Love and the oppression of women have been key thematic concerns in novels throughout modern history. Wells and Orwell depict two very different dystopian futures that feature ambiguous women- the vulnerable Weena and tenacious, indomitable Julia. Love becomes part of the gender war and both novels centre on the growing power struggle between men and women in the time that the novels were written.
Wells uses visual imagery to magnify the misogynistic views of patriarchal Victorian men as Weena; “very quietly took my hand and stood beside me”. Weena’s position alongside the Time Traveller suggests that women in Victorian Britain were only needed to provide a reassuring presence; they were not allowed to have a voice. Weena too has very
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Julia’s conscious effort to stay ahead of Winston metaphorically shows her always being one step ahead of him. On the other hand, it could be Winston that forces her to develop the tactics needed to stay ahead of the Party, but at the same time Julia’s subliminal need to outsmart others is shown as an obstacle in her and Winston’s relationship as, in Julia’s eyes, they can never be equals. Orwell’s portrayal of love as largely negative, shows the reader that emotional dependence leads to ruin as their love was merely a “political act”. In Orwell’s dystopian future, humans have forgotten how to love, and Winston’s desperation to rebel against the party results in his love for Julia being fundamentally false. Orwell implies that Winston is in love with the idea of love, a notion supported by RJ Reese's statement: 'The novel leaves us with the knowledge that Winston finally loves Big Brother. This love is the only love sanctioned by the Party.' Reese too believes there is no real love in 1984- only political devotion is the recognised as love which further dehumanises the characters and their emotions. Winston's love for Julia is not for her as a person, but for the ideals she represents such as rebellion, freedom, sexual desire and independence. Their relationship is purely sexual and Orwell forces us to question whether their love is genuine, or whether …show more content…
Weena's excitement over lighting a match reflects the passive lives of Victorian women therefore any attention that they could gain would mean a great deal to them. As Weena is once again at his side, she appears to be a merely aesthetic tool to the Time Traveller - dancing to make him laugh and comfort him. This is almost a metaphor for the Victorian woman's role as an ornament on the arm of her husband as it shows her desperation to please him. The verb "Dancing" is a rather childish display of triumph and therefore illustrates Weena’s need to be cared for and her general immaturity in comparison to the Time Traveller. Without the Time Traveller, Weena is practically helpless, as shown when he saves her life when she "was seized with cramp and began drifting downstream." The verb ‘drifting’ reflects the passive lifestyle of the Eloi and illustrates their defencelessness against the Morlocks, as they are content to appease the Morlock’s butchering of their kind. This detachment from the problems around them links the Eloi to the selfish and ignorant nature of the Victorian capitalists in Wells’ time, as they tended to adopt a ‘devil take the hindmost’ approach. "Drifting downstream" is a metaphor for the devolution of the Eloi, how they are being slowly drawn towards
Winston expresses his feelings towards Julia in such an extraordinary way, “He would flog her to death with a rubber truncheon. He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows.”(Orwell 15). When he is expressing these thoughts, he is actually talking about someone he was actrate to, Winston just had no way of expressing it besides anger. He sees this beautiful young girl, who has made this vow its remain pure and chaste and he just wants to kill her because of how frustrated about it. Although late in the book, who these same two people are alone in a place without worry, everything is different, for example “You are prepared, the two of you to separate and never see one another again. ‘No!’ broke in Julia….’No,’ he said finally.” (Orwell 173) This second moment gives us a definite second opinion about how he may actually feel towards Julia. When they are both in a safe place, and can freely state and do they things they wish to do, Winston does show that he cares for Julia, enough that he does not want to leave her. I believe that these two different feelings show us that even with the body trying to control how people feel, what they do, along with what they think they never get to have complete control of
George Orwell has created two main characters that have conflicting traits: believe in the idea of love in a world where it is forbidden. Although both are secret rebels of the Party and share the same hatred for the Party’s totalitarian power, Julia and Winston display a remarkable number of differences between each other. The differences between them include their morality, their motivation towards the rebellion, and their personalities. Julia represents elements of humanity that Winston does not: survival, instincts, pure sexuality and cunning (1984 By George Orwell Character Analysis Julia). Her actions show the lack of an emotional connection to anyone, even Winston.
In George Orwell’s 1984, where strictly regulated rules is what generates this society, and any disregard for these rules ends in unimaginable punishment. Winston and Julia’s love for each other, however unconventional it is, is greatly beneficial for not only the participants, but also for O’Brien, and particularly for Big Brother itself. This passion for each other, seemingly inextinguishable, is later on taken into account by the Inner Party, finally resulting in not only complete obedience and conformity from Winston and Julia, but also in a peace of mind for these two characters.
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
Orwell’s quote “but you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred” (Orwell 1984) describes the situation between Julia and Winston. I don't believe either of them knew what true love was, they couldn’t see the difference from love and lust. In the book Winston’s feelings towards Julia were always changing. In the beginning he had hated her, wanted to murder her. Towards the middle of the book he began to warm up to her and show feelings towards her. He thought of the feelings as love although I think he truly only felt lust towards Julia. That feeling of lust was not enough for him to take the torture for Julia. He cared more about his well
The relationship between Winston and Julia may seem to be based upon mutual love and respect, but in reality it is very one-sided. The two both take initiative in the relationship whether it be to benefit themselves or the other person, and bring something important to the relationship, however, the appeal of their secretive love wears off quickly as the relationship progresses.
To start off, Orwell's sole inclusion of women who base their relationships with men exclusively on sex demonstrates Orwell's negative beliefs about women. Despite Julia's claims to love Winston, their relationship is not about “the love of one person, but the animal instinct”(132). Julia has been in similar relationships to her and Winston's “hundreds of times”(131), relationships that look only at the sexual side and never at the emotional. She refuses all of Winston's attempts to expand their relationship, having “a disconcerting habit of falling asleep”(163) whenever he persists in talking. And although Winston cares for Julia more than he cares for Katharine, Katharine also bases her relationship with Winston completely on sex. When Winston reflects on their time together, he thinks, “he could have borne living with her if it had been agreed that they remain celibate... It ...
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.
Given that George Orwell’s occupation was a English novelist, journalist, and critic his opinion that totalitarianism is wrong is not surprising because as a kid growing up in India and England he was brought up as a socialist. In 1984, Winston starts to look at his own life and the job that he has to help realize that what he is doing is wrong. He also tries to remember what is was like before Big Brother and he remembers his parents and he doesn’t know how they disappeared. Winston also starts a journal to keep track of all the dreams and thoughts he has. Furthermore in 1984, Julia knows that Big Brother is controlling the public so in her way of rebelling she has sex. One of the rules by Big Brother is that people are not allowed to have kids or any type of relationship unless permitted by the government. Julia knows that there is not much she can do to change the future but as she examines her own life she comes closer and closer to the truth. Winston and Julia looked at their own lives to help figure out that Big Brother was controlling the public. They did this by looking at their everyday lives, like the constant playing propaganda for Big Brother, the forced hate meetings, morning exercises by the telescreen. These all contributed to them checking their chains and finding
In the 2nd part of 1984 Winston is meets a girl named Julia. At first Winston believes Julia will turn him in for committing Thought Crime. Then Julia passes Winston a note and they meet each other. The Party also does not allow association that is not goverernd. This is the start of an affair between the two, because they are not married and free love is not allowed. Winston is rebelling fully by his association with Julia. The 2nd section Winston fully rebels, he joins an underground resistance, and he believes that his life is better because The Party is no longer controlling him. At the end of this section Winston learns that he has been set-up and followed by the Thought Police the whole time. He and Julia believed that they were resisting and rebelling but had actually been entrapped by the Thought Police.
These women authors have served as an eye-opener for the readers, both men and women alike, in the past, and hopefully still in the present. (There are still cultures in the world today, where women are treated as unfairly as women were treated in the prior centuries). These women authors have impacted a male dominated society into reflecting on of the unfairness imposed upon women. Through their writings, each of these women authors who existed during that masochistic Victorian era, risked criticism and retribution. Each author ignored convention a...
The two main female characters, Stella Rodney and Louie Lewis, among others in this World War Two time-frame novel, carry working class jobs. They are starting to change the stereotypical views of women just being housewives and serving their “husbands”. These characters allow readers to plainly see that women are capable of and deserve equality on the same level as men. This essentially paves the road to other novels of this time after World War II, such as Iris Murdoch’s, “Under the Net”. In this novel, women are starting to receive respect for their positions in the world.
For example, Orwell shows readers a statement regarding the Proles of the society on page 161, “The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.” ( Orwell,207). The proles in Oceania are the outcasts of society, yet they have the potential to rebel against the principals of the Party. However, Winston recognizes that the Party has blinded them, causing them to be unaware of the conditions in which they are living in. Furthermore, Orwell adds a thought of Winston’s relating to his relationship with Julia by claiming, “ 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). The Party restricts citizens from doing things as simple as feeling emotions. Nevertheless, Julia and Winston often perform actions considered illegal by the Party. Relationships are intolerable in Oceania; even family bonds do not exist. Even so, Winston and Julia sustain their relationship. Winston understands their love as an act against the Party. Since bonds and emotions are
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been widely recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman in society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women characters in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a woman during the time of the Restoration Era and give authors and essayists of the modern day, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a platform to become powerful, influential writers of the future.