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Winston was listening to the telescreen. At present only music was coming out of it, but there was a possibility that at any moment there might be a special bulletin from the Ministry of Peace.

As the explanation for this quote in Quotes by Symbol: The Telescreens (the fifth quote) mentions, the mere words “Winston was listening to the telescreen” are our tipoff that this is a very different Winston than the one who was sent to Room 101 to be tortured at the end of Book Three, Chapter 4.

‘And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn’t really mean it. But that isn’t true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there’s no other way of saving yourself and you’re quite ready to save yourself that way. You WANT it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.’

This important quote is from Julia and Winston’s final encounter Book Three, Chapter 6, after each has undergone torture in Room 101. In it, Julia describes how, in spite of her vow to stay strong and retain her inner strength in Book Two, Chapter 7, she was broken by torture. Winston will respond that he did the same. You can read more about this quote in Famous Quotes Explained (the fifth quote).

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

The final passage of 1984 at the end of Book Three, Chapter 6 describes the completeness of Winston’s defeat and the triumph of the Party and Big Brother over the individual. The prior paragraph had described Winston in a dream state and concluded with the words, “He was walking down the white-tiled corridor, with the feeling of walking in sunlight, and an armed guard at his back. The long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain.” This has lead some to suggest that Winston is assassinated by the Party (as he had always assumed would be his fate), but this final paragraph seems to confirm that he is not killed. In a very real sense, however, whether or not Winston is breathing at the end of 1984 is unimportant since his spirit, his individuality, and his ability to think for himself have all been exterminated by the Party.

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