Orwell, George - Life and analysis of Nineteen eighty-four

George Orwell's early life

George Orwell was the pseudonym adopted by Eric Arthur Blair, a boy who was born in India in 1903, where his father was a British colonial official. Back to England he studied at Eaton, a prestigious boys’ school in which many of the future politicians and also many royals, studied. Here he developed an independent-minded personality, thanks to which he did not share the ideas thought in Eaton indeed. After leaving school he started to work in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, and in 1927 he returned to London to bring out a social experiment and to publish, some years later, his work Down and Out in Paris and London, under the name Orwell.

Orwell's career and marriage

In 1936 he married Eileen, and in the same year they went together to Catalonia, where he reported on the Spanish Civil War and wrote In Homage of Catalonia, inserting all that he experienced.
During WWII he started to work for the BBC, which gave him the power to spread his ideas, and in 1945 he published one of his masterpieces, Animal Farm. His last book is probably the most famous one: Nineteen eighty-four, published in 1949. His books were always the result of the political situation he was living in, and as Dickens was a committed author, so was Orwell, but Dickens used irony to criticise the system, while Orwell used allegory and made direct critics.

Themes in Orwell's works

He considered himself a socialist, as he had the social function of informing, interpreting and warning the reader. His books portray the mystery caused by poverty and deprivation, and warn against the increasing hypocrisy of urban civilisation.
The story is set in a future world divided into 3 blocks:

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Oceania is ruled by the party, the brotherhood, which was a secret terrorist organisation, and its leading figure was Big Brother, whose face resembled Stalin. People living in Oceania were all controlled through telescreens placed everywhere, even in their homes, so that they could be controlled at any moment, forcing them to constantly behave. In this place indeed every kind of personal interest is forbidden, such as love, and people only had to work for the party. They also tried to create a new language, called Newspeak, which had a limited number of words.

What is Winston Smith's rebellion?

The protagonist of the story is Winston Smith, whose name comes from Winston Churchill and his surname wants to represent a common English name, so the protagonist could be anyone. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, a place where he rewrites historical records to support state policy. He unfortunately buys a diary, even if it is forbidden, and here he writes his thoughts and memories, addressing it to the future generations.

Winston's downfall

His attitude of rebellion is also manifested by Julia, his colleague, with whom he will later on have an affair. Unfortunately they are discovered by the Thought Police who submits them to torture. They both are put in front of their biggest fear, in Winston's case rats, put in a cage in front of his face and ready to bite it. He resists to torture but when he is put on the outside world again, he has submitted brainwash too, so he does not love Julia anymore, he has no identity and loves big brother.

Orwell's London

Orwell sets his story in London, placed in Oceania in 1984, a year he chose reversing the numbers of the date he wrote it, 1948. London is a desolated city governed by terror and the constant control of BIG BROTHER, in which there is no privacy and language, history and thoughts are manipulated. The slogan of the party is “freedom is slavery”, a quite oxymoronic affirmation if we can say, but typical of the dystopian world.

• Documentary realism.

• Third-person narrator

• Parody and satire.

Pessimistic tone:

• No consolation, but cruel reality.

• The author sympathises with persecuted people.

• The threat of the totalitarian state.

• The preservation of memory against the attempts to rewrite history.