1984 Theme Essay

In George Orwell’s novel, 1984 the theme is a totalitarian government has the capability to physically and mentally break down individuals and then rebuild them the way they want by using torture and the destruction of emotions and personal thought.
The first idea that is consistently shown in this novel that supports theme is torture. In the last part of the book especially torture is used to break Winston down until he is nothing but skin and bone. “They slapped his face, wrung his ears, pulled his hair, made him stand on one leg, refused him leave to urinate, shone glaring lights in his face until his eyes ran with water; but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning.” (Orwell 241) Torture

was a way the Party pulled confessions out of people. They used everything they could to break the prisoner down until he was nothing but a body and a mind they can brainwash to use to their advantage. Torture was just another way to show that the Party was in control and they could do whatever they needed to pull information out of the people they captured. “They wore them down by torture and solitude until they were despicable, cringing wretches, confessing whatever was put into their mouths, covering themselves with abuse, accusing, and sheltering behind one another, whimpering for mercy.” (Orwell 254) They got the people to confess to things they didn’t even do. The Party took for granted their power. “We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him.” (Orwell 255) After being tortured the prisoners are then molded into what the Party wants them to be. The Party makes them “sane” by brainwashing them so all they know is that they love Big Brother and will believe whatever he says. But even though most of the people in the Ministry of Love don’t leave, the Party still brainwashes them.
Another way this totalitarian government breaks down their people is through destruction of one’s emotions and personal thought.

“Today there were fear, hatred, and pain, but no dignity of emotion, or deep or complex sorrows.” (Orwell 30) The Party has stripped the society of almost all emotion that they can’t have deep or complex emotions. Their people are told what to feel and if they think or feel deeper, it is thoughtcrime. Thoughtcrime is a serious offense in this society. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow down the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” (Orwell 52) Even their language is used to destruct thought. Every year it becomes more and more impossible to have deep feelings or thoughts because their language gets smaller and smaller. The whole goal of Newspeak is to narrow down their words to one single word. Doing this will completely diminish thought. They won’t have words to express what they’re thinking or feeling. Eventually the whole society will be paroles, retards. “But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.” (Orwell 126) Even when they have personal feelings it is still directed towards the Party. No emotion is fully towards one

person it is a blow to the Party. Emotions aren’t pure, there’s always something mixed in. There’s no such thing in fully loving someone.