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4.2.1 Rebellion
Impact from dictatorship can be seen from Winston Smith. Winston Smith is main character in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston is a low ranking member of the ruling
Party in the nation of Oceania. Throughout his life, Winston Smith tried to be a good citizen of Oceania. He tried not to care about social condition his live. He followed
the government rule with loyal soul. He was not familiar with any people like party suggested. He does not care when the truth was deflected by the government. He did
not do anything. He tried to be a good citizen, but deep in his heart he kept his hatred to Big Brother, the leadership of the Party. He tried to cover it desperately. Because
everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through Telescreens, everywhere he was gone he always looks. Like the government’s
slogan, a figure omniscient leader as many citizen known is Big Brother. Big Brother is watching you. Government controls everythi
ng in Oceania, even the people’s history and language. Currently, government is forcing the implementation of an
invented language called Newspeak, which attempts to prevent political rebellion by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such
thought crime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes.
Winston feels frustrated by the oppression and rigid control of government, which prohibits free thought, sex, and any expression of individuality. Live in an
atmosphere of life which is the government dictatorship controlled peoples lives, as type of person who could not easily accept any predefined rules government, bring
the spirit of rebellion hearts Winston. This rebellion is certainly started quietly.
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38 Winston hates government passionately and wants to test the limits of its
power; he commits innumerable rebellion throughout the novel, ranging from writing in his diary.
His eyes re-focused on the page. He discovered that while he sat helplessly musing he had also been writing, as though by automatic
action. And it was no longer the same cramped, awkward handwriting as before. His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in
large neat capitals
— DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page. He could not help feeling a twinge of panic. It was absurd, since the
writing of those particular words was not more dangerous than the initial act of opening the diary, but for a moment he was tempted to tear
out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether. He did not do so, however, because he knew that it was useless. Whether
he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference. Whether he went on with the diary, or
whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. Orwell, 1948: 18-19
One reason for Winston’s rebellion, and eventual downfall is his sense of fatalism his intense though entirely justified paranoia about the Party and his overriding belief
that government will eventually catch and punish him. As soon as he is writes in his diary.
For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in a hurried untidy scrawl:
theyll shoot me i don ’t care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont
care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother
—— Orwell, 1948: 19
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39 Because he believes that he will be caught no matter what he does, he convinces
himself that he must continue to rebel. Winston lives in a world in which legitimate optimism is impossibility, lacking any real hope, he gives himself false hope, fully
aware that he is doing so. Deep down, he knows that these risks will increase his chances of being caught by government.
Winston’s diary entry is his first overt act of rebellion. It illustrates Winston’s desire, however slight, to break free of the government’s total control. Winston’s hatred of
Party oppression has been festering for some time, possibly even for most of his life. An important aspect of the government’s oppression of its subjects is the forced
repression of sexual appetite. Initially, Winston must confine his sexual desires to the realm of fantasy, as when he dreams in an imaginary Golden Country in which he
makes love to the dark-haired girl. Like sex in generally. Winston desperately wants to have an enjoyable sexual affair, which he sees as the
ultimate act of rebellion. In his diary, he writes that the prole prostitute was old and ugly, but that he went through with the sex act anyway. Winston records in his diary
his memory of his last sexual encounter, which was with a prole prostitute. He thinks about the Party’s hatred of sex, and decides that their goal is to remove pleasure from
the sexual act, so that it becomes merely a duty to the Party, a way of producing new Party members. He realizes that recording the act in his diary hasn’t alleviated his
anger, depression, or rebellion. He still longs to shout profanities at the top of his voice.
Winston was writing in his diary: It was three years ago. It was on a dark evening, in a narrow side-street
near one of the big railway stations. She was standing near a doorway in the wall, under a street lamp that hardly gave any light. She had a young
face, painted very thick. It was really the paint that appealed to me, the whiteness of it, like a mask, and the bright red lips. Party women never
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40 paint their faces. There was nobody else in the street, and no telescreens.
She said two dollars. I ——
Orwell, 1948: 63 …I went with her through the doorway and across a backyard into a
basement kitchen. There was a bed against the wall, and a lamp on the table, turned down very low. She
—— Owell, 1948: 64
…She threw herself down on the bed, and at once, without any kind of preliminary in the most coarse, horrible way you can imagine, pulled up
her skirt. I ——
Orwell, 1948: 67 …I turned up the lamp. When I saw her in the light——
Orwell, 1948: 68
…When I saw her in the light she was quite an old woman, fifty years old at least. But I went ahead and did it just the same.
Orwell, 1948: 69
Winston’s repressed sexuality one of his key reasons for despising the Party and wanting to rebel. In this section is second rebellion from Winston. Winston meets
Julia and begins the erotic affair he has so deeply desired, between the two lovers. From Winston’s point of view, the significance of having unauthorized sex with
another Party member lies in the fact that his rebellion is no longer confined to himself.
…he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand. There was no question that she had done it intentionally. It was
something small and flat. As he passed through the lavatory door he transferred it to his pocket and felt it with the tips of his fingers. It was a
scrap of paper folded into a square. Orwell, 1948: 106
…Eight minutes had gone by. He readjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work towards him, with the scrap of
paper on top of it. He flattened it out. On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting:
I LOVE YOU. Orwell, 1948: 108
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41 …He was next to the girl. They were shoulder to shoulder, both staring
fixedly in front of them… …The girl’s shoulder, and her arm right down to the elbow, were pressed
against his. Her cheek was almost near enough for him to feel its warmth…
Orwell, 1948: 115
Her name is Julia, they make an affair love. Winston was having an illegal love affair with Julia. Julia is Winston’s lover and the only other person who Winston can be
sure hates the government and wishes to rebel against it as he does. Julia work in Department at the Ministry of Truth. Julia is a striking contrast to Winston, apart
from their mutual sexual desire and hatred of the government. Most of their traits are dissimilar, if not contradictory. Winston longs to join the Brotherhood and made
rebellion to the government. Julia is more concerned with enjoying sex and making practical plans to avoid getting caught by the government. Her rebellion against the
Party is small and personal. He had just turned back to Chapter I when he heard Julia’s footstep on
the stair and started out of his chair to meet her. She dumped her brown tool-bag on the floor and flung herself into his arms. It was more than a
week since they had seen one another.
‘I’ve got THE BOOK,’ he said as they disentangled themselves. ‘Oh, you’ve got it? Good,’ she said without much interest, and almost
immediately knelt down beside the oil stove to make the coffee.
…He reached out for the book, which was lying on the floor, and sat up against the bedhead. ‘We must read it,’ he said. ‘You too. All members of
the Brotherhood have to read it.’ ‘You read it,’ she said with her eyes shut. ‘Read it aloud. That’s the best way. Then you can explain it to me
as you go.’… Orwell, 1948: 200
The experience is nearly identical to the passionate sexual encounter about which Winston has dreamed. They did an affair love in the woods far away from city which
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42 have many Telescreen and thought police. Because all of sexual activity and
marriage determined by the government. But they didn’t care about it and still to do rebellion.
‘What is your name?’ said Winston. ‘Julia. I know yours. It’s Winston—Winston Smith.’
‘How did you find that out?’ ‘I expect I’m better at finding things out than you are, dear.
Orwell, 1948: 120 She stood looking at him for an instant, then felt at the zipper of her
overalls. And, yes it was almost as in his dream. Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them
aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated. Her body gleamed white in the sun.
But for a moment he did not look at her body; his eyes were anchored by the freckled face with its faint, bold smile. He knelt down before her and
took her hands in his.
‘Have you done this before?’ ‘Of course. Hundreds of times—well, scores of times, anyway.’
‘With Party members?’ ‘Yes, always with Party members.’
‘With members of the Inner Party?’ ‘Not with those swine, no. But there’s plenty that WOULD if they got half a chance.
They’re not so holy as they make out.’ Orwell, 1948: 124
The third Winston rebellion is getting him secretly indoctrinated into the anti-Party Brotherhood. The most important in this section is the meeting at O’Brien’s, to
which Winston is driven to optimism. O’Brien is a mysterious, powerful, and sophisticated member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes is also a member of
the Brotherhood. Winston’s powerful fascination with the enigmatic O’Brien leads him to trust
O’Brien and feel safe in his presence. The hope Winston’s puts into O’brien. His attempt to achieve freedom and independence ultimately underscores the
government’s devastating power. Winston was hopeful belief in the Brotherhood.
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43 O’Brien seems to represent a powerful figure willing to undermine the Party. He
offers a connection to the Brotherhood, and has an iron will dedicated to fighting the Party.
He is the embodim ent of everything Winston hoped he would be. As such, O’Brien
fills Winston with a hope that he has never before experienced. Though this optimism shines brightly in the moment, it soon becomes evident that O’Brien is
acting as Winston’s ideal. ‘We believe that there is some kind of conspiracy, some kind of secret
organization working against the Party, and that you are involved in it. We want to join it and work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We
disbelieve in the principles of Ingsoc. We are thought-criminals. We are also adulterers. I tell you this because we want to put ourselves at your
mercy. If you want us to incriminate ourselves in any other way, we are ready.
…‘Martin is one of us,’ said O’Brien impassively. ‘Bring the drinks over here, Martin. Put them on the round table. Have we enough chairs? Then
we may as well sit down and talk in comfort. Bring a chair for yourself, Martin. This is business. You can stop being a servant for the next ten
minutes.’… Orwell, 1948: 170
Winston takes a ser ious risk by traveling to O’Brien’s apartment together with Julia.
Looking inside he is sumptuous apartment. He want show his rebellion to the government. Goldstein is another figure who exerts an influence on the novel without
ever appearing in it. According to the government, Goldstein is the legendary leader of the Brotherhood. He seems to have been a Party leader who fell out of favor with
the regime. In any case, the government describes him as the most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania.
Believi ng that he is free of the Party’s observation, Winston boldly declares that he
and Julia are enemies of the Party and wish to join the Brotherhood. O’Brien tells
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44 them that the Brotherhood is real, that Emmanuel Goldstein exists and is alive, and
leads them through a ritual song to initiate them into the order of rebellion. ‘Did you ever happen to hear an old rhyme that begins
‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s’?’ Again O’Brien nodded. With a sort of grave courtesy he completed the
stanza: ’Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s,
You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St Martin’s, When will you pay me? say the bells of Old Bailey,
When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch.’ Orwell, 1948: 178
‘You understand,’ he said, ‘that you will be fighting in the dark. You will always be in the dark. You will receive orders and you will obey them,
without knowing why. Later I shall send you a book from which you will learn the true nature of the society we live in, and the strategy by which
we shall destroy it. When you have read the book, you will be full members of the Brotherhood.
Orwell, 1948: 174
Their rebellion was continued, O’Brien promises to give Winston a copy of Goldstein’s book, the manifesto of the revolution. In the room Winston reads through
Goldstein’s The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, given to him by O’Brien. This lengthy book, with chapter titles taken from party slogans such as
WAR IS PEACE and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH, traces a theory of social classes throughout recent history: High Class, Middle Class, and Low Class the Inner
Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. According to the manifesto, Eurasia was created when Russia subsumed all of
Europe, Oceania was created when the United States absorbed the British Empire, and Eastasia is made up of the remaining nations. These three nations keep their
respective populaces preoccupied with a perpetual border war in order to preserve power among the High class. Goldstein writes that the war never advances
significantly, as no two allied nations can defeat the third. The war is simply a fact of
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45 life that enables the ruling powers to keep the masses ignorant of life in other places
the real meaning of the phrase WAR IS PEACE. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF
OLIGARCHICAL COLLECTIVISM by
Emmanuel Goldstein Chapter III
War is Peace The splitting up of the world into three great super-states was an event
which could be and indeed was foreseen before the middle of the twentieth century. With the absorption of Europe by Russia and of the
British Empire by the United States, two of the three existing powers, Eurasia and Oceania, were already effectively in being. The third,
Eastasia, only emerged as a distinct unit after another decade of confused fighting. The frontiers between the three super-states are in
some places arbitrary, and in others they fluctuate according to the fortunes of war, but in general they follow geographical lines. Eurasia
comprises the whole of the northern part of the European and Asiatic land-mass, from Portugal to the Bering Strait. Oceania comprises the
Americas, the Atlantic islands including the British Isles, Australasia, and the southern portion of Africa. Eastasia, smaller than the others and
with a less definite western frontier, comprises China and the countries to the south of it, the Japanese islands and a large but fluctuating portion
of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet. Orwell, 1948: 185
This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or more chivalrous. On the
contrary, war hysteria is continuous and universal in all countries, and such acts as raping, looting, the slaughter of children, the reduction of
whole populations to slavery, and reprisals against prisoners which extend even to boiling and burying alive, are looked upon as normal,
and, when they are committed by one’s own side and not by the enemy, meritorious.
Orwell, 1948: 186
However, unfortunately the fate of Winston when he found that O Brien who he thought was a friend to fight betray the party, he is a member of the Inner party that
had been long watching the movements of Winston. Winston and his girlfriend, Julia was arrested by Mr. Carrington who initially gave them a place to meet and have sex,
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46 but in fact he was a member of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia were arrested
and separated. In prison, Winston was tortured for days, weeks and, even months. As felt by Winston, he is impossible to know how much time has passed. Even he does
not know if the day was night or day. He was known if his body was kicked, beaten, and electrocuted. It was made repeated every day. Winston asked to acknowledge the
crimes accused to him: theft, robbery, rape, etc. Julia, it is not clear how his fate. By th
e end of the novel, Winston’s rebellion is revealed into O’Brien. It is human nature, if human be tamed with a number of orders and rules, then he will
curious and looking for opportunities with things were forbidden.
4.2.2 Poverty
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