Riassunto esame di letteratura inglese, prof. Zuccato, libro consigliato 1984, George Orwell

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR

Author George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair

Published 1949

Title The original title was ‘The Last Man in Europe’; it was later changed into the definitive



version ‘1984’ inversion of 1948, the year when Orwell finished the book and to

emphasize the futuristic setting

Setting Totalitarian post-war London, capital of Oceania

Date -

Genre Dystopian, political fiction, social science fiction

CHARACTERS: 

Winston Smith he is the main character. He works in the department of the Ministry of Truth and he is

charged to re-write and edit articles, photos, histories according to the Party’s needs. He is curious, he tries

to discover how the society was before the war, he is a rebellious, he doesn’t accept the society he’s in and

he has a desire of justice and freedom, in which people are not constantly spied or controlled. The first act

of rebellion is the writing of a diary in which Winston can write all his thoughts. He falls in love with Julia, a

fellow-worker moved by the same desires of freedom; together they want to start a revolution joining the

Brotherhood, a secret group of rebellious who shares the same views. They believe that O’Brien, who works

for the Party, is a rebellious like them and they eventually trust him, but he captured, tortured and

brainwashed them.



Julia she works in the Ministry of Truth like Winston. She believes in freedom, in justice and she criticises

the society but her opposition is based only on instinct and weak reasons. Julia ends up falling in love with

Winston and together they want to start a revolution. Both Julia and Winston, after being tortured and

brainwashed, are ready to be released, but with a new idea of society; they no longer hate it.



O’Brien he is a member of the Party; he is a very enigmatic person, he might be a devoted member of the

Party or an ex-rebel who was tortured and brainwashed. He makes Winston and Julia believe that he has

joined a group of rebellious called the Brotherhood and invite them to do the same, but eventually we find

out it’s just a way to discover the last enemies of the Party to brainwash and regenerate them.



Big Brother the author never tells us if Big Brother exists or not, but people are devoted to him and believe

everything is being told to them.



Goldstein the Party’s biggest enemy, a former member of the Inner party who decides to rebel and he is

now hidden in some part of the world. O'Brien will not tell Winston whether Goldstein and the Brotherhood

exist or not, but it is likely that both are just Party propaganda to feel motivated and involved in the fight;

the fact that O'Brien claims to have written Goldstein's book is a good indication of this;



Mr. Charrington he is the owner of the store where Julia and Winston hide themselves from the police.

Winston had first bought here the diary, then he rented the room on the second floor for him and Julia. Mr.

Charrington has been a member of the Thought Police all along, and he eventually denounced them.



The Room 101 though it’s not a character, it’s worth mentioning it. The Room 101 is the final destination

for people who acts rebellious towards the Party. Here people are obliged to face their worst fear before

being re-educated and eventually released.

RESUME:

Nineteen Eighty-Four is organized in three parts:

Part I: The protagonist

The story takes place in a totalitarian post-war London with a hierarchical society composed by:

• 

The Big Brother major entity who controls the world;

• 

The Inner Party controls people and the country;

• 

The Proles the labour; they live in a part of the city which shouldn’t be visited by people, in fact

Winston and Julia had to make sure nobody was following them during their meetings at Mr.

Charrington’s shop. They live in poverty but they are freer than anybody else; they’re ignorant, they

don’t try to improve their conditions, and Winston believes that they’re the only hope for a rebellion.

And four ministries:

• 

Ministry of Truth deals with news, entertainment, education and fine arts;

• 

Ministry of Peace deals with war between Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia;

• 

Ministry of Love deals with Law & Order;

• 

Ministry of Plenty deals with economic affairs.

Everything is controlled by the Big Brother, meaning that people are not free, are constantly controlled, spied

and manipulated, are submitted to the Party and they accept whatever is being told to them; free thought,

individuality and sex are not permitted. Everyone lives by the principles of the Party and whoever is suspected

is captured and disappears from the society.

Winston Smith works at the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where is charged to edit and re-

write historical articles according to the Party’s needs; his job makes him doubt the Party and its way to

manipulate the history and the truth. He feels oppressed by this dictatorship, he dislikes the party and every

form of control; his first act of rebellion is buying a diary from Mr. Charrington’s shop in the prole district



where he writes down his criminal thoughts writing is also not permitted, considered as a rebellious act.

During the Two Minutes Hate, a moment that recurs every day in which Party’s member are obliged to watch

a film concerning the Party’s enemies (Goldstein) and to express their hate for exactly two minutes, Winston

meets a woman, Julia; his inability to control his attraction for her, makes him want to rape and kill her

(reference to Brave New World, theme of attraction). Winston also begins to suspect that O’Brien, a member

of the Inner Party, could be a rebellious like him. One day while he’s at work, he gets a note from Julia who

says, “I love you”; they begin an illegal relationship using lots of stratagems in order not to being discovered

(they have secret meetings: first at the park and then they rent a room above Mr. Charrington’s shop).

Winston knows they will be discovered sooner or later, while Julia is more optimistic: together their hatred

for the Party grows bigger and bigger.

Few days later Winston gets the message he was waiting for: O’Brien wants him and Julia to see him.

Part II: Goldstein’s book

O’Brien receives Winston and Julia in his office, before inviting them to his house. He confirms Winston’s

thoughts: he hates the Party and he works for a membership called the Brotherhood, who reunites rebels

and praises Goldstein, the Party’s bigger enemy. He gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein’s book,

the most important book of the Brotherhood, a sort of manifesto (we later find out that O’Brien has written

it), based on Trotsky’s work against Stalin.

Winston starts reading the book, especially to Julia, even though she doesn’t seem as interested as him. They

are captured one day by soldiers while being in the room after Mr. Charrington had denounced them to the

Thought Police, revealing that he has never been their ally, but a member of the Thought Police.

Part III: Winston’s re-education & Room 101

The two are divided and Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love, where he finds O’Brien; he understands

the man has never been a member of the Brotherhood, but a loyal servant of the Party; he pretended all

along to uncover opposition and enemy.

Here’s the brainwashing begins: O’Brien tortures Winston to convince him of the goodness of the Party and

that whatever the Party says is the truth (most famous example: 2+2=5). Other prisoners begin to mention

the Room 101, feared by anyone, as we understand is the final destination for anyone who opposes the

Party. Here, O’Brien reveals that he will be forced to face his worst fear; throughout the novel, Winston had

had recurring nightmares about rats; O’Brien puts a cage of rats onto Winston’s head as he’s ready to open

it and let the animals eat his face. Winston finally implores O’Brien not to do it to him, but to Julia: that’s

what O’Brien has ever wanted.

Winston is re-educated and eventually released to the outside world. He meets with Julia at the park, where

they used to meet, and they admit they betrayed one another. They ended going in two separate ways.

We understand everything Winston had hated, now is loved. The final scene is set at The Chestnut Tree Café:

he’s playing chess, an allegory of the loosing game he has played through the book. The speaker announces

an imminent victory of Oceania and Winston starts to cry from happiness; he has now become a product of

the society.

THE SONGS:

“It was only an ‘opeless fancy”

The song is singing by the woman outside Winston and Julia’s room above Mr. Charrington’s shop. It’s a prole

song that shows the impossibility to forget one’s past.

“It was only an ‘opeless fancy, “Era soltanto una Speranza vana,

It passed like an Ipril dye, e se ne andò come un giorno d’aprile,

But a look an’ a word an’ the dreams they stirred, ma uno sguardo e una parola e i sogni che mi fanno

They ‘ave stolen my ‘eart awye!” sognare,

mi hanno rubato il cuor!”

“Oranges and lemons”

It’s an ancient nursery rhyme. Winston is introduced to the rhyme by Charrington; throughout the book

Winston looks for the rest of the song, reflecting his desire to know the past, since he doesn’t know what it

was like, as it represents a better place. It was the time before the war and before the Party came and

introduced a society of control. 

“Oranges and lemons, Julia provides the next section

Say the bells of St. Clement's.” 

“You owe me five farthings, O’Brien provides the next section

Say the bells of St. Martin's.”

“When will you pay me?

Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich,

Say the bells of Shoreditch.

“When will that be?

Say the bells of Stepney.  Charrington in his original remembrance notes

I do not know, the ending.

Says the great bell of Bow.”  The last line is not mentioned in the text.

“Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!”

“Chip chop Chip chop the last man is dead”.

“Under the spreading Chestnut tree”

"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me”

It refers to the way the Party has succeeded in dividing Winston and Julia as the betrayed one another. It

implies that the bad times have gone and the good ones have come, because now they love the Party and

Big Brother.

THE SOURCES:

• Jack London’s “The Iron Heel”, 1907;

• 

Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, 1932 especially the theme of attr