Introduction to 1984
- 3. Setting the context ▪ Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes 1984) is a darkly satirical political novel by George Orwell. ▪ The story takes place in a nightmarish dystopia – Handout: Dystopias- Definitions and characteristics ▪ It was first published on June 8, 1949, is Orwell's most famous work – Also known for the novel ‘Animal Farm’
- 4. Subject matter ▪ The novel introduced the concepts of; –the ever-present, all-seeing Big Brother –the notorious Room 101 –the thought police who use telescreens (televisions that contain a surveillance camera – found in almost every room of the apartments of the characters in the novel), and the; –fictional language Newspeak.
- 6. Room 101 ▪ introduced in the climax of the novel ▪ is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love ▪ Where the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia, with the object of breaking down their resistance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3U83QLoATU
- 9. Ministries of Oceania ▪ Oceania's four ministries are housed in huge pyramidal structures displaying the three slogans of the party on their sides.
- 10. The Ministry of Peace Minipax is the newspeak name for the Ministry of Peace, which concerns itself with making war The Ministry of Plenty Miniplenty in Newspeak, it is the ministry involved in maintaining ubiquitous poverty in Oceania The Ministry of Truth Minitrue is the propaganda arm of the Ingsoc State. They distribute the leaflets, porno, and of course the telescreens. Winston Smith spends his daytime hours “correcting” historical records in Minitrue. The Ministry of Love Miniluv is a gigantic windowless building devoted to torture and brutality. The home of the thought police, it is surrounded by a maze of barbed wire and machinegun towers.
- 11. The ministries convey paradox: WAR IS PEACE •Can war lead to peace? •FREEDOM IS SLAVERY •* Can freedom be confining? •IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH •* Can one know too much?
- 12. Parody of the 1941 "Four Freedoms” • The structure of the government resembled a parody in reverse of the famous 1941 USA State of the Union speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. • In that speech before the assembled Congress, the president outlined Four Freedoms:
- 13. • Orwell - 1941 speech and used it, along with his own experiences at the BBC, to create by reversal, the four key ministries of government in the novel Nineteen Eighty- Four. • Each is focused on an object in exquisite irony, utterly antithetical to its name so that the Ministry of Truth is concerned with lies, an idea that Orwell seems to have gained by his work at the BBC. • ."
- 14. ▪ The Ministry of Truth as a Ministry of Lies would also be a parody of the first of the four freedoms: "freedom of speech
- 15. "The Ministry of Peace • concerns itself with war • few years earlier, Roosevelt had described the fourth of his freedoms as being "freedom from fear.“ • Reality said otherwise and so did Orwell in describing the "Ministry of Peace."
- 16. • “The Ministry of Love," wrote Orwell, was in reality concerned "with torture.“ • The second of the four freedoms addressed the issue of religion. If "God is love" then the "Ministry of Love" could be interpreted as mocking that ideal as well.
- 17. • Finally, Orwell described the "Ministry of Plenty" as dealing in reality "with starvation." • The third of Roosevelt's four freedoms addressed the issue of freedom from want. • Orwell seems to have heard these words with a sarcastic mindset.
- 18. The party ▪ Orwell creates a world in which citizens have no right to a personal life or personal thought. ▪ Leisure and other activities are controlled through strict rules. ▪ Sexual pleasure is discouraged, with females being taught not to enjoy it; sex is retained only for the purpose of reproduction. ▪ The menacing figure of Big Brother has been variously interpreted to be that of Soviet leader Josef Stalin and BBC design department's Roy Oxley.
- 20. Big Brother ▪ The mysterious head of government is the omniscient, omnipotent, beloved Big Brother, or "BB." ▪ Big Brother is described as "a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features." ▪ He is usually displayed on posters with the slogan "BIG BROTHER ISWATCHINGYOU."
- 21. Big Brother’s nemesis is the hated Emmanuel Goldstein, a Party member who had been in league with Big Brother and The Party during the revolution. Goldstein is said to be a major part of the Brotherhood, a vast underground anti-Party fellowship. Nemesis
- 22. The world is controlled by three functionally similar authoritarian super-states engaged in perpetual war with each other: (1) Oceania (ideology: Ingsoc – English Socialism), (2) Eurasia (ideology: Neo-Bolshevism) (3) Eastasia (ideology: Death Worship or Obliteration of the Self). Who controls what?
- 23. Political Geography in the world of 1984
- 24. London, the novel's setting, is the capital of the Oceanian province of Airstrip One, the renamed Britain and Ireland. Goldstein's book explains that the three ideologies are basically the same, but it is imperative to keep the public uninformed about that. The population is led to believe that the other two ideologies are detestable.