealed orwell inverts the relationship of reason and madness” (Wanner) By physically inflicting pain Winston is forced to forfeit the little fight of rebellion he had left in him. By admitting to the nonsense of 2+2=5, Winston lost sight of what is true and what is false. Instead of trusting his own logic, he drowns in The Party’s madness like everyone else.Winston’s sense of rebellion is prompt by his strong sense of identity but through physical and mental torture the government is able to extinguish individualism to prevent rebellion from starting.
In conclusion, Winston’s evolution through his journey of rebellion is fueled and extinguished by O’Brien’s manipulation. To gain Winston’s trust O’Brien becomes his supposed comrade in order to crush him on a deeper level. O’Brien disguises himself as a member of the brotherhood working towards overthrowing The Party. O’Brien is part of the inner circle, a political figure in The Party but tells Winston that he is a secret agent trying to recruit people like Winston and Julia. O’brien presents them with Goldstein’s book which contains the “truth” of Oceania’s history and methods to take down The Party. As Winston looks to O’brien “a wave of admiration, almost of worship, flowed from winston towards O’Brien” (Orwell 175). O’Brien builds a relationship in which he acts as Winston’s guide in rebellion, gaining Wiston’s trust, who in turn admits to his distaste for Big Brother and The Party and reveals his inner thoughts of rebelling. Winston commits a thoughtcrime leading to his own arrest. The method of manipulation is evident in this scene as O’Brien did not have to force Winston to confess, he simply used Winston’s emotions and thoughts against himself. Jacobs discusses this event, “Given winston’s unjustified trust in O’brien and attraction to him, he might very well have accepted such a summons even he never known julia” (Jacobs). Winston holds a sentimental value towards Julia as she is the closest thing he has got to a comrade, also the one person he has seemly loved. This heightens Winston’s sense of rebellion but Julia is different than Winston as she is not desperate. Through O’Brien, Winston has a mentor that could guide him through the path of overthrowing the The Party. O’Brien is the enemy yet becomes the one person that Winston trusts in the entire world. Additionally, O’Brien had nurtured Winston’s rebellious nature and also the is the one to erase his hatred towards Big Brother.When Winston is caught for his crimes, he is taken to Room 101 where he meets O’Brien. Room 101 is different for every individual, containing a person’s great fear, the one thing that they would not be able to endure. Winston wants to fight back but he is unable to as “the feeling of helplessness descended upon Winston. His eyes fitted toward the dial. He not only did not whether “yes” or “no” was the answer that would save him from pain, he did not know which answer he believed to be true” (Orwell 248). By physically and mentally abusing Winston, O’Brien is able to crumble his sense of truth which takes Winston’s power to go against The Party. O’Brien had complete control over Winston, he made it seem as though Winston was in control but in reality he manipulated Winston in order to get the result he needed. Wanner states, “O’Brien’s ideal society is not based on scientifically maximized happiness, but quite the contrary, on maximized suffering” (Wanner). The idea of an anti-dystopia is evidently portrayed through O’Brien, as the process of obtaining a perfect society is through torture and manipulation. O’Brien deceives Winston into thinking his goal was happiness but in the end inflicts pain to Winston for him to submit. Through the character O’Brien, Orwell illustrates the perfect process of manipulation, he became his comrade to gain trust to his own motives.
By using the author’s minor character O’Brien to manipulate Winston Smith, Orwell is able to showcase that manipulation is necessary for a totalitarian government to succeed in complete control. Unlike a utopian novel, in which the writer aims to portray the perfect human society, a novel of negative utopia does the exact opposite: it shows the worst human society imaginable, in an effort to convince readers to avoid any path that might lead toward such societal degradation. The most significant draw away would be the penetrating analysis of the psychology of power and the ways that manipulations of language and history can be used as mechanisms of control.Alexandra Peat’s “Traveling to modernism's other worlds: Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four” discusses how life as we know it can morph into an unknown environment if we allow so. Peat states, “these fictional worlds are distorted reflections of a globalized modern society in which the new is unfeasible and the familiar has become strange and unknowable. Both novels launch into a terrifying imaginary world characterized by disturbing political circumstances and an uncanny mix of foreignness and familiarity” (Peat). The familiar setting is different due to the ruling above it, we are allowed to to choose who leads the country and meaning we can prevent the same dystopia that 1984 provides. To allow someone complete political authority is to say goodbye to individuality that allows for process in life.