Analysis

The Horrors of Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a scary concept to most people who enjoy the freedoms of democracy, I know I often quiver at the thought of what life would be like if Hitler had won the war. A myriad of authors and historians have mulled over this bleak possibility for decades, but none quite as thoroughly as George Orwell in his disconsolate novel 1984. Orwell creates a dark and gloomy hypothetical world in which every aspect of everyone's lives is dominated by the iron fist of Big Brother(the questionably real ruler of Oceania) and the Party (the ruling government party who probably actually run the entire country). The author conjures this bleak and dismal world through the use of several commonplace literary devices, such as: tone, imagery, and tragedy. These three literary devices are the most employed of all the devices and are portrayed strongly and effectively in Orwell’s novel. They help to convey the feelings of utter helplessness and loneliness that Winston (the protagonist) feels throughout the book, while also helping us, the reader, to better understand what it would be like to live in a totalitarian government.

Orwell illustrates the tone of the story quite clearly with this quote from Winston, "Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference.  Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same,” (21). This passage, though only at the beginning of the novel, illustrates quite well the helpless and lonely tone that is carried throughout the entirety of the story. Winston never seems happy, never expresses joy, only contempt, boredom, and sadness. He hates his job, fears his government and despises the people of Oceania. Even when he starts to become more rebellious, he admits that the things he does “if detected it was reasonably certain to be punished by death, or at least by 25 years in a forced-labour camp, (8).” The organization that inspires this certainty of death or slavery is the Thought Police. They are a constant threat that eat away at his already fragile sense of security. They really help construct the tone of fear and helplessness because of their apparent lethality and air of mystery. They are supposedly always watching and listening to you, and if they get the slightest inkling that you have committed a thought crime (this is the act of thinking or speaking treacherous thoughts about Big Brother) then you are as good as dead. The Thought Police always come in the night and “vaporize” you (this is their term for what the Thought Police do to you, it’s another way of saying kidnap.) Everything in this book has a sense of futility and despair, even during the happy parts. It’s as if there is something in the back of your mind telling you that everything Winston does is just adding to his eventual, inevitable demise.

Imagery is ever present in Orwell’s novel, and it’s all typically very dark and terrifying in nature. Orwell uncovers the mysterious of what goes on inside the Ministry of Love (this is where the Thought Police have their headquarters and do their dirty work, lets just say it’s not very loving in there.) What happens to the people inside of the Ministry of Love is terrifying to behold and awful to imagine. The author is able to, through the power of adjectives and other descriptive words,  deliver to us a clear and petrifying image of the terrifying torture winston was put through. Winston was sent to room 101, which is apparently the worst place a prisoner can be sent to. Page after page Orwell builds up the suspense of that room. He never describes exactly what goes on in the room; however, he does give us the reactions of other prisoners who are doomed to go to that apparently dreadful place. Each more terrified than the last, the responses given by the the criminals doomed to suffer whatever horrifying torture goes on in that place increase in vigor and resistance. He describes his torture as being “times when it went on and on until the cruel, wicked, unforgivable thing seemed to him not that the guards continued to beat him but that he could not force himself into losing consciousness," (247). Orwell throws Winston into a seemingly never ending barrage of fists, truncheons, metal rods, and boots. When he is not being beaten, he is being tortured a different way, the torture of hours and hours of interrogations. They  abuse him with bright lights and humiliate him by slapping him and making him stand on one leg. Orwell tells us that “their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on, hour after hour, tripping him up, laying traps for him, twisting everything that he said, convicting him at every step of lies and self contradiction, until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue,” (254). To Winston, and, therefore, to us, time is irrelevant and unfathomable. It is impossible to tell, so he had no idea if he has been down there for weeks, or months, or even years. It hurts to think about. He can see neither daylight or darkness, just this “unvarying white light,” (250). One of the more unnerving descriptions is that of Winston near the end of his torture. He is portrayed as “a bowed, grey-colored, skeleton-like thing,” (284).  His hair is falling out, and so are his teeth. O’Brien, his once “friend” who is actually part of the Inner Party, made a point of this by tearing out some hair and plucking a tooth right out of his jaw. This is how Orwell envisions a totalitarian world ruled by a tyrannical party, and it is a horrifying world to behold.

The tragedy in this book is slightly different from the classic tragedy of famous works like Hamlet or Macbeth. In the end, (spoiler alert) Winston does die; however, he was never really a hero, and he died loving his enemy. Unlike Macbeth, Winston was not some war hero or some king, although he was rebellious and wanted to fight for a new ruler through treachery, he just never got the chance. How he was alike is that he did end up dying in the end as a consequence of his actions. He wanted change, but the Party was just too smart and strong. Yet, another difference is that in the end Winston was a crushed lifeless shell of his former self. Sure, Winston was never exactly a lively fellow; however, he was nothing like this poor imitation of what he used to be. He was beaten so bad that, in the end, he actually loved Big Brother, the very person he strives to kill, with all his being. “He loved Big Brother,” (311). That was his last thought before he died. If a totalitarian government gained control of the world then individualism, one of America’s strongest beliefs, would be a thing of the past. Better yet, it would never have existed.

Orwell brings up multiple terrifying and disconcerting images of what life would be like if someone like Hitler ruled the world, or, at the very least,most of it. It is truly wondrous to think about, and sends a shiver up my spine everytime I read about it. It is a concept many have pondered, and I am sure that many more will journey even deeper into the idea in order to prevent such a thing from ever happening. No one portrays such a world quite as well as George Orwell in his novel 1984 with his utilization of three key literary devices. These devices are tone, imagery, and tragedy, and they help to convey the feelings of utter helplessness and loneliness that Winston feels throughout the book, while also helping us, the reader, to better understand what it would be like to live in a totalitarian government. 

Works Cited

Orwell, George. 1984. n/a: Penguin Group, Inc., 1950. Print.