Classi: III-IV-V
Prof.ssa Carmen Gresia

GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950)

BORN ERIC ARTHUR BLAIR IN INDIA IN 1903 , HE WAS THE SON OF A MINOR
COLONIAL OFFICIAL
HE WAS EDUCATED AT ETON , IN ENGLAND, WHERE HE BEGAN TO DEVELOP
AN INDEPENDENT-MINDED PERSONALITY, INDIFFERENCE TO ACCEPTED
VALUES AND WHERE HE PROFESSED ATHEISM AND SOCIALISM
.
ON LEAVING COLLEGE HE STARTED TO WORK FOR THE INDIAN IMPERIAL
POLICE IN BURMA (1922-1927)
HE HATED WORKING IN BURMA AND RETURNED TO ENGLAND ON SICK-
LEAVE

”to escape from … every form of man’s dominion over man”
ONCE BACK IN ENGLAND HE DEVOTED HIMSELF TO WRITING FULL TIME,
PUBLISHING HIS WORKS WITH THE PSEUDONYM OF GEORGE ORWELL .

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)  a non-fiction narrative in which he described his experience among the poor.
Burmese Days (1934)  based on his experiences in the colonial service.
The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)  a report on the conditions of miners in the industrial North.
Homage to Catalonia (1938)  based on his experience during the Spanish
Civil War.
Animal Farm (1945)  made him internationally known and financially secure.
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)  his most original novel.

George Orwell.
• HE QUESTIONS HIS ENGLISHNESS  he accepted new ideas and impressions.
• Conflict between middle-class education and emotional identification with the working class.
• his political views were shaped by his
EXPERIENCES of socialism, totalitarianism and imperialism all over the world
• THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST  to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions from them
 Social function  Against Totalitarianism, violation of liberty and tyranny in all its forms.

Influence of Dickens in the choice of:
 SOCIAL THEMES
 REALISTIC LANGUAGE
 MISERY CAUSED BY POVERTY
 DEPRAVATION OF SOCIETY
Criticism of
Totalitarianism violation of liberty and tyranny in all its forms.
George Orwell while working for the BBC

"MAKE POLITICAL WRITING INTO AN ART“….
“BECAUSE THERE IS SOME LIE THAT I WANT TO EXPOSE".
In Why I write (1946) in this essay he admitted that "every line of serious work that I have written since
1936 has been written, directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it".
In WRITERS AND LEVIATHAN (1948)
"[ …] I am not, of course, suggesting that mental dishonesty is peculiar to Socialists and leftwingers generally, or is commonest among them. It is merely that ACCEPTANCE OF ANY
POLITICAL DISCIPLINE SEEMS TO BE
INCOMPATIBLE WITH LITERARY INTEGRITY.
This applies equally to movements like Pacifism and Personalism, which claim to be outside the ordinary political struggle. Indeed, the mere sound of words ending in — ism seems to bring with it the smell of propaganda."

TRE VALORI
DELLA MEMORIA
1) MEMORIA
COME TESTIMONIANZA.
Prevalenza del dato rievocativo-descrittivo.
L’adozione di pratiche antidemocratiche/totalitarie da parte dei comunisti .
2) MEMORIA COME
RIFLESSIONE.
Prevalenza del dato riflessivo: Come è stata possibile la mistificazione della realtà?
3) MEMORIA COME
“IMPERATIVO
CATEGORICO”.
Prevalenza del dato etico: E’ necessario evitare il ripetersi di sistemi totalitari.

SEARCH
FOR THE TRUTH
THROUGH MEMORY
AND
EXPERIENCE
HOMAGE TO CATALONIA
(1938)
ANTIFASCISM
The betrayal of the
Marxist-communist
Revolution
ANIMAL FARM
(1945)
STALINISM
The betrayal of the
Russian Revolution
1984
(1948)
TOTALITARISM
Abuse of power and
Political oppression

It was the experience inSpain that convinced Orwell that The Communist Party was working against the
Revolution and led him to see the similarities between Stalinism and Hitlerism
NON-FICTION ACCOUNT OF
HIS EXPERIENCES IN SPAIN
( HIS OWN VIEWS ACROSS REAL EVENTS )
SPANISH CIVIL WAR
(1936-1939)
• INDIVIDUAL’S RELATIONSHIP
TO PUBLIC AND POLITICAL
EVENTS
• DURING THE WAR ORWELL
BEGAN TO REALISE THE TRUE
NATURE OF STALIN‘ S RULE IN
RUSSIA.
• SPAIN as possibility to ACHIEVE
REVOLUTION for social equality
•
THE ACTIONS OF THE
COMMUNISTS IN SPAIN EXPOSED
TO HIM HOW FALSE THE IDEA
WAS THAT RUSSIA WAS A
SOCIALIST STATE.

REPUBLICANS vs FRANCO
Bourgeois liberal groups
PSUC
(Soviet-backed Communist Party)
POUM
(Catalan workers’ militia)

Orwell’s experience in Spain:
INITIALLY :
EQUALITY AND BROTHERHOOD
AFTERWARDS :
DISTORTION OF TRUTH
From Homage to Catalonia:
“There was no boss-class, no menial-class, no beggars, no prostitutes, no lawyers, no priests...
”
• Then the Communists considered the
POUM as a threat to the Soviet power and used brutal methods to suppress the workers’ groups:
• Orwell’s comrades in the militia were vilified abroad, through Communist
Party propaganda, even as fascist collaborators: its leaders were imprisoned or killed
• The Communists were using totalitarian tactics (secret police, house searches, propaganda).
arrests, surveillance,

SPAIN: had EXHILARATED him about the possibility of people acting together for revolutionary ends.
Yet, afterwards
Spain had DEPRESSED him for the fear about the future victory of fascism.
ENGLAND:
Once back to England he discovered that
REPORTS ON THE
WAR IN SPAIN HAD
BEEN
FOR
PURPOSES
DISTORTED
IDEOLOGICAL
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
”

To all those men who had died and suffered against Fascism
“brothers united in a cause”
He had only fought in
Catalonia and could only witness the truth of the warfare in Catalonia

The in-fighting within the Republican movement in
Spain, according to Orwell, was caused by the different factions becoming engulfed in a STRUGGLE
FOR POWER.
He felt that the hopes and sacrifices of so many people had been betrayed by the abuse of power on the part of Stalin and the official Communist parties abroad that had widespread LIES on the Spanish
Civil War (at least on the struggle in Barcelona which he had personally experienced).

Dato riflessivo
• ALLEGORY of the Russian Revolution thinly disguised as an ANIMAL FABLE.
The way that Orwell presents these reallife people or groups in the book gives an insight into his political feelings.
• A way to remind people about the true facts of the Russian Revolution and the nature of Stalin's rise to power, becoming a totalitarian dictator (i.e.
Stalin’s Purge
Trials in 1930) and Stalin’s signature of the non-aggression pact with Hitler in
1939)
• He specifically had Russia in mind but also drew from his experiences in Spain to show that all societies are at risk

• Betrayal of the Russian Revolution:
It shows how the initial idealism of the revolution gradually decayed into inequality , hierarchy and finally dictatorship under Stalin (the story of the URSS from 1915 to 1943 is allegorically represented)
• This decay of the revolution is always seen from the community’s point of view , never from the pigs’ one.
• Animal Farm does not attack the original ideals of the Revolution but the ways in which they were betrayed.
• Gradually, the privileges and abuses of the old regime are restored in a systematic, tyrannical form: this is what Orwell means by totalitarianism (each step violates some revolutionary principle of the
Seven Commandments).

INITIAL COMMANDMENT
DISTORTION OF
COMMANDMENT
1. Whatever goes up on two legs is an enemy
2. Whatever goes upon four legs,or has wings,is a friend
3. No animal shall wear clothes
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed
5. No animal shall drink alcohol
6. No animal shall kill another animal
7. All animals are equal
1 Napoleon begins
Squealer walks humans visit Animal Farm.
to on trade with legs humans.
and
2 Dogs attack Snowball. They even attack Boxer (even though Napoleon did not order them to but they got easily out of control.)
3 Napoleon puts on Mr Jones hat, pigs put green ribbons on their tails on
Sundays and dogs wear collars.
1, 2 and 3 replaced firstly by
FOUR LEGS GOOD, FOUR LEGS BAD then
FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BETTER
… WITH SHEETS .
Pigs sleep in the farmhouse bed with blankets, which is still a human action.
… TO EXCESS
Pigs drink beer and whisky
.
…WITHOUT CAUSE .
Pigs send Boxer to his death
… BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Pigs take milk and apples

MESSAGE
Any society which has leaders with absolute power is ultimately doomed to failure due to the
INEVITABILITY OF LEADERS MANIPULATING
POWER FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL BENEFIT
(as he had personally learnt in Spain).
Orwell mocks the pretence that any such society could be regarded as being fair or equal - hence addition of the suffix "but some animals are more equal than others" to the original commandment
"All animals are equal".

An ANTI-UTOPIAN of
DYSTOPIAN NOVEL depicting a world where
Totalitarianism taken over.
has

•Life in a big totalitarian system ,
Oceania (North America, South Africa,
Australia) ruled by the PARTY.
Nobody escapes the gaze of Big Brother.
•Set in London (in the country of
Oceania) in 1984 (in the future). London is seen as a desolate city governed by terror and constant control of Big
Brother
•Big Brother is the perceived ruler of
Oceania  he looks like a combination of
Hitler and Stalin .
•Big Brother’s God-like image is stamped on coins and projected on telescreens  his gaze is unavoidable .

• Introduction of the protagonist, Winston Smith , in this oppressive world (alienation from society).
• Winston & Julia’s love  happiness .
(rebellion against the Party and search for spiritual and moral integrity).
• Winston’s imprisonment and torture (defeat of the individual because of dictatorial regimes)

A frightening picture of the future :
•
The Party controls everything through the Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Love
•
Punishment against rebels
•
NO PRIVACY

Telescreen:
“[…] an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound […] would be picked by it”
(Chapter 1)
THEMES
• Abuse of Power
• Importance of MEMORY and TRUST .
• Abolishment of individuality and reality .
•
Satire against hierarchical societies .

• DOCUMENTARY REALISM
“his body was being wrenched out of shape, the joints were being slowly torn apart” (Chapter 2)
• PARODY AND SATIRE
• PESSIMISTIC TONE:
No consolation, but cruel reality.
The author sympathizes with persecuted people.

NEWSPEAK DOUBLETHINK
•
•
Newspeak is the official language of
Oceania.
•
The goal of the Party is to have
Newspeak
(standard English).
•
Newspeak eliminates undesirable words and invents new words
– all to force
Aim and replace
Party conformity
: to eliminate
.
literature consciousness .
,
Oldspeak thoughts
• Doublethink is the manipulation of the mind by making people accept contradictions .
The very slogans of the party are contradictions : "War is Peace, Freedom is
Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”.
• Doublethink makes people believe that the
Party is the only institution that knows right from wrong .
• The Ministry of Truth (where Winston works) changes history, facts, and memories to promote Doublethink  historical reference to Stalin ’s will to change history .

According to Orwell the major theme of memory is linked to a view of morality.
An egalitarian post-revolutionary society would put an end to exploitation and draw on the best of the past  Winston’s attempt to draw a diary in which private memory is defended against the official attempts to rewrite history.