The plot and the structure of 1984. - раздел Образование, Сучасна література країн, мова яких вивчається Nineteen Eighty-Four (Commonly Written As 1984) I...
Nineteen Eighty-Four (commonly written as 1984) is an anti-utopian novel published in 1949. The book tells the story of Winston Smith and his degradation by the totalitarian state in which he lives.
Written while Orwell was dying and based on the work of the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin, it is a chilling depiction of how the power of the state could come to dominate the lives of individuals through cultural conditioning. Perhaps the most powerful science fiction novel of the twentieth century, this apocalyptic satire shows with grim conviction how Winston Smith’s individual personality is wiped out and how he is recreated in the Party’s image until he does not just obey but even loves Big Brother. Some critics have related Winston Smith’s sufferings to those Orwell underwent at preparatory school, experiences he wrote about just before 1984. Orwell maintained that the book was written with the explicit intention “to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after.”
Along with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it is among the most famous and cited dystopias in literature.
It has been translated into 62 languages and has left a profound impression upon the English language itself. Nineteen Eighty-Four, its terminology and its author have become bywords when discussing privacy and state-security issues. The term “Orwellian” has come to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted in the novel.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has, at times, been seen as revolutionary and politically dangerous and therefore was banned by many libraries in various countries, not mentioning totalitarian regimes.
Originally Orwell titled the book The Last Man in Europe, but his publisher, Frederic Warburg, suggested a change to assist in the book’s marketing. Orwell did not object to this suggestion. The reasons for selection of this particular year are not known. Orwell may have only switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book. Alternatively, he may have been alluding to the centenary of the Fabian Society, a socialist organization founded in 1884. The allusion may have also been to Jack London’s novel The Iron Heel (in which the power of a political movement reaches its height in 1984), to G. K. Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill (also set in that year), or to a poem by his wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, called End of the Century, 1984. A final supposed explanation is that his original re-titling was to be 1980; however, with his illness the book was taking a long time to write, so he felt obliged to push the story further and further into the future.
The novel focuses on Winston Smith, who stands, seemingly alone, against the corrupt reality of his world: hence the work’s original working name The Last Man in Europe. Although the storyline is unified, it could be described as having three parts (it has been published in three parts by some publishers). The first part deals with the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four as seen through the eyes of Winston; the second part deals with Winston’s forbidden sexual relationship with Julia and his eagerness to rebel against the Party; and the third part deals with Winston’s capture by the Party and his imprisonment in the Ministry of Love.
Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, lives in the ruins of London, the chief city of Airstrip One – a front-line province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania. He grew up in post-World War II United Kingdom, during the revolution and civil war. When his parents disappeared during the civil war, he was picked up by the growing Ingsoc (Newspeak for “English Socialism”) movement, placed into an orphanage and eventually given a job in the Outer Party.
Winston lives a squalid existence in a one-room apartment in “Victory Mansions”, and eats black bread, synthetic meals served at his workplace, and drinks industrial-grade “Victory Gin.” He is discontented with his life, and keeps a journal of his negative thoughts and opinions about the Party. This journal, along with any other eccentric behaviour, if found, would result in his torture and death through the dealings of the Thought Police (he starkly explains the very definite result of his “thoughtcrime” in a journal entrance: “Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death”). The Thought Police have telescreens in every Party household and public area, as well as hidden microphones and informers in order to catch potential thoughtcriminals who could endanger the sanctity of the Party. Children are carefully indoctrinated from birth to report any suspected thought criminal, even − especially − their parents.
The Ministry of Truth, which exercises complete control over all mass media in Oceania, employs Winston at the Records Department, where he doctors historical records in order to comply with the Party’s version of the past. Since the events of the present constantly shape the perception of the past, the task is a never-ending one.
While Winston likes his work, especially the intellectual challenge involved in fabricating a complete historical anecdote from scratch, he is also fascinated by the real past, and eagerly tries to find out more about the forbidden truth. At the Ministry of Truth, he encounters Julia, a mechanic on the novel-writing machines, and the two begin a necessarily clandestine relationship, regularly meeting up in the countryside (away from surveillance) or in a room above an antique shop in the Proles’ area of the city. The owner of the shop exchanges various facts on the mysterious pre-revolutionary past with Winston and sells him artifacts from this period, as well as renting the room to them. Julia and Winston find their new hiding place a paradise, as they believe that there is no telescreen and so they believe themselves completely alone and safe.
As their relationship progresses, Winston’s views begin to change, and he finds himself relentlessly questioning Ingsoc. Unknown to the two (or to the reader), he and Julia are under surveillance by the Thought Police. When he is approached by Inner Party member O’Brien, Winston believes that he has made contact with the Resistance or Brotherhood which is opposed to the ideals of the Party. O’Brien gives Winston a copy of “the book”, a searing criticism of Ingsoc believed to have been written by the dissident Emmanuel Goldstein, leader of the Brotherhood. This book explains the nature of the perpetual war, and exposes the truth behind the Party’s slogan, “War Is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.”
Winston and Julia are eventually apprehended by the Thought Police in their supposed sanctuary, which actually contains a hidden telescreen, and are then interrogated separately in the Ministry of Love, where opponents of the regime are tortured and usually executed but sometimes released (only to be executed at a later time). O’Brien appears at the Ministry of Love, and reveals that he will help Winston “be cured” of his hatred for the Party, by subjecting Winston to numerous torture sessions. During one of these sessions, he explains to Winston that the purpose of the torture is not to extract a fake confession, but to alter the way Winston thinks. O’Brien also assures Winston that once he is cured, meaning that he accepts reality as described by the Party, he will be executed.
The party intends to achieve this with a combination of torture and electroshocks, continuing until O’Brien decides that Winston is “cured”. Eventually, Winston is sent into Room 101, the most feared room in the Ministry of Love, where a person’s greatest fear is forced upon them as the final step in their “re-education.” Since Winston is morbidly afraid of rats, a cage of the hungry vermin is placed over his eyes, so that when the door is opened, they will eat their way through his skull. In terror, as the cage is placed onto his head, he screams, “Do it to Julia!”, breaking his vow to never betray her, in order to stop the torture.
Near the end, Winston and Julia again meet in a park, by chance. They remember, with distaste, the “bad” feelings they once shared. Both acknowledge having betrayed the other, and find themselves apathetic. We finally see that the torture and “reprogramming” have been successful; Winston loves Big Brother.
Near the beginning of the novel, Winston was sitting in a café, the Chestnut Tree Café. While he was there, he saw three early dissidents of the Party: Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. These three men were the last relics of the Party’s beginnings. When Winston saw them, they were sitting isolated from everyone else (“It was not wise even to be seen in the neighborhood of such people”), drinking the café’s specialty, gin flavored with cloves. Only Rutherford is described in detail. He is said to be a large broken-down man, giving the impression of having once been powerful. He and Aaronson both had broken noses. There is a chessboard on the table by them, and the waiter automatically refills their glasses. A song starts playing over the telescreen, beginning with a discordant note, one Winston calls a yellow note. “Under the spreading chestnut tree/I sold you and you sold me:/There lie they, and here lie we/Under the spreading chestnut tree.” This song is thought to be an adaptation of Longfellow’s poem, The Village Blacksmith. Winston notices that Rutherford’s eyes are full of tears.
At the very end, Winston himself is again in the Chestnut Tree Cafe. He has been released from the Ministry of Love. Winston is sitting in his usual corner, with a glass of gin and a chessboard. The waiter automatically refills his glass for him. Winston is thinking about the military problems in Africa, and his recent meeting with Julia, and 2+2=5. A yellow note sounds, and the telescreen starts playing “Under the spreading chestnut tree/I sold you and you sold me −”. Winston’s eyes fill with tears. He remembers an afternoon when he was a child, playing with his mother, but dismisses it as a false memory. The telescreen announces a great victory in Africa, and Winston is reconciled with Big Brother. The novel ends with the line “He loved Big Brother.”
The novel is followed by an Appendix on Newspeak.
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2) John Betjeman. – Online at : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman.
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1. Кружков Григорий. Глазок ватерпаса (О Шеймасе Хини) / Григорий Кружков // Ностальгия обелисков : Литературные мечтания. − М. : Новое литературное обозрение, 2001. − С. 477−486.
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1. About dystopia:
Dystopia. – Online at : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia.
2. About Orwell and 1984:
1) George Orwell. –
Online at : en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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1. About American poetry:
1) Американская поэзия в русских переводах [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: http://www.uspoetry.ru/poets/2/poems/.
2) Дудченко М.М. Література Вели
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