“Nineteen Eighty Four”, hailed as a masterpiece of political speculation, appeared in 1949. It was his last work. It secured his position in the world of literature. By the time he came to write it, his health had been deteriorating .Tuberculosis had been carving him out and he had lost all hope of recovery. Gradually a streak of pessimism became apparent in his personality.
‘Nineteen Eight Four’ is about a super sate called Oceania. It is run by four ministries viz The Ministry of Love, responsible for law and order, The Ministry of Peace, to deal with wars, The Ministry of Truth concerned with the news, education, entertainment and fine arts and The Ministry of Plenty which handled the economic affairs. These four ministries are overseen by the Big Brother, an omnipotent figure like God. He is invisible and invincible. Emmanuel Goldstein is another character who never comes in the open. He is said to be hiding somewhere in the country conspiring to overthrow the Big Brother. He appears to be a liberal compare with the Big Brother.
The story unfolds through incidents in the life of Winston Smith, employed in the Ministry of Truth. His job is to manipulate and forge the records as circumstance demands. His duty is to read all the papers, journals, magazines and report ‘the truth’. “The Truth” being variable, he has to be alert and vigilant. He has to erase the past and substitute it with new revelation.
In order to alter and falsify the records, elaborate arrangements have been made. Even a new language called ‘New Speak’ is introduced and taught in schools. Dictionaries containing the words of new speak are published. Through these, the government seeks to control the thought process itself. Orwell says “The purpose of new speak was not only to produce a medium of expression for the world view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible”. As part of this many words in the English language are modified some are stripped of their shades of meanings. Many wards are abolished altogether. Thus antonyms, adjectives, nouns, verbs are all modified to serve the purpose of the Big Brother. “New Speak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought”. Syane, a philologist, a specialist in New Speak claims that the New Speak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.
If anyone thinks differently and deviates from the declared objectives of the Big Brother, he is accused of ‘thought crime’. The aim of New Speak is to make thought crime impossible. Some of the most important and moist frequently used words in the Newspeak are ‘double speak’, ‘black white’ and ‘double think’. ‘Double speak’ means quacking like a duck. A double speak word has two contradictory meanings. When it is used in reference to an opponent, it is a word of abuse. However, when it is used in reference to an ally it is a word of compliment. Likewise, ‘black white’ too has contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent it means the habit of claiming black is white and white is black ignoring the evidences to the contrary. In reference to a party member it means unwillingness to say that black is white and white is black whenever the party demands. Not only that one must believe that black is white and forget that one believed otherwise.
‘Doublethink’ means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs at once. The person, who does so, does know that he is playing with reality. But he believes that reality is not violated by such an exercise. When one is engaged in doublethink, one must do it consciously for the exercise to be effective or else it would not achieve the intended result. But one has to be unconscious at the same time in order to avoid the feeling of guilt. In Orwell’s words, “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient and when it become necessary again .to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality which one denies all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink”
Besides the linguistic modifications, an ingenious device called ‘telescreen’ is used to keep an eye on the people committing thoughtcrime. Apart from transmitting the views of the government like the television, it serves the government as a device to keep track of the movement of the people. Telescreen is installed all over the country, in houses, on the roads and at other public places. Thus every nook and cranny and every person is put under surveillance.
The tentacles of power have spread everywhere. Even family relationships are not spared. The bond between husbands and wives are so fragile that it could break at any moment. Even the married ones are required to stay away from sexual relations. But they are allowed to produce children to be trained and recruited to spy on their parents. Trust, the basis of relationships between parents and children, is replaced with doubt and hatred. This leads to social disintegration and turns people into paranoiacs and schizophrenics.
Public anger and frustrations are redirected towards a powerful enemy. An authoritarian state never fails to invent enemies. In the case of Oceania, Goldstein is out to grab power from the benevolent Big Brother. Goldstein is said to live somewhere in the country. Even the omnipotent Big Brother is not able to locate him.
What the party of the Big Brother wants is absolute power; He seeks absolute power for the sake of power, not to improve the living standards of the people. They are not all interested in the well-being of the people. The party is not interested in wealth, luxury, long life or happiness. O’brian who represents the Big Brother tells Winston that his government differs from the German Nazis and the Russian Communists in that they did not have the courage to recognise their motives. They pretended, even believed to certain extend. that they seized power to make life easy for the people and create a heaven on earth where human beings would be free and equal. But in Oceania the party believed that no one seizes power with the intent of relinquishing it, “Power is not a means, it is an end”. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution. One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power”. The power they are after is the power over human beings, Power not only over the body but over the mind also.
Controlling the external reality is not that difficult, O’brian asks Winston to get rid of the 19th century ideas about the laws of nature, “We make the laws of nature”. O’brian tells him. When Winston protests, and points out that the party is not in control over the earth, O’brian replies that the party will bring them under its control at the appropriate moment. I could be done without any effort as all that they have to do is to deny the existence of other countries and declare that Oceania is the world. Later, with the aid of newspapers, double speak and double think, they could convince the people of the authenticity of the claim.
Elaborating the party’s views, O’brian tells Winston that the stars are bits of fire a few kilometres away. “The earth is the centre of the universe. The sun and stars round it!” At times holding these views may have certain disadvantages. To navigate the ocean and to predict an eclipse it would be sensible to believe that the earth goes round the sun and the stars are billions of kilometres away from us etc. It is not at all difficult to interpret physical phenomenon in any manner as the occasion demands as the scientists of Oceania are capable of producing dual astronomy. In the event of any dissent, one would be vaporised- put to death. All references to that person would be removed from the records. This has happened in Russia during the reign of Stalin and in China under Mao. Falsification of records and misinterpretation of history have become common even in democratic countries.
No authoritarian government has yet been able to manipulate the minds of its citizens; Winston and his lover Julia think it impossible to get into the mind. In Julia’s words, “It is one thing they cannot do. They can make you say anything-anything- but they cannot make you believe it. They can’t get inside you”. Agreeing with her Winston says, “They can’t get inside you. If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can have any result whatever you have beaten them”.
But at the end both of them are proved wrong, O’brian crushed Winston’s mind by physical torture and brainstorming. One day O’brian asked Winston to have a look at his own body in the mirror. He was shocked to see his emaciated body. He was pale and thin. His stamina had drained off. O’brian claimed, “We have beaten you Winston. We have broken you up. You have seen what your body is like. Your mind is in the same state. I do not think there can be much pride left in you. You have been knocked, flogged, and insulted, you have screamed with pain. You have rolled on the floor in you own blood and vomit. You have betrayed everybody and everything. Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you?”
Winston understood. He decided to educate himself. Then he wrote, “Freedom is slavery, two and two make five, god is power” etc.
The picture of the super state that Orwell presents, send shivers down one’s spine. And on second thought one starts to doubt the possibility of such a state ever coming into existence. Because a committed bureaucracy is required to implement the policies and programmes of the state. Bureaucracy is generally inefficient everywhere in the world. As Atkins says “Administration in large scale enterprise is always more inefficient and wasteful”
The pessimism that pervades Nineteen Eighty Four could be traced to Orwell’s deteriorating health. He knew very well that there was no chance for recovery and perhaps even that his days had been numbered.
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