Nineteen Eighty – Four
by George Orwell
Year 12 Work Book
Introduction
Year 12 Students
During this unprecedented time, we have put together this
workbook to reflect the online learning you will be
undertaking.
Please use this workbook to record your answers, draft
your paragraphs and develop your ideas. This is to help
you keep all of your work together.
It will become your study guide when it is time for the
external exam.
The Year 12 English teaching team.
Vocabulary
Add here additional vocabulary you come across as you read the text.
 Always write the name of the text in full – “Nineteen Eighty-Four”
 Dystopian
 Totalitarian
 Surveillance
 Scrutiny
 Thought Police
 INSOC
 Newspeak
Book 1 Chapter 1
(many of you will already have answered these in your workbook at school)
1. What number does the clock strike? What does that tell the audience?
2. What is the name of the building Winston enters?
3. What does it smell like?
4. How does Winston look as he is entering the building?
5. Why was there ‘no point’ using the lift?
6. What is the connotation of a society that has something called “Hate Week”?
7. How old is Winston?
8. What does he need to rest?
9. What does this suggest about his character?
Writing Prompt 1:
(if you have not completed this and sent it to me you need
to )
What type of world does Orwell create in the opening
paragraphs of 1984?
Use a slam dunk paragraph.
Questions:
1. What is the telescreen?
2. What can the reader infer about Winston based on this description?
3. What mood does the descriptive language in this paragraph create?
4. Why does Orwell repeat “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”?
Writing Prompt 2:
Choose one word or phrase that you feel best describes Winston Smith. Write a paragraph
explaining why you believe this word best describes Winton, using at least two phrases from the
text as evidence to support your point.
 Use an even better quote paragraph + Use a red white and blue sentence (power of
three)
Text Questions – Chapter 1
1. What is the image created in the line “one of those pictures that is so contrived that the
eyes follow you about when you move?”
2. What mood do the posters of Big Brother create?
3. What does the simile, “like a bluebottle”, imply about the patrols?
4. What impression does the final sentence of the paragraph give of the Thought Police
5. What does it mean that the telescreen ‘received and transmitted simultaneously?
Writing Prompt 3
What does Orwell’s word choice of ‘scrutinized’ imply about the way citizens of this society are
watched? How would the connotation have changed if Orwell had used “watched”?
Use a TEEL paragraph
Writing prompt 4 – Context (lesson on Daymap Week 1 Lesson 2)
What life experiences shaped Orwell's ideologies in regards to totalitarianism, socialism and the
human condition?
Book 1 Chapter 2 (Week 1 Lesson 3)
1. Describe Mrs. Parsons and how she lives
2. How do the Parsons’ children behave? Why is Mrs. Parsons nervous around them?
3. What is a child hero?
4. On page 30, Winston reflects that “He was already dead.” Explain what he means by
this.
5. Go back to Chapter 1. Who is O’Brien and what is significant about him?
6. Look at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth Hitler Youth Movement. What
does this movement have in common with the Youth League in 1984?
7. Look at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
The White Rose, what was this group and what were they trying to do?
Writing prompt 5:
How does the Parsons boy reflect the totalitarian ideology of the novel? (make sure you
are using quotes)
World Building
There are three super –states in Nineteen Eighty-Four – large and powerful federations of
nations constantly at war with one another.
Oceania – takes up most of the western hemisphere (think British colonies): Australiasia, the
British Islet and Southern Africa. London is the capital and where Winston Smith resides. The
state’s ideology is English Socialism or Ingsoc.
Eurasia has territories across continental Europe and Russia including Siberia. Its ideology is
Neo-Bolshevism , which combines elements of nationalism and Bolshevism (the form of
communist government in Russia after the 1917 Revolution)
Eastasia covers China, Korea, Japan and Indochina. They follow a dogma known as the
Obliteration of the Self or Death Worship which involves a detachment from individual identities.
Week 2 Lesson 1
Book 1 Chapter 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT0hD7YtmMc
1. Look back at page 17 chapter 1 regarding Winston’s transfer of hate to the dark haired
girl. Compare and contrast his feelings toward her during the hate, compared to that
experienced in the dream. Why does he hate her so much? What changes? How could
this be considered ‘”thought crime”?
2. Why does Winston feel guilty over his mother’s death?
3. What is Winston’s dream about his mother? How does he feel about himself in that
dream? What is his dream about the “Golden Country”?
4. Explain the Party slogan, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the
present controls the past.”
5. State the names of the countries at war. What is the lie regarding these countries that
Winston knows?
6. Describe doublethink (see page 37-38). Can you think of a modern example of
doublethink? Watch this clip to start thinking :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nLYmhWa45s
Doublethink is very common amongst the Party, and quoting from CliffNotes,
“doublethink is the act of holding, simultaneously, two opposite, individually
exclusive ideas or opinions and believing in both simultaneously and absolutely.
Doublethink requires using logic against logic or suspending disbelief in the
contradiction.” The three slogans inside the novel, “War is Peace,” “Freedom is
Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength,” are all examples of doublethink.
7. What are some other lies told by the state that Winston mentions?
8. What is the metaphoric meaning of the memory holes?
Writing Prompt 6: How does Orwell’s construction of the Ministries make them the most
notable form of double-think? (write TEEL a paragraph, make sure you are using quotes from
the text to support your argument).
Week 2 Lesson 2
Book 1 Chapter 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E24cPv4EIcU
1. What is Winston’s job at the ministry? What are the dangers of changing our history?
2. Do a close reading of his job with Comrade Ogilvy and explain the quote, “it struck him as
curious that you could create dead men but not living ones.”?
3. What does “vaporized” mean? What is an “unperson”?
4. Who are proles? How are they treated differently?
5. What is “speakwrite” and how does this aid the party in controlling history?
Week 2 Lesson 3
Book 1 Chapter 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0utUvV0Nck
1. Who is Syme? Describe what he does for a living. Why does Winston call him
“venomously orthodox”?
2. Describe Newspeak. What is the purpose of Newspeak? How does Syme feel about
Newspeak?
3. What is a “thoughtcrime?
4. What is Oldspeak? Why would the Party want to get rid of Oldspeak?
5. What does Winston think is wrong with Syme?
6. Describe the inconsistency between the statistics that pour out of the telescreen
(p62) and the reality of the citizens’ lives? Why are these statistics being fabricated?
7. What is a “facecrime”?
8. For what is Newspeak a metaphor?
9. How is Winston’s prophecy of Syme’s imminent disappearance ironic?
10. What is the significance of the Party putting forth the Aryan look (blond hair, blue
eyes) as an ideal?
Writing Prompt 7: How does the perversion and limitation of language contribute to the Party’s
control of Oceania’s citizens? (write a TEEL paragraph, make sure you are using quotes from
the text to support your argument).
Week 3 Lesson 1
Book 1 Chapter 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKkihBGJI-w
1. Describe the Party’s rules and attitudes towards sex and marriage. Why do they have
these rules?
2. What is the “Junior Anti-sex league? Describe its purpose.
3. Describe Winton’s relationship with his wife Katherine. How did she feel about the Party?
Why have they separated?
4. Why is the memory of the prostitute so frustrating for Winston?
5. What has Winston come to want most about sex? What is the significance of
this?
Week 2 Lesson 2
Book 1 Chapter 7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZESowbP414
1) Why does Winston state that “If there was hope, it must lie with the proles.” What does it
mean?
2) Analyse Winston’s quote: “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until
after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” (link plato’s cave)
3) How are the proles presented in the novel? What kind of people are they? How are they
treated differently from the Inner and Outer Party and why? Is there any attempt to
convert the proles to party ideology? Why?
4) What is the significance of the photograph found by Winston (p.81)? What does he do
with the photograph?
5) How does Winston feel about O’Brien?
6) Read page 84. What event do you think Orwell is foreshadowing in these
paragraphs?
Writing prompt 8: There is a very prominent social hierarchy in Nineteen Eighty-Four
designed to further control the populace. Name and describe each of the three levels of society
and their role.
Week 3 Lesson 3
Book 1 Chapter 8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbDrb1Hu-kM
1. How do proles feel about the Lottery? What is the truth about the Lottery?
2. Why does Winston feel that “it could only be a prole” (p.90) who could give a “truthful
account of conditions in the early part of the century”?
3. Describe the glass object Winston buys in the antique shop. (p99) Why is it “doubly
attractive”?
4. Aside from its appearance, why is Winston so intrigued by the glass paperweight?
5. In his dream, O’Brien says to Winston, “We shall meet in the place where there is no
darkness.” What is the significance of this?
6. What is the significance of the picture in regards to Winston, Julia and Mr Charrington?
Writing Prompt 9: Make an inference about the nursery rhyme in this chapter. What do you
think it means? Why do you think Orwell includes it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OzHAAfdqcc (listen to the full rhyme here)
Book 1 Graphic Organiser Themes, Symbols, Motifs, Character
Aesthetic Features
Themes
How is it represented in the text
Quote
Analysis


The face of Big Brother
symbolises the Party in its public
manifestation; he is a
reassurance to most people (the
warmth of his name suggests his
ability to protect), but he is also
an open threat (one cannot
escape his gaze). Big Brother
also symbolizes the vagueness
with which the higher ranks of the
Party present themselves—it is
impossible to know who really
rules Oceania, what life is like for
the rulers, or why they act as
they do.
 He longs, in an idealised way, to
recapture some of what normal
life was like in those former
days. When one could
appreciate beauty, when one
could have possessions not
doles out by The Party, he longs
to be anywhere but in the
present.
Power and Control
Technology and Surveillance
Individual vs Collective
Love and Loyalty
Symbols
Posters everywhere, indoors
and outdoors

1. Big Brother
2. Glass Paper Weight
3. St Clement’s Church/rhyme
(church bells?)
4.
5.
6.
7.
Chess
The Diary
Telescreens
The Prole Woman p 144,148





2) The glass paperweight
symbolises Winston's desire to
escape into the time before the
Party took over.

The coral paperweight also
symbolises the special world
that Winston attempts to create
LISA JOHANSON
“enormous face…ruggedly
handsome features. p1
The hypnotic eyes gazed into
his own…to deny the
evidence of your senses. p
83
What kind of smile was
hidden beneath the dark
moustache? p 107
What appealed to him about it
was not so much its beauty as
the air it seemed to possess of
belonging to an age quite
different from the present one.
p99. It’s a message from a
hundred years ago if one knew
how to read it. P152
11

with Julia separate from the
everyday world of the Party
they both must function in.
The paperweight also
symbolises the fragility and
vulnerability of the world
Winston and Julia have tried to
create.




3) St Clements Church/rhyme.
Charrington, in disguise as the
harmless/kindly shop owner,
originally mentions the rhyme to
Winston as they study a print of
St Clements Dane
(foreshadowing – he describes
the game)

LISA JOHANSON
The inexhaustibly interesting

thing was not the fragment of
coral but the interior of the glass
itself... The paperweight was the
room he was in, and the coral
was Julia’s life and his own,
fixed in a sort of eternity at the
heart of the crystal.
The fragment of coral, a tiny
crinkle of pink like a sugar
rosebud from a cake, rolled

across the mat. How small,
thought Winston, how small it
always was!
Oranges and lemons, say the
bells of St. Clement’s, You
owe me three farthings, say
the bells of St. Martin’s! It
was curious, but when you
said it to yourself you had the
illusion of actually hearing
bells, the bells of a lost
London that still existed
somewhere or other,
12


By gazing at the glass, Winston
can indulge in the fantasy that
he and Julia can escape into a
magical world all their own that
will never change, that will be
eternal. It becomes the
projection of their desired
utopia. It represents all their
longings for a different kind of
life.
The paperweight is easily
smashed. It is shattered at the
very moment Winston and
Julia's private world is shattered
by the intrusion of the secret
police. He and Julia have always
been equally small and
vulnerable, as Winston will find
out from O'Brien. Like the
paperweight and the oldfashioned values it represents,
they too, will be crushed.
As Winston uncovers more
and more of the rhyme he is
coming closer and closer to
his own downfall. The party is
coming to "chop off his head".





disguised and forgotten.
From one ghostly steeple
after another he seemed to
hear them pealing forth. Yet
so far as he could remember
he had never in real life heard
church bells ringing. P 103
p 101, 102 Mr Charrington
talks about the song, p102
remembers more
P153 Julia remembers some
of the song
PT 2 chp 5 he gets more
rhyme fragments from
Charrington
PT 2 chp 8 O’ Brien fills in the
last line of the song
And then another quite
different voice, a thin,
cultivated voice which
Winston had the impression
of having heard before, struck
in; 'And by the way, while we
are on the subject, "Here
comes a candle to light you to
bed, here comes a chopper
to chop off your head"!' PT 2
chp 10

But you could not control the
beating of your heart and the
telescreen was quite delicate
LISA JOHANSON
13
enough to pick it. p82
Motifs
The smell of urine, sawdust and
sour beer p 88
Urban Decay
“Victory Mansions, Gin”
Stylistic Devices
Structure
Narrative View Point
Irony
Foreshadowing
LISA JOHANSON
14
CHARACTER
Winston Smith
REPRESENTATION IN NOVEL
AESTHETIC FEATURES AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
Even though the novel is written
from third person narrative, it is
clearly from his perspective.
Protagonist, name (Smith) a homage to
everyman, amateur intellectual, rebel
against authority, individual VS society
Attitude to women:
“He disliked nearly all women.”
Attitude to O’Brien:
Attitude to the past:
LISA JOHANSON
15
Julia
O’ Brien
Heroine? Stereotypical sex object? Agent of
the Thought Police?
She initially filled Winston with
“black terror”, in a sense
foregrounding the consequences
of their secret relationship.
A “burly man” with a “brutal
face”
Orwell introduces O’Brien as a
formidable character:
“We shall meet in the place that
has no darkness.”
“A momentary hush passed
over…” people when he entered
(P. 12)
LISA JOHANSON
16
Big Brother
Symbolic figurehead, almost God-like,
personifies the power of totalitarianism,
surveillance, government control
Emmanuel Goldstein
The “Other”, the enemy, Jewish name
“God”, represents an illusion of resistance
“BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”
They are not developed characters,
rather figures representing the
inferior class.
Proles
LISA JOHANSON
17
LISA JOHANSON
18