ntroduction

Orwell's 1984, like many works of literature, unmistakably carries with it literary traditions reaching back to the earliest of storytellers. Among the literary traditions that Orwell uses is the concept of utopia, which he distorts effectively for his own purposes. Utopia, or Nowhere Land, is an ideal place or society in which human beings realize a perfect existence, a place without suffering or human malady. Orwell did not originate this genre. In fact, the word utopia is taken from Sir Thomas More's Utopia, written in 1516. The word is now used to describe any place considered to be perfect.

In 1984, Orwell creates a technologically advanced world in which fear is used as a tool for manipulating and controlling individuals who do not conform to the prevailing political orthodoxy. In his attempt to educate the reader about the consequences of certain political philosophies and the defects of human nature, Orwell manipulates and usurps the utopian tradition and creates a dystopia, a fictional setting in which life is extremely bad from deprivation, oppression, or terror. Orwell's dystopia is a place where humans have no control over their own lives, where nearly every positive feeling is squelched, and where people live in misery, fear, and repression.

The dystopian tradition in literature is a relatively modern one and is usually a criticism of the time in which the author lives. These novels are often political statements, as was Orwell's other dystopian novel, Animal Farm, published in 1945. By using a dystopian setting for 1984, Orwell suggests the possibility of a utopia, and then makes very clear, with each horror that takes place, the price humankind pays for "perfect" societies.

Historical Background

Orwell wrote 1984 just after World War II ended, wanting it to serve as a warning to his readers. He wanted to be certain that the kind of future presented in the novel should never come to pass, even though the practices that contribute to the development of such a state were abundantly present in Orwell's time.

Orwell lived during a time in which tyranny was a reality in Spain, Germany, the Soviet Union, and other countries, where government kept an iron fist (or curtain) around its citizens, where there was little, if any freedom, and where hunger, forced labor, and mass execution were common.

Orwell espoused democratic socialism. In his essay, "Why I Write," published in 1947, two years before the publication of 1984, Orwell stated that he writes, among other reasons, from the "[d]esire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples' idea of the kind of society that they should strive after." Orwell used his writing to express his powerful political feelings, and that fact is readily apparent in the society he creates in 1984.

The society in 1984, although fictional, mirrors the political weather of the societies that existed all around him. Orwell's Oceania is a terrifying society reminiscent of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union — complete repression of the human spirit, absolute governmental control of daily life, constant hunger, and the systematic "vaporization" of individuals who do not, or will not, comply with the government's values.

Orwell despised the politics of the leaders he saw rise to power in the countries around him, and he despised what the politicians did to the people of those countries. Big Brother is certainly a fusing of both Stalin and Hitler, both real and terrifying leaders, though both on opposite sides of the philosophical spectrum. By combining traits from both the Soviet Union's and Germany's totalitarian states, Orwell makes clear that he is staunchly against any form of governmental totalitarianism, either from the left or the right of the political spectrum.

By making Big Brother so easily recognizable (he is physically similar to both Hitler and Stalin, all three having heavy black mustaches and charismatic speaking styles), Orwell makes sure that the reader of 1984 does not mistake his intention — to show clearly how totalitarianism negatively affects the human spirit and how it is impossible to remain freethinking under such circumstances.

The Role of the Media

Orwell spent time in Spain during the time of Franco's Fascist military rebellion. Although he was initially pleased with what he considered to be the realization of socialism in Barcelona, he quickly saw that dream change; such a political climate could not maintain that kind of "ideal" political life. The group with which Orwell was associated was accused of being a pro-Fascist organization, a falsehood that was readily believed by many, including the left-wing press in England. As a reflection on this experience, in 1984, Orwell creates a media service that is nothing more than a propaganda machine, mirroring what Orwell, as a writer, experienced during his time in Spain.

Orwell worked with the BBC during World War II when certain kinds of restrictions limiting what news could be disseminated were common, and he became disturbed by

what he perceived to be the falseness of his work. It is noteworthy that Winston Smith, the main character in 1984, works in the media and is responsible for creating what is, essentially, deceptive propaganda. In fact, it is Winston's position in the media that gives the reader the most insight into the duplicity of the society in which he lives and therefore, the society that Orwell most condemns.

The Setting

The setting of 1984 is Oceania, a giant country comprised of the Americas; the Atlantic Islands, including the British Isles; Australia; and the southern portion of Africa. Oceania's mainland is called Air Strip One, formerly England. The story itself takes place in London in the year 1984, a terrifying place and time where the human spirit and freedom are all but crushed. In the novel, war is constant. The main character, Winston Smith, born before the World War II, grew up knowing only hunger and political instability, and many of the things that he experiences are hyperboles of real activities in wartime Germany and the Soviet Union.

It is important to remember that Orwell based 1984 on the facts as he knew them; hunger, shortages, and repression actually happened as a result of the extreme governmental policies of these countries. The war hysteria, the destruction of the family unit, the persecution of "free thinkers" or those who were "different" or not easily assimilated into the party doctrine, the changing of history to suit the party's agenda, were all too real. Orwell's speculation of the future is actually a creative extension of how the masses were treated under Franco, Hitler, and Stalin.

By setting 1984 in London, Orwell is able to invoke the atmosphere of a real war-torn community, where people live in "wooden dwellings like chicken houses" in bombed-out clearings. His intent clearly was to capitalize on a memory that every reader, especially a British reader, was likely to have. London in 1984, then, becomes not just a make-believe place where bad things happen to unknown people, but a very real geographical spot that still holds some connection for the modern reader.

In 1984, the world is sliced into three political realms — the super states of Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia. Orwell drew these lines fairly consistent with the political distribution of the Cold War era beginning after World War II. Each of these three states is run by a totalitarian government that is constantly warring on multiple fronts. By creating an entire world at war, Orwell not only creates a terrifying place, but he also eliminates the possibility of escape for Winston, who is forced to live within his present circumstances, horrible and unremitting as they are.

Oceania's political structure is divided into three segments: the Inner Party, the ultimate ruling class, consisting of less than 2 percent of the population; the Outer Party, the educated workers, numbering around 18 to 19 percent of the population; and the Proles, or the proletariat, the working class. Although the Party (Inner and Outer) does not see these divisions as true "classes," it is clear that Orwell wants the reader to see the class distinctions. For a socialist such as Orwell, class distinctions mean the existence of

conflict and class struggle. In Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, for example, the few people who comprised the ruling class had a much higher standard of living than the masses, but in these nations, as in 1984, revolt was all but impossible.

In the 1930s some novelists write a new kind of novel: the Anti-Utopian or Dystopian Novel. Among them we can mention Aldous Huxley with his Brave New World, George Orwell with his 1984 and the Russian Zamyantin with his novel We.

Dystopian Novels are usually set in the future; they  warn    man to change his attitude to society. A Dystopia is the opposite of a Utopia: while a Utopia is a dream of a better future, a dream of a land of peace and brotherhood, in contrast to the corruption and tyranny of the contemporary political situation, a Dystopia is the dream of a future society which turns into the nightmare of a worst world than the present one.  Utopia is a term coined by Thomas More; it may have a double meaning according to the Greek derivation: ou-topos, a Nowhere Land, or eu-topos, a better world.The early Utopia expressed the mood of self-confidence and hope of post- medieval men; the society it expressed was not at the end of its cycle as in the Dystopia, but at its beginning and corresponds to the deepest longing of man. The Utopian tradition in the field of fiction is quite old and traces back to Plato’s Republic. After More’s Utopia (1516), a series of novels, which after their model were labelled as Utopian, are written.We may say that every century has got its utopian works. In The New Atlantis (1626) Francis Bacon describes a society which has the full control of nature. There are inventions suggesting the future development of airplanes, submarines, telephones and other fantastic improvements. Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift describes in the 4th Book a land ruled in peace by intelligent horses. Erewhon (1872), an anagram of nowhere, by Samuel Butler deals with a young traveller who discovers a land which has very different ideals from the ones of English Victorian society.As far as the 20 th century Utopia , it can be considered Technological Utopia and it is also called Science Fiction Novel . Among them we can quote The Time Machine (1895) by Herbert George Wells. It introduces a technological means of travel through time and treats the theme of confrontation with the alien, of the last man on the earth after the death of the world.

FEATURES: To understand Orwell’s works we have to consider his political ideas. Orwell’s political formation was influenced by three main factors: his school years, his decision to resign from the Imperial Police and his experience in Spain.

At school he began to be aware of the differences among the social classes; he was the poorest among his schoolmates and began to identify himself with the working class and to develop hatred towards any form of authoritarianism. He was against imperialism and this led him to leave the Imperial Police; he wrote on the matter: “I gave up my job … mainly because I would any longer be a servant of Imperialism because I know something about it from the inside“. Then he went to live with the poor and the outcast and embraced anarchism. After the already mentioned episode in Spain he developed a life long dread of communism and moved closer to socialism. In Spain his illusion of the unity of the left-wing collapsed because he discovered that, although the left-wing factions were supposed to be united in the war against fascism, there was a rivalry

between them. In brief, we may consider Orwell as a social democrat with leftist sympathies. He was against all sorts of dictatorship both coming from the left and from the right even if in his main works he stressed the betrayal of the socialist principles he believed in by Russian Communism.

The role of the Artist : Art is an instrument to achieve democracy and freedom. The artist’s task is to aim at the remaking of the society. He has to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose together(Shelley,Auden).

To make people think about it he chose two literary genres: the negative utopia in 1984 and the political satire in Animal Farm.

Orwell’s message: as Eric Fromm wrote in an issue on 1984 it wanted to be  ” an expression of a mood and a warning.The mood is of near despair about the future of man and the warning is that unless the course of history changes, men all over the world will lose their most human qualities and will become soulless automatons“.

IMPORTANCE OF THE LANGUAGE: Orwell gave great importance to the language because he believed that the quality of the language suggests the quality of the society that used it. In one of his essays, Politics and the English Language, he attacked the way in which the writers used the language: they tended to be vague and to avoid what was concrete in favour of abstractions. According to him the language had to be an actual instrument of information and communication.  Things had to be described as they really were, without being influenced by traditions or conventions (Joyce) using a simple, clear and direct language.   The importance of the language is stressed out in his novels and it becomes in them, in negative, a political instrument of control of the truth; controlling the language, both the Pigs in Animal Farm and The Party in 1984 not only control the citizens’ thought but also destroy them.

THE CONTROL OF THE TRUTH: the description of the nature of truth is an important aspect in Orwell. The basic question which Orwell raises is whether there is such thing as Truth. He thinks that the truth does not exist or better it may exist in the human mind; but the human mind can be controlled and guided: they who control men’s mind decide what is true and what it isn’t according to their needs.In 1984 O’Brian (the torturer) says to Winston(the main character):”I tell you Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the party holds to be truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party“. In Animal Farm and in 1984 the recurrent use of slogans helps the ruling class to control the citizens’ mind. The vocabulary is continually reduced of words because if there are no words to express an idea there is no idea at all.

THE DOUBLETHINK: this new term was introduced by Orwell in 1984; “it is the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them as truth” according to the State’s need. It helps the totalitarian State to control the

thoughts of its citizens: through the manipulation of the mind the “persona” is no longer saying the opposite of what he thinks, but he really thinks the opposite of what is true; so white is black, slavery is freedom, war is peace, ignorance is strength and two and two is five.As far as Winston Smith,the main character of 1984, he was able to work at the Ministry of Truth rewriting history books, and then believing in the new history which he himself had written.

This dystopian novel is set in Britain 40 years in the future. The original title should have been The Last Man in Europe but Orwell decided to give his novel a futuristic quality and chose to turn inside out the last two numbers of the year he had written it, that is 1948, into 1984.

Orwell imagines that in 1984 the world is divided into three great powers: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia; they are always at war.Society is divided into three classes:members of the inner party,members of the outer party and the ‘prolets’.Britain is ruled as a totalitarian state which combines elements belonging to both fascism and communism. The ruler is known as Big Brother and huge photographs of him dominate every public space with the warning “Big Brother is watching you” (we can find something like that in every dictatorship, both leftist and rightist: the cult of personality was typical in Nazism, Fascism, Communism and is still typical in nowadays dictatorships. Huge posters of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein and so on dominated their countries). Big Brother’s eyes seemed to follow the passers-by as they moved. Even if his face had got traits of both Hitler and Stalin, his description fitted more to Stalin than to Hitler: “…the face of a man of about 45, with a heavy moustache.” His name, too, suggests it because English newspapers called Stalin Brother Joe and the Russians referred to him as Little Father.Actually nobody meets him and that makes him more threatening: he is the symbol of both power and authoritarianism.

The citizens are always spied on and there is no privacy at home, too.There are no shutters at the windows and the Patrol Police can spy inside through helicopters . There is a telescreen in every house which can’t be switched off and through which the Thought Police can plug-in at all times of the day. The children are an extension of the Thought Police; they are educated by the Party to control their parents and to denounce them if they do some actions or even speak against the Party. The thought Police is the most feared branch of the police (= the Gestapo) and had the task to punish the adversaries of the System. The most important Ministries are The Ministry of Truth and The Ministry of Love.

THE PROTAGONIST of the novel, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth and his job is to rewrite history books changing continually the events to fit them with the current policy of the Party:”Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past“. He is 39, divorced and lives alone. He is not satisfied with the Regime and violates some important rules such as to keep a secret diary, which is considered a thought crime, or to make love in secret with Julia, which is considered disobedience to the Party’s laws. When discovered, he is brainwashed and tortured and eventually he denounces Julia. The Party wants to ‘cure’ and redeem   him. His crime is

not to hate Big Brother,but to love Julia and to meet her in secret without the consent of the Ministry of Love.They make him confess his crimes in a typical Russian show-trial and give him back the previous job. The result of the treatment is that Winston becomes a new man;   he becomes one of the Masses who thinks that everything is right, that Big Brother is right and that he has to love him. As far as his name, it probably derives from a combination between the name of Churchill, the winner of the 2nd World war, and Smith, which is the most common surname in Britain.

THE CO-PROTAGONIST is Julia. She works at the Ministry of Love and her job is to write porno books for the ‘prolets’. The Ministry of love controls procreation; love has nothing to do with feelings and passion and it is only allowed to plan the births because the State  is always at war and needs more population, more soldiers. Love as a feeling is prohibited and considered dangerous for the Party because it creates a world for the individual outside the Party control. It is   allowed to the Prolets as sexual relationship because sexual privation produces hysteria which can be turned into aggressiveness against the State. Julia shares Winston’s same destiny and after being brain-washed she, too, rejects Winston and denounces him.

One of the most important campaign aims at the abolition of orgasm: “We shall abolish the orgasm:Our neurologists are at work upon it now…… There will be no love,except the love of Big Brother….. there will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness ….. no enjoyment of the process of life.All competing pleasures will be destroyed“. Destroying pleasure there is no need to make love and the energy of the individual is direct to loveBig Brother.

O’BRIAN:He is an important character in the novel.He is a member of the INNER PARTY and the torturer. Winston and Julia,arrested by the Thought Police,are tortured both physically and psychologically. The Party is not interested in destroying its enemies because they would become martyrs, but only to cure and change them: “We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. [...] we make the brain perfect before we blow it out “.O’Brian,then,wants to redeem  Winston.To be redeemed, Winston has to reject Julia’s love, to denounce her and to love Big Brother. Winston had written in his diary “freedom is the freedom to say that two and two make four“. O’Brian first submits Winston’s left part of the brain,which is the seat of reason and logic. He starts from the above statement and using the electroshock makes him reject the evidence of maths and learn that if the party say that two and two make five, he has not only to answer that they are five but even see one more finger. After the treatment, because of the great pain he feels in his body, when O’Brian shows him four fingers and asks him how many they are, Winston sees ” a forest of fingers” and shouts ” I don’t know…. four,five,six, in all honesty I don’t know“. But O’Brian knows that the brainwashing is not complete. He knows that the most difficult step is to submit the right side of the brain,which is the seat of feelings and passion.To make Winston reject Julia and love Big Brother,the physical pain isn’t enough. He knows that to win a passion he has to

oppose it with a deeper emotion,a nightmare. To this purpose Orwell invents the Room 101.

ROOM 101:  It is the place where the torture and the horror are ‘ad persona’, that is individual. In this room every person finds what he fears more. Winston finds his own personal nightmare  and to stop the nightmare he is ready to reject and to denounce everything. Winston’s nightmare are the mice.He is frightened by them and when he finds them in room 101, to stop the nightmare, he rejects Julia and denounces her. After room 101 the treatment is complete, the Party has won and the ‘persona’ is annihilated:”Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves”.

THE MAIN THEME of the novel is of course a political one: in a totalitarian dictatorship the individual is destroyed physically, annihilated and degraded into an asserting automaton. Winston can’t avoid it and can’t do anything to oppose the Party.                        A second important theme is man’s need to communicate and his inability to do it in a State that controls not only his actions but also his rationality, his dreams and his language.  A third theme is the monotony of a world in which love is deprived of feelings and pleasure and Art are controlled by the State. In such context life becomes meaningless, grey and hopeless.