Winston Smith, Party member Oceania
introduced as protagonist
 Dystopic / post-apocalyptic world
 Individuality denied
 Constant surveillance acts as controlling
force (Big Brother, Telescreens)
 ‘Pillars’ of society are Ministries (Truth,
Peace, Love, Plenty)

Winston engages in rebellious / criminal
act of opening diary – attempt to store
meaning in increasingly meaningless
world
 Julia and O’Brien also introduced
 Julia is anti-sex league member –
personification of everything Winston
despises
 O’Brien is Inner Party member –
represents hope that there is alternative
to ‘political orthodoxy’

Substitute for emotional expression is Two
Minutes Hate directed at enemy of the
Party – Goldstein
 Party Slogans are provided (War is
Peace...)
 Winston’s character develops with
passionate expression in diary (Down
with BB)
 Winston knows he will be apprehended
by thought police, charged with
thoughtcrime and vaporised

39
 Has varicose ulcer on right ankle
 Fair hair, naturally optimistic expression
 Physically broken down
 Psychologically conflicted
 Party rebel
 Works at Records Department in Ministry
of ‘Truth’ rewriting history / falsifying
records


Reader positioned to feel sympathy for
Winston who is presented as an
‘everyman’ struggling to attain some
degree of authenticity in hostile / unreal
world
Works for Fiction Department
 Presented to reader through Winston’s
eyes as orthodox party female ardently
anti-sex and completely indoctrinated
by Party Propaganda
 Of interest in novel’s opening because
Winston is attracted to her and repelled
by her in equal measure


Reader is positioned to associate Julia
with danger – works as foreshadowing to
further development of plot
Inner Party member. Holder of important
position
 Perceived through Winston’s eyes as
possessing some latent unorthodoxy

Reader positioned to believe O’Brien
could represent source of hope for
Winston
 Foreshadows that reader will be
manipulated as Winston is – increases
reader sympathy, allegiance with
Winston

Dehumanisation / Repression of
Individuality / Isolation
 Power of the State / Political Control
 The nature of language and truth

Big Brother
 Two Minutes Hate

It was a bright cold day in April, and the
clocks were striking thirteen
 BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU
 WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
 A day never passed when spies and
saboteurs acting under his directions were
not unmasked by the Thought Police

The Brotherhood, its name was supposed
to be
 The horrible thing about the Two Minutes
Hate was not that one was obliged to
act a part, but that it was impossible to
avoid joining in
 At this moment the entire group of
people broke into a deep slow
rhythmical chant of B-B!...B-B!

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
 The Thought Police would get him just
the same
 You were abolished, annihilated:
vaporized was the usual word
 Theyll shoot me i dont care theyll shoot
me in the back of the nect i dont care
down with big brother they always shoot
you in the back of the neck...







Foreshadowing
Satirical description of totalitarianism
Third person narration favours Winston’s
point of view
Language is jargonistic. Use of
capitalisation for emphasis
Paradox and irony (War is Peace...)
Flashback device to fill in earlier detail of
Two Minutes Hate (used throughout to
represent memory / dreams)