Examples Of Power In 1984 By George Orwell

Power is everything to people, with power people are able to do whatever they desire with no repercussions. 1984 takes place in a dystopian future were the Party controls every aspect of their citizen’s life and make their lives miserable all in the name of keeping their power. The Party exerts their power in many different ways throughout Orwell’s book. The way the Party wields their power in 1984 leads to the conclusion that the Party is unable to be overthrown because of the amount of power and control they have over their citizens.
The world in which 1984 takes place is very different to the real world. More context is required to understand how powerful the Party is during the book. The world was split into three different super-states

during the middle of the twentieth century. Russia had enveloped Europe, while the United States had taken control of the British Empire with all its holdings over the world. These actions had cemented two of the three super states territory but it would take another decade for the final super state to appear. Russia and Europe became Eurasia and The United States and The British Empire became Oceania. The final super state encompasses all of China and the countries south of it. This swath of territory became known as Eastasia. In the world of 1984: “In one combination or another, these three super-stares are permanently at war, and have been so for the past twenty-five years” (Orwell 240). Even though these entities are at a constant state of warfare, the reasons behind going to war have completely changed. Wars in history were fought for various reasons, however. In the world, today, wars are fought over labour power. Because each super state contains so much land and resources, each super state requires labour to produce materials in order to go to war and acquire fresh labour to again produce more products. This new reasoning behind war is a never-ending cycle. These super states do not encompass the entire world. There is a massive swath of land not in possession of any of the three super-states. From Tangier, Brazzaville, Darwin and Hong Kong lies a fifth of the world’s population. The reason why this land remains disputed is: “Portions of it are constantly hands, and it is the chance of seizing this or that fragment by a sudden stroke of treachery that dictates the endless changes of alignment” (Orwell 242). By understanding the differences between Winston Smith’s world and our world gives insight on how powerful and dominant the Party is.
The Party uses various methods to oppress and limit the ability of their citizens to speak out against the Party. The most effective way they do this is through the use of Newspeak. Newspeak is a new language developed by the Party. Newspeak was first created by members of the inner party and is used by both inner and outer members of the party. Newspeak is the process of combing two or more old words into a new word that means something completely different. Humans express themselves a lot with language, when something is bothering someone, that person will do something to then express their distress. Language is one of the most common mediums used by people to express their feelings towards other people. Besides something bothering someone, there are many other reasons behind someone using language to express themselves. One of the most prominent and popular ways people enjoy expressing their opinion is with politics. Humans feel the need to let everyone know their dissatisfaction towards certain ideals and motivations behind different political groups. This constant bashing of established political systems is something the Party has striven to remove so as to protect their ideals from being tarnished and thrown around and questioned. The Party is not a loved political movement and would have lots of opposition to their governance if they allowed their citizens to be able to express themselves. Newspeak was created to limit and incapacitate the Party’s citizen’s ability to speak out against the Party itself. The English language has several different words that meant the same thing. Newspeak gets rid of words deemed inappropriate and unnecessary in the society the Party has strived to create. Newspeak makes it much harder for people to speak out against The Party because the party has taken away their ability to speak out against the Party. When the “whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words- in reality, only one word (Orwell 67). Without using words, it is almost impossible for someone to express their distain towards an issue that effects their life. Even though the Party limits their citizen’s ability to speak out against with the use of Newspeak, the Party still needs to deal with the consequences of their actions. If the Party were to do something unsavoury towards their population, which is common practise for them, the Party then needs to deal with the outbreak of negative emotions directed towards them. The Party will use Propaganda to cloud the reasoning behind the people angry at them and in turn focus make the focus of their anger something entirely different. The main way the Party does this is by the use of Hate Week. Hate Week is used by the leaders of the Party to antagonize their citizens into getting mad at whatever they deem fit for them to get mad at. Hate Week makes the people watching unreasonably angry at whatever they see on the screen in front of them. “A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electrical current, turning one even against one’s will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic” (Orwell 19). Because Hate Week is so effective at focusing and directing the citizens of Oceania’s anger towards anything the Party wants, not many people in Oceania outright hate the Party. The Party is able to limit the ability for the people of Oceania to rebel against them through the manipulation of their anger and the limitation of being able to express themselves.
The party uses different methods to make sure no one in Oceania has any privacy, which in turn lets the Party know whenever someone does anything to affect the integrity of the party. In every Party members house whether they are an inner or outer member of the Party and in every official Party building, there are telescreens. These telescreens cannot be turned off and only have a few channels to choose from. The main reason behind placing these screens almost everywhere is due to the fact that it allows the Party to monitor and see everything a person does in front of a telescreen. This constant observation goes hand in hand with Panopticon theory. This theory created by Michael Foucault, states that people who believe they are under constant observation will act differently from their regular selves. These people under constant observation will refrain from acting in any way, shape or form from outside the social norms in fear of repercussions. This theory has been proven in the world of 1984. When people are in the view of a telescreen in 1984, they seem to become perfect members of the Party, even if they are not. Winston who does not agree with the Party and their ideals is forced to go to the one place in his apartment where the telescreen cannot see him so he is able to write down his thoughts in his book that he bought. Even when out of the view of the telescreen, Winston is unable to speak because the telescreen can pick up his voice. This constant observation by the Party has gotten rid of apparent privacy in the world, meaning that the people who wish to speak and act against the Party have an extremely difficult time talking or planning out what they should do to destabilize the Party and regardless if they succeed in finding a space to talk freely, those people still find the risk of getting caught by the thought police. The Thought police are a secret organization who answers to the leaders of the Party, who’s job is to monitor members of the party and make sure they don’t do anything that would affect The Party in any negative way. The Though Police are very good at their job. Because they are so effective at rooting out anyone who commits the smallest infraction against the Party, large amounts of people in Oceania more specifically in London where Winston lives, believe that anyone could be an undercover Though Policeman trying to get them to expose themselves as a traitor to the Party. If someone were to be caught and accused of something such as espionage against Oceania, that person is sent to the Ministry of Love. The Ministry of Love is where the Party manipulates, tortures and is the place where they can get whatever they want from whoever they want. Winston rents the room above Mr. Carrington and spends a lot of time there with Julia because Winston thought that they were safe from The Thought Police, however Mr. Carrington was a member of the thought police and ended up getting Winston and Julia sent to the Ministry of Love. Children born after the revolution with no idea about how the world should normally worked, have been conditioned by propaganda to report any suspicious behavior to the Thought Police. This conditioning has made it even more difficult for people to conspire against the Party as this has turned the family “[i]n effect an extension of the Thought Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded night and day by informers who knew him intimately” (Orwell). This constant uncertainty and anxiety that the people around you might be spies for the thought police makes it impossible for someone to fully trust another person, which in turn prevents those two people who think negatively against the Party from working together, as one of those people might be an undercover member of the thought police or an informer to them. With no privacy and the constant fear that someone is watching you waiting for you to step out of line and punish you accordingly, it makes organized rebellion against the Party impossible.
Ideology is defined as a system of ideals and beliefs; these systems of ideals are used as the basis for governments ruling their country.

The Party has become increasingly difficult to fight due to the fact that their government has become an Ideology that almost everyone in Oceania has been forced to follow. Goldstein according to Big Brother and the Party is the enemy of Oceania. Goldstein represents everything the party stands against. The Party over time becomes increasingly difficult to fight against because there is no other set of ideals known to the people of Oceania and if ideals for the groundwork of any political movement, how are people supposed to rebel against the Party? The existence of Goldstein and The Brotherhood is not and cannot be proven as the Party is the one claiming the existence of Goldstein. Goldstein could have been created as a lure for the doubtful people of Oceania to be apprehended by the Thought Police. People make decisions based on their ideals and beliefs; yet these people can’t rebel if there is no other known political system. “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell). Since the Party controls every present aspect of their citizen’s life, they are able to alter the past so the Party seems right in every affair they had a hand in and make them appear as the good guys in every situation. The Party employs people such as Winston to alter the past so it better suits the needs of the

Party
The Party is the most powerful force in Oceania simply because they take away the ability for their citizens to rebel and speak out against the Party itself.