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What happens in Book Two, Chapter 9 of 1984?

Winston reads through Goldstein’s manifesto and learns about the history of the social classes and how war is a means of keeping the masses ignorant of life in other places. Winston reads Julia a section that explains how control of history is a central tool for the Party.

What happens in Book Two, Chapter 10 of 1984?

Winston and Julia listen to the red-armed woman singing and think that she might hold the key to the future, as well as the possibility of the proles gaining a level of consciousness that will usurp the Party. Suddenly, a voice comes from the telescreen and a group of troops burst into the room and restrain Winston. Winston recognizes that the voice was Mr. Charrington’s and realizes that he is a member of the Thought Police.

Read our Summary & Analysis of Book One: Chapters 9 & 10. (3-minute read)

Are there any key characters from 1984 featured in Book Two, Chapters 9 & 10?

Emmanuel Goldstein, an ex-Party official who is supposedly the leader of the Brotherhood organization fighting against the Party, has been alluded to throughout the novel starting in the first chapter. While he doesn’t make an appearance in these chapters (or in the novel at all), he is the focus of Chapters 9 and 10, as Winston feverishly reads from his notorious manifesto against the Party.

The Party’s propaganda describes Goldstein the most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania, and it uses him as a focus of hate to distract its citizens from their poor living conditions. Orwell likely based the character on Leon Trostsky, a key figure in the early years of the Soviet Union who went into exile after falling out with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and who was assassinated by Stalin’s agents in Mexico in 1940.

Read an in-depth character analysis of Emmanuel Goldstein. (2-minute read)

Within the context of 1984 is Goldstein’s manifesto real or fake?

The manifesto, which has the decidedly fake-sounding title of “The Theory and Practices of Oligarchical Collectivism,” is real, but just about everything to do with it has been fabricated by the Party as part of their effort to create a common enemy to distract from its failures. O’Brien, who had given Winston a copy of the book to Winston earlier in Book Two, will admit to him in Book Three that he and his colleagues, in fact, wrote it. This strongly suggests that the Brotherhood does not, in fact, exist.

Read our Q&A about the origin of the book O’Brien gives Winston. (1-minute read)

How important are the details in Goldstein’s manifesto to understanding 1984?

Chapter 9 of Book Two is the longest chapter of 1984, which is mostly due to Orwell including a significant amount of verbiage that we are told is taken directly from Goldstein’s manifesto. Fortunately, understanding and appreciating 1984 doesn’t require the reader to achieve a full mastery of “The Theory and Practices of Oligarchical Collectivism.”  After you’ve read Chapters 9 and 10 in the novel, reading the analysis section of our SparkNotes Summary & Analysis of these two chapters will help you understand the most important aspects of the manifesto. Reading explanations of the five excerpts taken directly from the manifesto in our Quotes by Chapter for Chapter 9 explanations should also be useful.

Does 1984 have an antagonist?

When they burst into the apartment to arrest Winston and Julia at the end of Book Two, Chapter 10, it confirms that the Thought Police are the main antagonists of the novel. The fact that the police are being directed by Mr. Charrington reveals that he is an enemy of the novel’s protagonist, Winston, and not his ally. Later, we’ll find out the same about O’Brien. The exposure of Charrington and O’Brien as agents of the Party means that Winston has no real allies other than Julia. Therefore, it can be argued that almost everyone in the novel aside from Julia is an antagonist to Winston.

Read more about the Thought Police as the Antagonists of 1984.

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