Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 16, 2023 June 9, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The tone of
This tone echoes the dystopian mood and themes of the novel. Oceania is tightly controlled by a repressive government with a cult of personality in its leadership. People’s more positive qualities have been channeled into conformism and mob mentality. Against this backdrop, Winston has developed a pessimistic, fatalistic attitude, believing himself to be as good as dead from the moment he begins writing in his diary: “To be killed was what you expected.”
A few variations in tone exist, almost all connected to situations that offer the possibility of rebellion. When Winston and Julia meet in the secret rented room, the novel’s pace softens, time slows down, and the tone becomes warmer and more sympathetic to human nature. Julia and Winston enjoy a forbidden picnic with real coffee, real sugar, soft bread, and a pot of jam, recollecting the small pleasures of pre-Party life. These details make the scene in which the police invade the rented room and arrest Winston and Julia feel like a deeper betrayal. The tone here is also cautionary – readers reading the book at the time of publication in 1949 would have remembered similar rationing and deprivation from World War II, when real sugar, butter, and coffee were luxuries. Orwell warns readers that if they aren’t careful, life may go back to the hardships and misery of wartime. For contemporary readers, the tone of caution reminds us that the coffee and bread we take for granted may someday become precious and contraband luxuries.
Please wait while we process your payment