Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Dangers of Totalitarianism
1984 is
a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in
the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. Having witnessed
firsthand the horrific lengths to which totalitarian governments
in Spain and Russia would go in order to sustain and increase their
power, Orwell designed 1984 to
sound the alarm in Western nations still unsure about how to approach
the rise of communism. In 1949, the Cold
War had not yet escalated, many American intellectuals supported
communism, and the state of diplomacy between democratic and communist
nations was highly ambiguous. In the American press, the Soviet
Union was often portrayed as a great moral experiment. Orwell, however,
was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppressions
he observed in communist countries, and seems to have been particularly
concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments
to monitor and control their citizens.
In 1984, Orwell
portrays the perfect totalitarian society, the most extreme realization
imaginable of a modern-day government with absolute power. The title
of the novel was meant to indicate to its readers in 1949 that
the story represented a real possibility for the near future: if
totalitarianism were not opposed, the title suggested, some variation
of the world described in the novel could become a reality in only
thirty-five years. Orwell portrays a state in which government monitors
and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that even
having a disloyal thought is against the law. As the novel progresses,
the timidly rebellious Winston Smith sets out to challenge the limits
of the Party’s power, only to discover that its ability to control
and enslave its subjects dwarfs even his most paranoid conceptions
of its reach. As the reader comes to understand through Winston’s
eyes, The Party uses a number of techniques to control its citizens,
each of which is an important theme of its own in the novel. These
include:
Psychological Manipulation
The Party barrages its subjects with psychological stimuli
designed to overwhelm the mind’s capacity for independent thought.
The giant telescreen in every citizen’s room blasts a constant stream
of propaganda designed to make the failures and shortcomings of
the Party appear to be triumphant successes. The telescreens also
monitor behavior—everywhere they go, citizens are continuously reminded,
especially by means of the omnipresent signs reading “BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU,” that the authorities are scrutinizing
them. The Party undermines family structure by inducting children
into an organization called the Junior Spies, which brainwashes
and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any instance
of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to
suppress their sexual desires, treating sex as merely a procreative
duty whose end is the creation of new Party members. The Party then
channels people’s pent-up frustration and emotion into intense,
ferocious displays of hatred against the Party’s political enemies.
Many of these enemies have been invented by the Party expressly
for this purpose.
Physical Control
In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also
controls the bodies of its subjects. The Party constantly watches
for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes,
even a tiny facial twitch could lead to an arrest. A person’s own
nervous system becomes his greatest enemy. The Party forces its
members to undergo mass morning exercises called the Physical Jerks,
and then to work long, grueling days at government agencies, keeping
people in a general state of exhaustion. Anyone who does manage
to defy the Party is punished and “reeducated” through systematic
and brutal torture. After being subjected to weeks of this intense
treatment, Winston himself comes to the conclusion that nothing
is more powerful than physical pain—no emotional loyalty or moral
conviction can overcome it. By conditioning the minds of their victims
with physical torture, the Party is able to control reality, convincing
its subjects that 2 + 2 = 5.
Control of Information and History
The Party controls every source of information, managing
and rewriting the content of all newspapers and histories for its
own ends. The Party does not allow individuals to keep records of
their past, such as photographs or documents. As a result, memories become
fuzzy and unreliable, and citizens become perfectly willing to believe
whatever the Party tells them. By controlling the present, the Party
is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the
Party can justify all of its actions in the present.
Technology
By means of telescreens and hidden microphones across
the city, the Party is able to monitor its members almost all of
the time. Additionally, the Party employs complicated mechanisms
(1984 was written
in the era before computers) to exert large-scale control on economic
production and sources of information, and fearsome machinery to
inflict torture upon those it deems enemies. 1984 reveals
that technology, which is generally perceived as working toward
moral good, can also facilitate the most diabolical evil.
