Winston Love In 1984

The world of 1984 is one in which the Party control everything, even that which normally cannot be controlled, and in which nothing is private, not even one’s mind and all its functions. The Party sought to dehumanize its citizens, removing every sense of individuality, every emotion, including love. Winston Smith has limited but significant encounters with, or there lack of, what he believes to be love, first with his mother and Katharine, then with Julia, and finally with Big Brother. Even with so many forms of “love”, none allows Winston to fully comprehend the concept, and even destroy the possibility that he ever will.

Prior to the beginning of the novel Winston has two key experiences with attraction: with his mother, and with his wife Katharine. In the Pre-Party days Winston

Winston barely remembers his mother as she disappeared in one of the purges when he was young, presumably killed off. Winston has one dream in which his mother and sister are sinking down through water, coming to the conclusion that “they were down there because he was up here” (Orwell, p.38), meaning his mother loved him so much that she died for him. Winston does not necessarily grasp the concept that his mother loved him, but he instinctively feels a connection to her. Even with only the vaguest memories Winston continues to draw strength from those memories of his mum, a sense of a past life and hope for the future. As Winston tastes freedom, his memories become stronger, and so does the mother of his memories; she grows from an unfortunate casualty of Winston’s actions to an independent woman who “possessed a kind of nobility…simply because the standards that she obeyed were private ones” (Orwell 207). But aside from his mother, Katharine, his “stupid, vulgar, empty mind[ed]” (Orwell 85) wife, is the only other female symbol of love from his past life. With Katharine, “a tall, fair-haired girl,” (Orwell 84), it was nothing but a loveless arrangement made by the Party to