Saturday, April 18, 2020

World Book Day: Nineteen Eighty-Four



Nineteen Eighty-Four


Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English novelist George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. The story was mostly written at Barnhill, a farmhouse on the Scottish island of Jura, at times while Orwell suffered from severe tuberculosis. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of government over-reach, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of all persons and behaviours within society.[2][3]
The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking.[4] Big Brother, the leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not exist. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent and skillful rank-and-file worker and Party member who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He enters a forbidden relationship with a co-worker, Julia.
Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. Many terms used in the novel have entered common usage, including Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Room 101, telescreen, 2 + 2 = 5, prole, and memory hole. Nineteen Eighty-Four also popularised the adjective "Orwellian", connoting things such as official deception, secret surveillance, brazenly misleading terminology, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. Time included it on its 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[5] It was placed on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels, reaching No. 13 on the editors' list and No. 6 on the readers' list.[6] In 2003, the novel was listed at No. 8 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.[7] Parallels have been drawn between the novel's subject matter and real life instances of totalitarianism, communism, mass surveillance, and violations of freedom of expression among other themes.[8][9][10]
Orwell "encapsulate[d] the thesis at the heart of his unforgiving novel" in 1944, the implications of dividing the world up into zones of influence, which had been conjured by the Tehran Conference. Three years later, he wrote most of it on the Scottish island of Jura from 1947 to 1948 despite being seriously ill with tuberculosis.[11][12] On 4 December 1948, he sent the final manuscript to the publisher Secker and Warburg, and Nineteen Eighty-Four was published on 8 June 1949.[13][14] By 1989, it had been translated into 65 languages, more than any other novel in English until then.[15] The title of the novel, its themes, the Newspeak language and the author's surname are often invoked against control and intrusion by the state, and the adjective Orwellian describes a totalitarian dystopia that is characterised by government control and subjugation of the people. Orwell's invented language, Newspeak, satirises hypocrisy and evasion by the state: the Ministry of Love (Miniluv) oversees torture and brainwashing (to ensure a love for Big Brother), the Ministry of Plenty (Miniplenty) oversees shortage and rationing, the Ministry of Peace (Minipax) oversees war and atrocity, and the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue) oversees propaganda and historical negationism.
The Last Man in Europe was an early title for the novel, but in a letter dated 22 October 1948 to his publisher Fredric Warburg, eight months before publication, Orwell wrote about hesitating between that title and Nineteen Eighty-Four.[16] Warburg suggested choosing the latter, a more commercial choice for the main title.[17]
The introduction to the Penguin Books Modern Classics edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four reports that Orwell originally set the novel in 1980 but that he later shifted the date to 1982 and then to 1984. The introduction to the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt edition of Animal Farm and 1984 (2003) reports that the title 1984 was chosen simply as an inversion of the year 1948, the year in which it was being completed, and that the date was meant to give an immediacy and urgency to the menace of totalitarian rule.[18]
There's a very popular theory—so popular that many people don't realize it is just a theory—that Orwell's title was simply a satirical inversion of 1948, but there is not evidence for this whatsoever. This idea, first suggested by Orwell's US publisher, seems far too cute for such a serious book. [...] Scholars have raised other possibilities. [His wife] Eileen wrote a poem for her old school's centenary called "End of the Century: 1984." G. K. Chesterton's 1904 political satire The Napoleon of Notting Hill, which mocks the art of prophecy, opens in 1984. The year is also a significant date in The Iron Hill. But all of these connections are exposed as no more than coincidences by the early drafts of the novel Orwell was still calling The Last Man in Europe. First he wrote 1980, then 1982, and only later 1984. The most fateful date in literature was a late amendment.
— Dorian Lynskey, The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984 (2019)[19]
Throughout its publication history, Nineteen Eighty-Four has been either banned or legally challenged, as subversive or ideologically corrupting, like the dystopian novels We (1924) by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley, Darkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur Koestler, Kallocain (1940) by Karin Boye, and Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury.[20] Some writers consider the Russian dystopian novel We by Zamyatin to have influenced Nineteen Eighty-Four,[21][22] and that the novel bears significant similarities in its plot and characters to Darkness at Noon, written years before by Koestler, who was a personal friend of Orwell.[23]
The original manuscript for Nineteen Eighty-Four is significantly the only literary manuscript of Orwell's to survive; it is presently held at the John Hay Library at Brown University.[24][25]
Copyright status
The novel was first published by Secker & Warburg in the United Kingdom on 8 June 1949 and published by Harcourt, Brace and Company in the United States on 13 June 1949.[14] The usual copyright period within the UK extends to 70 years from the end of the calendar year of the author's death. For works published prior to 1978, the usual copyright duration within the US is 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication.[26] Both the UK and the US are signatories to the Berne Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
Under the Berne Convention, Article 5(4), when a work is published simultaneously in several party countries (under Article 3(4), "simultaneously" is defined as "within 30 days"[27]), the country with the shortest term of protection is defined as the country of origin.[28]
In the case of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the United Kingdom is considered the country of origin and its copyright period extends until the first day of January following 70 years after the death of the author. George Orwell, the novel's author, died in 1950,[29] so the novel enters the public domain on 1 January 2021.
This same copyright period must be honoured by all other parties to the agreement.[30]
Background
Nineteen Eighty-Four is set in Oceania, one of three inter-continental superstates that divided the world after a global war.
Smith's memories and his reading of the proscribed book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein, reveal that after the Second World War, the United Kingdom became involved in a war during the early 1950s in which nuclear weapons destroyed hundreds of cities in Europe, western Russia and North America. Colchester was destroyed and London also suffered widespread aerial raids, leading Winston's family to take refuge in a London Underground station. Britain fell into civil war, with street fighting in London, before the English Socialist Party, abbreviated as Ingsoc, emerged victorious and formed a totalitarian government in Britain. The British Commonwealth and Latin America were absorbed by the United States, resulting in the superstate of Oceania. Ingsoc became the sole government party in this new nation.
Simultaneously, the Soviet Union conquered continental Europe and established the second superstate of Eurasia, under a Neo-Bolshevik regime. The third superstate of Eastasia emerged in the Far East after another decade of fighting, with a ruling ideology translated from Chinese as 'Death-Worship' or 'Obliteration of the Self'. The three superstates wage perpetual war for the remaining unconquered lands of the world in "a rough quadrilateral with its corners at Tangier, Brazzaville, Darwin, and Hong Kong" through constantly shifting alliances. Although each of the three states are said to have sufficient natural resources, the war continues to maintain ideological control over the people.
While citizens in each state are trained to despise the ideologies of the other two as uncivilised and barbarous, Goldstein's book, The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, explains that in fact the superstates' ideologies are practically identical and that the public's ignorance of this fact is imperative so that they might continue believing otherwise. The only references to the exterior world for the Oceanian citizenry (the Outer Party and the Proles) are Ministry of Truth maps and propaganda to ensure their belief in "the war".
However, due to the fact that Winston barely remembers these events and due to the Party's manipulation of historical records, the continuity and accuracy of these events are unknown. Winston himself notes that the Party has claimed credit for inventing helicopters, aeroplanes, and trains, while Julia theorises that the perpetual bombing of London is merely a false-flag operation designed to convince the populace that a war is occurring. If the official account was accurate, Smith's strengthening memories and the story of his family's dissolution suggest that the atomic bombings occurred first, followed by civil war featuring "confused street fighting in London itself" and the societal postwar reorganisation, which the Party retrospectively calls "the Revolution".
Most of the plot takes place in London, the "chief city of Airstrip One", the Oceanic province that "had once been called England or Britain".[31][32] Posters of the Party leader, Big Brother, bearing the caption "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU", dominate the city (Winston states it can be found on nearly every house), while telescreens (transceiving television set) monitor the private and public lives of the party members. Military parades, propaganda films, and public executions are said to be commonplace.
The class hierarchy of Oceania has three levels:
  • (I) the upper-class Inner Party, the elite ruling minority, who make up 2% of the population.
  • (II) the professional-managerial class Outer Party, the middle class, who make up 13% of the population.
  • (III) the lower-class Proletariat, who make up 85% of the population and represent the working class.
As the government, the Party controls the population with four ministries, each named after the opposite of their true function:
The protagonist Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party, works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth as an editor, negating historical records to make the past conform to the ever-changing party line and deleting references to unpersons (people who were not only killed by the state but denied existence even in history or memory).
The story of Winston Smith begins on 4 April 1984: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Yet he is uncertain of the true date, given the regime's continual rewriting and manipulation of history.[33]
Plot
In the year 1984, civilisation has been damaged by war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the world. It is ruled by the "Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc" (a shortening of "English Socialism") and the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality. The Party stamps out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through devices such as Telescreens (two-way televisions).
Winston Smith is a member of the middle-class Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history. Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons", disappearing with all evidence of their existence removed. Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed by fire in a "memory hole". He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a "thoughtcriminal" and likely to be caught one day.
While in a proletariat neighbourhood, he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary. He uses an alcove to hide it from the Telescreen in his room, and writes thoughts criticising the Party and Big Brother, and also writes that "if there is hope, it lies in the proles". To his dismay, when he visits a section of town where the proles live he discovers they have no political consciousness. An old man he talks to there has no significant memory of life before the Revolution. As he works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy against him, and develops an intense hatred of her. He vaguely suspects that his superior, an Inner Party official named O'Brien, is a member of an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, a group formed by Big Brother's reviled political rival Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston has a lunch conversation with a co-worker named Syme, who is writing a dictionary for a revised version of the English language called Newspeak. After Syme says freely that the true purpose of Newspeak is to reduce the capacity of human thought, Winston thinks to himself that Syme will disappear as he is "too intelligent" and therefore dangerous to the Party.
One day, Julia secretly hands Winston a note saying she loves him, and the two begin a torrid affair. This is an act of rebellion, as the Party insists that sex only be used for reproduction. Julia shares his loathing of the Party, but he later realizes that she is not interested in politics or in overthrowing the regime, thinking that it impossible. They at first rendezvous in the country, and later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington's shop. During his affair with Julia, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his terse relationship with his wife Katharine, from whom he is separated (divorce is not permitted by the Party). He also notices the disappearance of Syme during one of his working days. Weeks later, Winston is approached by O'Brien, who invites Winston over to his flat, which is noted as being of far higher quality than Winston's. O'Brien introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein. Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, with no-one seemingly noticing the shift. Winston and Julia read parts of the book, which explains more about how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the Party can be overthrown if proles rise up against it. However, to Winston, it does not answer 'why' the Party maintains power.
Winston and Julia are captured and imprisoned. Mr. Charrington is revealed to be an agent of the Thought Police. At the Ministry of Love, Winston briefly interacts with colleagues who have been arrested for other offences. O'Brien arrives, revealing that he too is a Thought Police agent, part of a special sting operation to catch "thoughtcriminals". Over several months, Winston is starved and tortured and forced to "cure" himself of his "insanity" by changing his own perception to fit in line with the Party. O'Brien tells Winston that the Party "is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in power." When O'Brien taunts Winston by asking him if there is any humiliation which he has not yet been made to suffer, Winston points out that the Party has not managed to make him betray Julia. O'Brien admits that is true. He says that once Winston is fully loyal, he will be released back into society for an unspecified period of time, and then he will be executed.
Still imprisoned but now better fed and no longer mistreated, Winston grows stronger. Intellectually he has accepted that the party is invincible and ‘objective truth’ has no meaning. He has fully absorbed crimestop, the instinctive conformity to state doctrine that precludes any oppositional thought. Emotionally, however, he at times clings to his old self. He fantasizes that moments before his execution his heretic side will emerge, which, as long as he is killed while unrepentant, will be his great victory over the party.
Winston's hopes implode when, in an unconscious reverie, he calls out Julia's name. O’Brien confronts him and Winston admits he hates Big Brother. O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101 for the final stage of re-education. The room contains each prisoner's worst fear. In Winston's case it is rats. The fact that the Party knows this indicates the level of surveillance on the population is far more thorough than Winston previously believed. As a wire cage holding frenzied rats is fitted onto his face, Winston betrays Julia, begging his torturers to do it to Julia instead of him. Some time after being released Winston meets Julia in a park. She says she was also tortured, and both reveal betraying the other. They part ways. Later, Winston sits alone in a café as Oceania celebrates a supposed victory over Eurasian armies in Africa and realises that, now, "he loved Big Brother".
Characters
Main characters
  • Winston Smith – the protagonist who is a phlegmatic everyman and is curious of the past before the Revolution.
  • Julia – Winston's lover who is a covert "rebel from the waist downwards" who publicly espouses Party doctrine as a member of the fanatical Junior Anti-Sex League.
  • O'Brien – a member of the Inner Party who poses as a member of The Brotherhood, the counter-revolutionary resistance, to deceive, trap, and capture Winston and Julia. O'Brien has a servant named Martin.
Secondary characters
  • Aaronson, Jones, and Rutherford – former members of the Inner Party whom Winston vaguely remembers as among the original leaders of the Revolution, long before he had heard of Big Brother. They confessed to treasonable conspiracies with foreign powers and were then executed in the political purges of the 1960s. In between their confessions and executions, Winston saw them drinking in the Chestnut Tree Café—with broken noses, suggesting that their confessions had been obtained by torture. Later, in the course of his editorial work, Winston sees newspaper evidence contradicting their confessions, but drops it into a memory hole. Eleven years later, he is confronted with the same photograph during his interrogation.
  • Ampleforth – Winston's one-time Records Department colleague who was imprisoned for leaving the word "God" in a Kipling poem as he could not find another rhyme for "rod";[35] Winston encounters him at the Miniluv. Ampleforth is a dreamer and intellectual who takes pleasure in his work, and respects poetry and language, traits which cause him disfavour with the Party.
  • Charrington – an officer of the Thought Police posing as a sympathetic antiques dealer amongst the Proles.
  • Katharine Smith – the emotionally indifferent wife whom Winston "can't get rid of". Despite disliking sexual intercourse, Katharine married Winston because it was their "duty to the Party". Although she was a "goodthinkful" ideologue, they separated because the couple could not conceive children. Divorce is not permitted, but couples who cannot have children may live separately. For much of the story Winston lives in vague hope that Katharine may die or could be "got rid of" so that he may marry Julia. He regrets not having killed her by pushing her over the edge of a quarry when he had the chance many years previously.
  • Tom Parsons – Winston's naïve neighbour, and an ideal member of the Outer Party: an uneducated, suggestible man who is utterly loyal to the Party, and fully believes in its perfect image. He is socially active and participates in the Party activities for his social class. He is friendly towards Smith, and despite his political conformity punishes his bullying son for firing a catapult at Winston. Later, as a prisoner, Winston sees Parsons is in the Ministry of Love, as his daughter had reported him to the Thought Police, saying she heard him speak against Big Brother in his sleep. Even this does not dampen his belief in the Party, and he states he could do "good work" in the hard labour camps.
  • Mrs. Parsons – Parsons's wife is a wan and hapless woman who is intimidated by her own children.
    • The Parsons children – members of the Party Youth League, representing the new generation of Oceanian citizens, without memory of life before Big Brother, and without family ties or emotional sentiment; the model society envisioned by the Inner Party.
  • Syme – Winston's colleague at the Ministry of Truth. He was a lexicographer who helped develop the language and the dictionary of Newspeak. Although he is enthusiastic about his work and support for the Party, Winston notes that "He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly." Winston predicts, correctly, that Syme will become an unperson.
Unseen characters
Whether these characters are real or fabrications of Party propaganda is something that neither Winston nor the reader is permitted to know:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
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