The world is divided into three parts: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, which are all at war with eachother. The story is told in London, which is in Oceania. The country is being watched twenty-four hours a day by the government trough the telescreens. Those are devices which see anything you do and hear any sound you make. Everything is controlled or forbidden, sex for example. It is brought back to only something dirty you to do when you want children, but in no way is for pleasure. If the Thought police thinks you are taking actions or thinking about taking actions against the Party they make you disappear-you become an 'unperson'.
The story is told in a continuous chronological order, apart from some memories or examples, which refer to the past. In the first few chapters foreshadowing is employed when Winston sees O´Brien. From a simple glance from O´Brien, Winston interprets that he has seen him commit thought crimes through the telescreen, and that he seeks contact with him. From a different kind of glance from Julia Winston believes she works for the Thought police. He is wrong in both cases. The time lapse is one year, the year 1984.
THEME
The book is written in 1949, during the Cold War, so I think that Orwell is stating a warning against totalitarian state. Hitler's try for total world domination just failed and now Stalin takes a shot. Orwell shows that the threats to freedom are real and that the democracy could be destroyed.
He also trying to show how a single individual goes down due to a system, and there is no way to prevent that from happening.
Character´s
In the story there are 3 important characters. Winston and Julia as the two main characters and you have O´brien.
I´ll begin with Winston smith.
He is the main character of the book, through whose eyes and expierences the events are told. His first name comes from a world leader (churchill) and his sirname is the most common name in the english speakingh world. Winston lives in an ugly world wich initially brings about bad habits and depression: he drinks en neglects his body, he has no money, he dislikes women to the extyent of wishing physical violence on them. But that changes when he falls in love with Julia. He is cautious,but there romance makes im hopefull and happy.
. Julia is 25 years old and like Winston also works at the ministry of Thruth. She is protesting a long time against the sadistic regime, in the form of sex. Her character is fierce and kinda heroic. She has al lot of expiereince with demonstrating and probably she is never caught. Her character doesn't change much during the story. Julia leaves, and yu don't know how it ends with her.
Obrien. In the beginning of the story it seems that Obrien is a friend of Winston, but he appears to be his torturer. He knows and understand how the Party (big Brother ) works. He really bcomes worse than brutal and cruel when sending Winston to room 101. It appears that Obrien is watching Winston for over 7 years. Eventually Obrien is responsible for the change and torture of Winston.
Big Brother/the Party./ Emmanuel Goldstein/The brotherhood.
It is significant that there is no person called big brother or Emmanuel Goldstein. They all are political icon which represent Power and opposition. They are the superhuman foreces in the goddless society of oceania.
It is the year 1984 and Winston Smith, a citizen of London, the capitol of Airstrip One, works at the Ministry of Truth, Minitrue. Airstrip One is England's new name, since it became part of Oceania, one of the three giant states earth is divided in. The Party, the Party of Big Brother, rules Oceania. BB is a fictional person who resembles a president. His face is on millions of posters, which can be found on every corner of every street. His eyes seem to constantly stare at you. The other two states are Eastasia and Eurasia. Oceania is constantly at war with one of them.
Winston works at the Record Department, where he deals with the news, art and entertainment. He has to change newspapers and other paperwork of the past, so they can be used as evidence for what the Party says. E.g., when a newspaper of 1979 says Oceania is at war with Eastasia, but it is at war with Eurasia today, he has to change Eastasia into Eurasia. He gets really pissed off by this idiotic system of deception. One day, he buys a book and a pen in a small proletarian junkshop and starts keeping a diary, which of course is strictly forbidden, it is a thoughtcrime. The Thought Police have been founded to prevent Party Members from committing these crimes. The Thought Police look after the Party Members through telescreens, TVs that also transmit in the other direction. Winston can hide himself from the telescreen in his room on a single spot. That is where he writes his diary.
Winstons neighbours, the Parsons, are the kind of people the Party loves, because they behave really orthodox, they live as they should. Their children betray other, suspicious looking people to the Thought Police, as do all other children who are members of the Spies. At work, Winston fears a woman with dark hair, who later appears to be Julia, a woman he will have sex with on a secret place as a protest against the Party. At first, he thinks of Julia as a Thought Police agent, because she seems to be following him everywhere. Only later, he finds out she's also a rebel against the Party. He also meets a man named O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party that also seems to rebel against BB.
Later, after Winston left a pub in the Proles-area, he enters the old junkshop again, buys a glass paperweight he likes and then the owner, Mr. Charrington, shows him a backroom Winston could rent. Leaving the shop, Winston sees the girl with the dark hair again and wants to smash her head with the paperweight, but decides not to. Now he is convinced she is a Thought Police spy. When a few days later he sees her walking down the hall of Minitrue and sees her fall, he helps her up and she secretly passes him a note. At his office, he reads it. It says 'I love you'. They arrange a meeting at Victoria Square, a crowded place with no telescreens. Julia tells Winston where they can meet next Sunday. That Sunday, they make love.
Winston rents the room above the junkshop, so he and Julia can meet there with no telescreens for miles around and have sex, talk about their hate for the Party and do whatever they like. Important detail: a RAT Winston sees in the room terrifies him.
Later, O'Brien meets Winston at Minitrue and tells him to come to his house together with Julia. They go there and find out O'Brian is a member of the Brotherhood, led by Emmanuel Goldstein, the Party's greatest enemy. They learn that they will receive a book, written by EG, that contains an explanation of the way the world is ruled. Winston reads it to Julia in their room above the junkshop, but she's not interested and falls asleep. Winston also goes asleep. When they wake up the next morning, a picture falls from the wall and Winston sees the telescreen behind it. Thought Police agents rush in and beat them up. Julia is taken away, and Mr. Charrington enters. He is a Thought Police agent too.
Winston is being arrested and (probably) taken to the Ministry of Love (Miniluv), where he is put in a cell with four telescreens watching him. Other prisoners are brought in. One of them is Parsons, who is betrayed by one of his children. He is proud of them. O'Brien enters the cell, and Winston finds out O'Brien is not a prisoner, but the chief torturer. O'Brien, who wants to teach Winston doublethink, to be able to reintegrate him in the society later, tortures him. He even wants Winston to live BB. Eventually, Winston agrees to everything and gives the answers O'Brien expects, just to stop the pain, but, he has not betrayed his beloved Julia (yet).
After a short period without torture (Winston does not know how long, there are no clocks and there is no light from outside), O'Brien wants to know how Winston thinks of Big Brother. Winston tells him he hates BB, and he is taken to the notorious room 101, for the final step before reintegration. O'Brien tells Winston that this is the room where his worst nightmare will come true, and shows him a cage of rats. The cage is fitted around his head, and Winston sees the rats, which are hungry and want to eat him. Then Winston yells: "Do it to Julia, don't do it to me, do it to her!". That was the ultimate betrayal of her and himself and he is immediately released from his imprisonment. When Winston returns to the world, he is a physical and psychological wreck. He does not do anything but drinking, playing chess and working a little. He meets Julia, and they both confess they have betrayed each other in room 101. Later, back in the Chestnut Tree Café, he realises that he loves BIG BROTHER
