George Orwell's Winston Smith is a character that exists only on the basis that he believes he is an individual The world presented in 1984 is one that does not allow for uniqueness, yet the tragic hero of Winston Smith is driven to find himself by attempting rebellion. Because of the shear bleakness of the world, Winston Smith is nothing but a plaything to do the bidding of those above him. He works in an office known as the Ministry of Truth, where he spends all day changing records to reflect current Party interests. The area in where he resides in is Airstrip One, formerly known as England, which is part of a super power known as Oceania. In 1984, there are three super powers encompassing the whole of the Earth. All three …show more content…
are constantly at war with each other and have fought each other to a stalemate from which each are doomed to forever. The society that exists, like the other two super powers', is totalitarian, and throughout this society exist secret agents called Thought Police, that remove any rebellious factions that threaten the rule of the Party. Such is the world of Winston Smith, a world of unrelenting orthodoxy and gruesome discipline. In all this, barely exists Winston Smith. Winston Smith is lost in this world, he is tired of the telescreens, tired of the poor quality of life, and most of all, he is tired of being an anonymous object. There is a need to define one's own individuality before there can be a journey of hope. There 2 is no point to destination without origin.
In Winston Smith's quest, he tries to find ways of defining himself, not publicly, but privately to himself, for it would be suicide to show self-definition openly. His first step to rebellion is the purchase of diary and a pen. In it he expresses his feelings to the one person that he feels he can trust, himself. He explores his own thought process by putting it on paper, thus he is given a chance to examine a real person, himself. As the novel progresses, Winston Smith is confronted by a female known as Julia. Julia, to Winston, serves more than one purpose. She is his idealization of woman and she is another way of self-definition. She, as a maternal/lover figure, subconsciously brings about childhood memories as shown when Winston is reminded of chocolate and the poem "Oranges and Lemons say the bells of Saint …show more content…
Clement's." With the advent of Julia, there is a more acute channel for Winston to find his identity.
Even if the person found is nothing more than Winston Smith's embodiment of his hatred for the Party, he has still found a niche for which he can escape the chasm of nonexistence. This identity founded on Julia's lifestyle is pleasing because in every sense it opposes Party dogma. This is illustrated in the words of Winston Smith when he says to Julia, "I hate purity, I hate goodness, I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones." Because of the sexual act, Winston Smith is able to rediscover nature's gift to man, the fantasy. In the idealization of Julia, Winston directs himself and his devotion to her and not the Party. This rebellious act causes Winston to exists with a
purpose 3 other than that of Big Brother. He experiences deeper emotion which Winston had only hinted at in his diary. Winston obviously is driven by this for he would not continue meeting with Julia under such dangerous conditions if he did not feel moved to risk his life. A being in love abandons all previous modes of thought and exists knowingly of the possible consequences, but ignoring them the same. Near the end of the novel, Winston realizes that he can never be a true individual when the Thought Police appear. There will be no more Julia, Winston Smith will be forced to turn away from the mirror and march towards his eventual execution, finding that the only person he can ever be is, Big Brother. Though Winston achieves intellectual freedom, he is severed from his course by a power much greater than he. The thought of total failure and capture was constant in the mind of Winston, but with the odds playing out that he would eventually be caught he risked it and tried to draw the greatest amount of life from his brief taste of pseudo-freedom. But, to Winston Smith, that semi-freedom was the most concrete thing that he ever experienced in his life and it was his freedom, not a ghastly perversion as imposed by Big Brother. And in that fleeting moment, Winston Smith was what he wanted to be, a free human.
Julia instructs Winston how to return to London. The two arranged meetings where and when they would meet again. Julia reveals that she is not interested in the revolt. Although, she is a personal rebel. Winston reveals information to Julia about his wife Katherine which he decided weather to not killer her or not. Winston returned to Mr. Charrington’s offer: he had rented the room above his shop in order to spend some private time with Julia. Winston reveals his fear of rats.
Winston Smith - The protagonist of the story. Winston Smith works as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents. This involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs, mostly to remove "unpersons," people who have fallen foul of the party. Because of his proximity to the mechanics of rewriting history, Winston Smith nurses doubts about the Party and its monopoly on truth.
Winston Smith is the book’s main protagonist. He 's 39 years old, and works as a records editor in the Ministry of Truth. Winston is very intelligent and thoughtful, but also rebellious and fatalistic. He fights against the Party while being aware that there is only one end result for doing
Winston’s and Julia’s meeting in the woods signifies breaking the totalitarian ways of the party. Here Winston feels free from observation, and gets a glimpse of the freedom that the party opposes. It is a place for lovemaking, a utter horrendous crime in their state. Here there are only Winston’s and Julia’s eyes,
Winston Smith is a thirty-nine year old man who participates in a group of the “outer-party,” which is the lower part of the two classes. Smith works in one of the four main government buildings. This building is called the Ministry of Truth; his job is to rewrite history books so those that read them will not learn what the past used to be like. The occupation Winston is the major factor that allows him to realize that Big Brother is limiting people’s freedom. He keeps these thoughts to himself as secrets because the totalitarian party will not allow those of rebellious thoughts around. The tensions between the two grow throughout the book because the Big Brother becomes very suspicious of Winston. The Big Brother becomes so suspicious of Winston that he sends a person by the name O’Brien, to watch over him. Mr. O’Brien is a member of the “inner party,” which in this book is the upper-class. Winston doesn't know of the trap that Big Brother had set tells O’Brien of his own idea and plans. He tells Winston of a rebellious leader that has been rounding up those that want to go against the totalitarian government. But like the Big Brother had done, he set a trap and O’Brien betrayed Winston. During the story the conflict between Big Brother and Winston climaxes when Winston is caught. He is taken to some sort of bright underground prison type
... due to his unorthodoxy, such as maintaining a secret and promiscuous relationship with Julia, and the political ramifications of the sexual act; and lastly, the deconstruction of his individualism at the hands of the Party, due to its hunger for power over the mind. It is not surprising then, that among the imposing doctrines of the government of Big Brother, the character of Winston Smith was eventually wiped out. In conclusion, a passage from Winston’s diary:
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.
Winston Smith is not an admirable character, because he falls under the spell of The Party, and betrays the love of his life, Julia.
She presents herself as a passionate Party follower, but underneath the surface she embodies the spirit of a bird; her desires are to be free and enjoy life. Winston is the complete opposite; he is consciously determined to differentiate fact and fiction .This is shown when Winston learns about Julia’s sexual history.
Orwell used individualism as an antidote for totalitarianism. He portrayed a society where the power of the governing `Party' only gives "the individual [...] power in so far as he ceases to be an individual." The Party views individualism as a disease, as a malfunction in the individual's mind to control their memory and thought impulses - a failure "in humility, in self-discipline." 1984 is told from the perspective of Winston Smith, a Party member who works in the Ministry of Truth; he is neither a particularly heroic character, nor is he blessed with any extraordinary traits, so why would Orwell choose such an average man to be his protagonist? Winston possesses a personality, he has preferences, he esteems history and recognises its malleability in the hands of the Party (which is the ...
However, he secretly harbours resentment toward these policies due to his desire to retain his individuality and character. This is evident when he goes against the law by purchasing a diary and writing the statement, “Down with Big Brother”, the person leading his government. In many parts of the book, he uses his diary to express his views on the flaws of his government. This reinforces his desire to be independent and attempt to maintain his character. Thus, it allows him to stray away from his responsibility of being a lawful citizen. Another instance of him attempting to retain his character and individuality is when he engages in sex with Julia on numerous occasions in the grove and in the room rented from Mr. Charrington. In the general, sex is a powerful symbol which represents the essence and vigour of humanity. It is tied with individuality since it allows a human being to experience pleasure and the emotions an individual experience make them unique. Thus this allows Winston and Julia to be different from their comrades. Therefore, this allows average individuals to attempt to maintain their independence and their
The main character Winston Smith was a very curious and rebelliousness individual. He wondered how and why the gove...
Once being proposed anything having to do with rebellion, Winston obviously would jump at any opportunity. The Party has banned any form of love, with the exception of love for Big Brother. Winston is handed a note that says ‘I love you.’ from a girl named Julia, who is also a rebel. This gesture led to a long standing relationship between the two, which is obviously banned by The Party. Winston felt love for Julia when he saw “something in your face...As soon as I saw you I knew you were against them.” (128) Winston sees Julia’s opposition to The Party as attractive, which leads him to see ‘something’ in her face, which is his love for her. Winston has a love for Julia, but since his feelings are banned, he now has another reason to hate The Party, being that they do not allow him to express his love for Julia. The love that Winston feels for Julia is unconditional, which is proven in The Ministry of Love when O’Brien asks, “‘Can you think of a single degradation that has not happened to you?’ Winston had stopped weeping, though the tears were still oozing out of his eyes. He looked up at O’Brien. ‘I have not betrayed Julia’ he said.” (273) Even when Winston is in the worst possible situation, his love for Julia and his loyalty towards her does not go unaccounted for at the time that he said that he had not betrayed her. Winston had not put himself before
In the beginning of the book Winston is writing in a diary. An act which may seem small but which is a unquestionably large crime in the book. From this moment the reader can tell that Winston is envious of life before the Party from what
Winston felt like sex was a rebellion. He is drawn to his lover Julia because