1984 Love
1984 and Love
George Orwell presents us with an interesting portrayal of love in his novel, 1984. In the nation of Oceania that he writes about, the Party tries desperately to erase love for anything but Big Brother from the lives of its members. In many ways, it is successful in doing so. It causes Winston 's marriage with his wife Katharine to be frigid and cold and to end in separation. Even occasional affairs that sneak by the Party 's watchful eyes at first, like Winston and Julia 's, are eventually stopped and the participants are forced to stop loving each other. Perhaps the strongest love that remains in Oceania is the warped love of tortured towards his torturer. This love is displayed by Winston towards O 'Brien and remains strong throughout the novel even when O 'Brien tortures Winston to near death. The novel leaves us with the knowledge that Winston finally loves Big Brother. This love is the only love sanctioned by the Party. The Party 's attempts to destroy natural love throughout the novel are largely successful and result in the emergence of love that our society would see as unnatural.
The Party attempts to remove love from marriages by taking away the pleasure of sex and the intimacy that married couples are normally able to have. The resulting marriages are very cold and often end in separation, which was encouraged by the Party "in cases where there were no children" (57). The first mention of Winston 's wife is peculiar: "Winston was married -- had been married, at any rate: probably he still was married, so far as he knew his wife was not dead" (56). Winston seems to neither know nor care whether his wife is alive or dead. Consequently, he does not even know whether or not he is still married. The indifference towards his own marriage here is an indicator of the way that the Party has changed what marriage means. Winston 's indifference towards his marriage is further displayed when the narrator tells us that, "[f]or days at a time he was
George Orwell presents us with an interesting portrayal of love in his novel, 1984. In the nation of Oceania that he writes about, the Party tries desperately to erase love for anything but Big Brother from the lives of its members. In many ways, it is successful in doing so. It causes Winston 's marriage with his wife Katharine to be frigid and cold and to end in separation. Even occasional affairs that sneak by the Party 's watchful eyes at first, like Winston and Julia 's, are eventually stopped and the participants are forced to stop loving each other. Perhaps the strongest love that remains in Oceania is the warped love of tortured towards his torturer. This love is displayed by Winston towards O 'Brien and remains strong throughout the novel even when O 'Brien tortures Winston to near death. The novel leaves us with the knowledge that Winston finally loves Big Brother. This love is the only love sanctioned by the Party. The Party 's attempts to destroy natural love throughout the novel are largely successful and result in the emergence of love that our society would see as unnatural.
The Party attempts to remove love from marriages by taking away the pleasure of sex and the intimacy that married couples are normally able to have. The resulting marriages are very cold and often end in separation, which was encouraged by the Party "in cases where there were no children" (57). The first mention of Winston 's wife is peculiar: "Winston was married -- had been married, at any rate: probably he still was married, so far as he knew his wife was not dead" (56). Winston seems to neither know nor care whether his wife is alive or dead. Consequently, he does not even know whether or not he is still married. The indifference towards his own marriage here is an indicator of the way that the Party has changed what marriage means. Winston 's indifference towards his marriage is further displayed when the narrator tells us that, "[f]or days at a time he was