Previous Next

What happens in Book One, Chapter 4 of 1984?

Winston goes to his job in the Records section of the Ministry of Truth where he ensures that Big Brother’s orders and Party records match new developments. Winston is given the task of fabricating an ideal Party man to take the place of a former official who was executed for being an enemy of the Party in the official records.

Read our Summary & Analysis of Book One: Chapters 4–6. (3-minute read)

Are there any important characters introduced in Chapter 4 of 1984?

We only see him briefly here and then again in Book Three, but Ampleforth is a colleague Winston’s at the Ministry of Truth whose job is to re-write classic poems to remove any verbiage that runs counter to the Party’s rules. Orwell has given him an amusing name, but neither his name nor the brevity of his presence negate the fact that both he and Winston represent a serious idea to Orwell, which is that oppressive governments rely on the cooperation of intelligent people (who should know better) to achieve their horrific goals.

The fictious character of “Comrade Ogilvy” is also introduced in Chapter 4 when Winston invents him at the Party’s behest. He is a perfect representative of everything the Party finds valuable: healthy, self-sacrificing, patriotic, and chaste. Ironically, these are all the things that Winston is not.

Are there any important themes of 1984 present in Book One, Chapter 4?

Winston’s wholesale creation of the fictional Comrade Ogilvy and Ampleforth’s bowdlerization of classic poems to suit the Party’s needs are both examples of the novel’s theme (#5) of the Control of Information and History, which is a key way that the totalitarian government oppresses its citizens in 1984. A third example of that theme in the chapter is how Winston re-writes the record of a speech that Big Brother gave in the past to eliminate references that do not coincide with the Party’s revised history.

Read explanations of 3 quotes from Chapter 4 about the Party’s manipulation of history and information. (2-minute read)

Is there a video summary of the plot of 1984 available? 

SparkNotes offers a brief video about 1984 that covers the main plot points.

View the SparkNotes video for 1984. (8-minute video)

Previous section Book One Chapters 2 & 3 Overview Next section Book One Chapter 5 Overview

Popular pages: 1984

Take a Study Break