A fatal flaw. An achilles heel. Hamartia. Vulnerability. A chink in one’s armor. As readers, the discovery of our hero’s weakness is a moment that makes us gasp. The antagonist has found the one way to destroy the protagonist, the one object or idea that will lead to his or her ultimate demise. It’s the kryptonite to our Superman. In 1984, the protagonist Winston’s one weakness is the rats that lie in Room 101. However, in my essay, I will show that his fatal flaw is actually his need to betray his lover Julia. His need to betray her stems from a need for survival in a world where the only way to survive is to allow himself to abandon the moral aspect of his psyche and fully commit himself to The Party. This would allow him a way to no longer …show more content…
Both believe they are in love, both take advantage of the others emotional and intellectual assets, and both consistently walk a fine line between romantic and inappropriate throughout their relationship. In the time after Winston has been tortured to submission, he meets again to Julia, both admitting they had betrayed each other. Julia justifies these dual betrayals by stating “You want it to happen to the other person. You don’t give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself” (292). This quote perfectly embodies their relationship. Throughout the entire story, they tangle love and benefit together until it is so knotted that they can no longer see the difference, or even care if there is one. The only time the two fully concepts fully separate is when there is a third element--torture--brought into the …show more content…
While in the party, Winston is subject to extreme torture. He is stretched and questioned and shocked and beat until finally, he is taken to the infamous Room 101. It is here where his deepest tangible fear, rats, are laid upon him and at which point he finally breaks down and betrays Julia. In that moment, he thinks to himself that he “must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats” (286). At the moment of the rats, it is assumed that the pain is too much for his body to handle and so he simply exerts a defense mechanism which he knows will work to save himself, by screaming out “do it to Julia!” (286). Perhaps, however, he had been waiting to betray Julia. Winston was a relatively smart man, who was aware enough to know that there was no way of escaping The Ministry of Love as the same man he was when he entered. He knew he would have to surrender his individuality to The Party. Julia was in his mind, the most important thing, and the one thing he had promised not to betray. It doesn’t matter how true their love was, he had glorified their relationship into something that could only be dishonored in an unfathomably extreme circumstance. The rats were, to him, extreme enough to justify the betrayal that would grant him serenity. At the end of the book, Winston gave his body over to The Party, in full willingness and
She passes him a note that wrote “I love you.” Winston shows a desire; he himself had always had a thought of her. After 2 days, Winston and the girl were able to meet. She had given Winston the location where they could meet again. The two were able to meet away from the telescreen unsupervised. The girl revealed herself as Julia. Winston and Julia made love. Winston sees Julia as a great partner for the rebellion.
Winston expresses his feelings towards Julia in such an extraordinary way, “He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows.”(Orwell 15). When he is expressing these thoughts, he is actually talking about someone he was actrate to, Winston just had no way of expressing it besides anger. He sees this beautiful young girl, who has made this vow its remain pure and chaste and he just wants to kill her because of how frustrated about it. Although late in the book, who these same two people are alone in a place without worry, everything is different, for example “You are prepared, the two of you to separate and never see one another again. ‘No!’ broke in Julia….’No,’ he said finally.” (Orwell 173) This second moment gives us a definite second opinion about how he may actually feel towards Julia. When they are both in a safe place, and can freely state and do they things they wish to do, Winston does show that he cares for Julia, enough that he does not want to leave her. I believe that these two different feelings show us that even with the body trying to control how people feel, what they do, along with what they think they never get to have complete control of
Due to the extreme differences in the couple’s personalities, the reader is left to question whether Julia ever loved Winston. Julia embodies the qualities that Winston wishes he had. The differences in their morality, their motivation towards the rebellion and their personalities are the few reasons why they are drawn to each other, but it is bittersweet as their differences cause their downfall.
In the middle of the novel, O’Brien appears as the escape from Big Brother, providing both Winston and Julia with information pertaining to the Brotherhood. Unfortunately for these two lovers, it is all façade. O’Brien is merely trying to find out what their limits and breaking points are. After asking Winston and Julia a set of questions, O’Brien asks the ultimate question, “You are prepared, the two of you, to separate and never see one another again” (180), to which Julia replies, “No” (180). This exchange of words gives O’Brien the upper hand for later events. He now knows that the love shared between Winston and Julia is not solely an act of rebellion, but also that it is what will get the two characters to conform and accept Big Brother. This finally gives O’Brien the opportunity to change Winston; something that he has been willing to do for some time now. O’Brien states, “For seven years, I have watched over you. Now, the turning-point has come” (256). Prior to Winston’s relationship, O’Brien had nothing to hold over Winston if he was to get Winston to conform, and was waiting for the opportune moment to do so. However, he is now able to manipulate Winston’s love for Julia, and turn it towards love for Big Brother. He uses their love as leverage while torturing Winston. O’Brien also
loss, it's to do with futility. For all he did, for all the rules he
The pen is mightier than the sword, and Winston’s artistic mind is stronger than the muscles of a warrior can ever be. In the book 1984 by George Orwell, Winston lives in an oppressive society in the art-deprived world of Oceania, from which he attempts to escape. He must mentally break free from the cage in which Big Brother has trapped him and so many others. Winston lives among rats of the Party, ironically his worst fear. While living amongst some of the rodents who are forever trapped in the enslavement of Big Brother, Winston strives to remain human, to remain conscious of the harsh reality of the world in which he is confined. Winston is an artist attempting to break free from Big Brother’s shackles using his diary, his obsession with
Julia and Winston have things in common like they both have rebellious feelings against the government. They also both hate purity. “I hate purity, I hate goodness. I don’t want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.” (P.125) But with similarities comes differences like age. Where Winston is 39, and Julia is in her 20s. Julia does not care about her past or future and only cares about the present. Winston strives about the past. Julia has a more optimistic view on life and does not care about future or death, on the other hand that is all Winston thinks about.
Orwell’s quote “but you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred” (Orwell 1984) describes the situation between Julia and Winston. I don't believe either of them knew what true love was, they couldn’t see the difference from love and lust. In the book Winston’s feelings towards Julia were always changing. In the beginning he had hated her, wanted to murder her. Towards the middle of the book he began to warm up to her and show feelings towards her. He thought of the feelings as love although I think he truly only felt lust towards Julia. That feeling of lust was not enough for him to take the torture for Julia. He cared more about his well
George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.
As a result, many of the totalitarian regime’s doctrines and policies truly frighten and appear as dangerously evil to Winston. Because Winston remembers a time when the Party was not in control, the Party’s methods of technological control over history greatly troubles Winston. Although Winston and Julia are currently lovers, it is ironic to discover that their perspectives on life and government are polar opposites. Julia is virtually everything that Winston is not, including her survivalist actions. Julia employs many methods to conduct her personal rebellion as a vehicle filled to the brim with primal desires. This is a fundamental difference between Winston and Julia. Julia enjoys regular sexual activities to quench her thirst while Winston partakes in intimacy not only for himself, but also in consideration for posterity. Julia can be described as being apathetic to the Party and its principles while Winston sincerely wishes for its downfall by engaging in actions that would truly damage
Julia started the relationship with Winston because she wants to fulfill her sexual desires with him. She “adores it” (pg. 125). Winston and Julia’s love for each other and the actions they take to continue their love affair caused tension among party members due to the growing
In the 2nd part of 1984 Winston is meets a girl named Julia. At first Winston believes Julia will turn him in for committing Thought Crime. Then Julia passes Winston a note and they meet each other. The Party also does not allow association that is not goverernd. This is the start of an affair between the two, because they are not married and free love is not allowed. Winston is rebelling fully by his association with Julia. The 2nd section Winston fully rebels, he joins an underground resistance, and he believes that his life is better because The Party is no longer controlling him. At the end of this section Winston learns that he has been set-up and followed by the Thought Police the whole time. He and Julia believed that they were resisting and rebelling but had actually been entrapped by the Thought Police.
Every person has their own motivations, or in other words, their own reasons for their desires, actions, and needs. People such as serial killers are often motivated to commit their crimes by the desire to hurt people, which often can be traced back to a rough childhood. On the other hand there’s people such as doctors and lawyers who came from similar circumstances; yet they were motivated by a desire to escape their past, particularly through the means of success. However often, we might not even know the motivation behind our own actions, which hinders our self control. Perhaps this is why people often make rash decisions. This can be seen in the case of Winston Smith in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Throughout the book Winston continually
...he views of the Party. "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (Part 3, Chapter 5). Winston’s mind is considered cured the moment that he turns on the one person her truly loves.
...the torture he realized that he loved “Big Brother” and was as “brain washed’ as the rest of society. The experience that both Julia and Winston go through as far as being tortured, shows them that there is no hope, they are stuck in the world that they were born into and in no way can they change how things are.