The English Tragedy

No, the “English Tragedy” does not relate to the Queen, that is the first fact that should be established. Instead, it is about English, the language itself. George Orwell warned readers of the negative consequences stemming from the degrading quality of English in both 1984 and his essay “Politics and the English Language”. In both pieces of writing, Orwell is able to demonstrate the effects that language can have on the thoughts of those who speak it. In 1984, he is able to emphasize how the lack of language can limit thought, and ultimately society. In “Politics and the English Language”, Orwell demonstrates how bad English will, “construct your sentences for you” (Orwell, 6) and make the language into a meaningless jumble. Although Orwell wrote in the earlier part of the 1900s, the bad English that he wrote about is still relevant today. Dying metaphors, meaningless words, and pretentious diction are still used in writing by the mainstream media despite the warnings of Orwell.

A dying metaphor is something that has lost its meaning from its overuse. Instead of creating a metaphor which fits with the point that they author is trying to convey, they instead insert a metaphor which is commonly used to the point where it has almost no meaning. According to Orwell, these are bad English because, “a writer who stopped to think what he was saying would avoid perverting the original phrase” (3). Examples of dying metaphor usage can be found in media articles today. Some of the dying metaphors used in the CNN article “Little time left to turn down the world’s heat, U.N. says” are, “lock ourselves into” and “paint a very different world” (Smith, Miller, 2). The metaphors that are used make no sense in relation the article. The phrase “...

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...hat Orwell foretold in 1984, that removing meaning from words would make people into more thoughtless machine than an actual person.

Despite the warnings of Orwell through both his essay and dystopian novel, bad English is still used today, and could be argued to affect more English than it did during Orwell’s life. The consequences are also just as he predicted, those who control the language are able to wield control over the thoughts of others. The usage of poor quality English by media has he effect of making the recipients of news more detached from events and as a consequence, more self-focused. The clumsiness and foolishness imposed by bad English ultimately degrading thought, politics, culture, and society is what Orwell had foretold. This is the English tragedy that is disregarded, modern thoughts of “English” are not of language but of the English Queen.