1984 Human Nature Analysis

Throughout the novel 1984 Winston, the protagonist attempts to stay human despite living under a totalitarian regime. The novel 1984 by George Orwell depicts a regime that has 24/7 surveillance of its citizens and attempts to dehumanize the citizens to become better “party” members. Throughout the novel, Winston attempts to redeem his human characteristics that the party has stolen from him. The party is responsible for using human emotions and tendencies and uses those qualities in an attempt to “dehumanize” their population into members of the party. In the novel, the party uses human nature as a tactic in their political oppression. Winston’s love for Julia was the biggest weapon the party used against him. The party uses human nature for

their own purpose by exploiting emotions such as love, lust, and hate for their own purposes. Human nature can be defined as the general psychological characteristics and traits regarded to be shared by all humans. The party uses the emotions of love to their advantage by ensuring the citizens only project love to the party. The party also replaces other human emotions such as happiness with hate and attempts to have the citizens project those emotions to their enemies.
The love between Julia and Winston was the main reason the party was able to corrupt him in the novel. The party used his human emotion of love against him. Winston desperately wanted to be loved more than anything else. This is exemplified when Winston receives the note from Julia stating that she loves him. As Winston opens the note he feels “As though a fire were burning in his belly” (Orwell 61). Winston is feeling true human emotion for the first time in a long time. Winston can’t identify that he is feeling some sort of attraction or was flattered but can only identify the feeling as a burning in his stomach. The word fire is key in this phrase as it shows Winston feeling true human emotion at it’s purest form and is unfamiliar with the feeling thus can only describe it as fire in his stomach. The party attempts to turn all love towards the party and nothing else, therefore, Winston's love for something else is a problem. Big Brother wants citizens to love them more than citizens can love their family or themselves. Winston knows the risk yet he acts on his emotions anyway as Winston begins having real genuine feelings for someone other than the party.
The party could not stand for Winston loving something other than the Party and soon become aware of the love affair due to their constant surveillance. Winston is taken to The Ministry of Love and begins to endure torture. Winston is able to withstand it and at one time screaming his love for Julia while in excruciating pain. Winston is then taken to Room 101 where he is put to the test further having to pick between his love or his greatest fear. O’Brien brings a caged rat into the room and is threatening to release it onto Winston’s faced. Throughout the novel, the reader has become aware of Winston’s fear of rats. Winston witnessed a rat while in bed with Julia and states, “Of all horrors in the world - a rat” (Orwell 83). Rats are Winston's one biggest fear another human emotion he displayed throughout the novel and another emotion the party uses to their advantage. When O’Brien is about to release the rat onto Winston he screams, “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!” (Orwell 166). The party exploits Winston in this instant as they know human nature will always take over when faced with one's deepest fear. Every human has a flight or fight mechanism it’s a part of human nature. A flight or fight response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack or threat to survival. Human Nature is selfish. In an instant where a human is confronted with their worst fear, they will always pick to protect themselves before anyone else including the one they “love.” Winston, in this case, saw there was a threat to his survival so his natural human instinct took over and he choose to flight and tried to push the punishment onto Julia by begging O’Brien not to do it to him. Humans can claim that they would, in fact, take on their fear in order to protect the ones they love, but they have never lived in that moment they would have never had to decide between their fear and their love. Winston gives in to his fear and ultimately gives up Julia but he doesn’t love her any less he just gave a human response in that situation. However, the party exploits this temporary lapse of love and makes Winston believe that he never truly loved her. Winston gave her up when it counted most and protected himself. The party makes Winston believe that is true and Winston comes out a broken man. Winston loses all love for Julia as he believes he never truly loved her at all. The party replaces that missing love with love for the party transforming Winston into the party member they want. The last sentence of the novel shows the ultimate transformation for Winston as the narrator states “He loved Big Brother” (Orwell 172). The party deceived Winston and by doing so turned his own human nature into their benefit. Some can claim that Winston did in fact never love Julia at all by pointing to the text when they were in the Ministry of Love “He felt no love for her, and he hardly even wondered what was happening to her” (Orwell 134) Critics can claim that Winston never had to make a decision as he was never in love with Julia in the first place. However, Winston states this while he is being tortured mercilessly and becomes untrustworthy with his thought as he doesn't even know how much time has passed. Also, just before this line, he states that he does, in fact, love her. Winston is confused he is going in and out of consciousness, he has no sense of time and he hasn’t eaten. At this point, Winston is untrustworthy because he simply has no idea what is going on making his statement of him not loving Julia invalid. The parties deception allowed Winston’s own human nature the parties greatest weapon.
The party also uses human nature to replace normal human emotions such as love, compassion and friendship and replaces those feelings with hate.

All humans need to feel something that’s simply a part of being human. The party realizes this and attempts to establish hate as the new love. The party also uses this concept to protect against rebellion from the citizens. The party attempts to deflect all hate and anger of the proles life to the party’s enemies. They are able to do this in the Two Minutes Hate. The Two Minutes hate was a daily program run by the party and it depicted enemies of the party. The narrator of the novel describes one of those scenes as, “Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room.” (Orwell 9). Not even 30 seconds in the entire room is in a frenzy showing just how powerful the emotion of hate can be. The party knows that if they restrict happiness, love, friendship and all other normal human emotions hate and anger is going to arise. They, however, reflect those feelings onto their enemies as they blame them for the quality of their lives and the bombings. This allows the proles to see Big Brother as a heavenly being protecting them from the evils of the world. Another reason as to why Big Brother has its citizens love so easily. It is simply because the Proles hate the enemy and fall under the illusion that Big Brother is protecting them, therefore, deserve endless love. Being human requires someone to show all human emotions and feelings. Since the proles feeling of normal love, friendship, compassion for others they are incapable of maintaining their humanity as Winston states “The proles are not human beings,” (Orwell 29). With their missing emotions and feelings, negative feelings arise and with nothing to balance the negative feelings they are intense. By the party projecting those feelings on the enemy they are creating a community of hate and

one common enemy to bind over. If Big Brother is depicted to be fighting that enemy and to be protecting the people from that enemy that allows undying love from the proles. Hate is a powerful emotion if Big Brother is able to keep hate off themselves all they will have left is the love of the people because they protected them from their enemies. Critics can claim that the hate the proles are feeling is voluntary and would point to a passage describing the two minutes hate stating, “It was even possible, at moments, to switch one’s hatred this way or that by a voluntary act” (Orwell 8). Critics can claim humans can feel any emotion whenever they choose that is what being human is and the proles simply just choose to hate as that is what those around them are doing. However, that argument isn’t valid as some emotions such as love and lust simply aren't voluntary emotions and you can not change it or switch it voluntarily it is a feeling. If there is an absence of positive emotions and feelings negative emotions will arise and that is not voluntary. Human beings will always have emotion whether positive or negative.
Human Nature is something each and every person on Earth can claim they have. In the dystopia created by George Orwell however; Human Nature is stolen and weaponized against humans. Emotion is what makes a person human. The absence of emotion creates a robotic state of hypnosis that will forever be unchanging. In the novel Winston’s own emotion of love is used against him as the Party destroys him as a human and replaces his love for Julia with love for the party by deceiving him. The party has declared war on all human emotion outside of love for the party and Winston falls victim to that war. At the beginning of the novel Winston was filled with hope and love that perhaps if there were others like him and Julia there could be a rebellion. The party manipulates him and uses his own primal instinct against him to make him believe he doesn’t love Julia at all only Big Brother.