Summary: Chapter IV
Winston looks around the little room above Mr. Charrington’s shop,
which he has rented—foolishly, he thinks—for his affair with Julia.
Outside, a burly, red-armed woman sings a song and hangs up her
laundry. Winston and Julia have been busy with the city’s preparations
for Hate Week, and Winston has been frustrated by their inability
to meet. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that Julia has
had her period. Winston wishes that he and Julia could lead a more
leisurely, romantic life, like an old, married couple.
Julia comes into the room with sugar, coffee, and bread—luxuries
only members of the Inner Party could normally obtain. She puts
on makeup, and her beauty and femininity overwhelm Winston. Lounging
in bed in the evening, Julia sees a rat; Winston, afraid of rats
more than anything else, is horrified. Julia looks through the room,
and notices the paperweight. Winston tells her that the paperweight
is a link to the past. They sing the song about St. Clement’s Church,
and Julia says that one day she will clean the old picture of the
church. When Julia leaves, Winston sits gazing into the crystal
paperweight, imagining living inside it with Julia in an eternal
stasis.
Summary: Chapter V
As Winston predicted would happen, Syme vanishes. During
the preparations for Hate Week, the city comes alive with the heat
of the summer, and even the proles seem rowdy. Parsons hangs streamers everywhere
and his children sing a new song, called “Hate Song,” written in
celebration of the event. Winston becomes increasingly obsessed
with the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, thinking about it even
when he cannot go there. He fantasizes that Katherine will die,
which would allow him to marry Julia; he even dreams of altering
his identity to become a prole. Winston and Julia talk about the
Brotherhood; he tells her about the strange kinship he feels with O’Brien,
and she tells him that she believes the war and Party enemies like
Emmanuel Goldstein to be Party inventions. Winston is put off by
her thoughtless lack of concern, and scolds her for being a rebel
only from the waist down.
Summary: Chapter VI
O’Brien makes contact with Winston, who has been waiting
for this moment all his life. During his brief meeting with O’Brien
in the hallway at the Ministry of Truth, Winston is anxious and
excited. O’Brien alludes to Syme and tells Winston that he can see
a Newspeak dictionary if he will come to O’Brien’s house one evening.
Winston feels that his meeting with O’Brien continues a path in
his life begun the day of his first rebellious thought. He thinks
gloomily that this path will lead him to the Ministry of Love, where
he expects to be killed. Though he accepts his fate, he is thrilled
to have O’Brien’s address.
Analysis: Chapters IV–VI
These three chapters represent a transitional period,
during which Winston’s affair with Julia becomes an established
part of their lives, and leading up to Winston’s meeting with O’Brien.
Despite the risk, Winston rents the room above Mr. Charrington’s
shop so that he and Julia can have a regular place to meet. As the
preparations for Hate Week cast a shadow of heat and fatigue on
Winston’s life, a number of important minor details surface throughout
this section, each of which has some bearing on later developments
in the novel.
The first to surface is the return of the glass paperweight. A “vision
of the glass paperweight” inspired Winston to rent the room above
the shop. The recurrence of this symbol emphasizes Winston’s obsession
with the past and connects it to his desire to rent the room. By
making the room available for himself and Julia, he hopes he can
make their relationship resemble one from an earlier, freer time.
After Julia leaves the room, Winston gazes into the paperweight,
imagining a world outside of time inside it, where he and Julia
could float, free from the Party.
