Conflict in 1984 George Orwell
Essay – 1984
Analyse how conflict has been represented through your prescribed text.
Thesis:
In 1984, conflict is overwhelmingly pervasive. Unlike most narratives where conflict is a trigger or catalyst for an unfolding plot, conflict is the very essence of Orwell’s story. He asserts, that in the context of a dark political dystopia the real and abiding battle is between totalitarian impulse to control and the freedom of individual expression and identity. The ultimate end in this society, which is well beyond redemption is victory to the party and the total dehumanisation of its subjects.
A facet of the Party’s control in 1984 is the dissemination of fear and inferiority, ‘A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself’. Omnipresent surveillance and the Thought Police create a societal fear of unorthodoxy, a tool of the Party to keep them obliviously subdued. This conflicting fear is clearly revealed in Winston, who after buying a diary, carries it ‘guiltily home’, feeling that even with nothing written in it, it is a ‘compromising possession’. The consequences of being caught reinforce these fears, including draconian forms of punishment, then the eventual healing. ‘We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them’.
Other means include the war between the superstates. Orwell represents this as an imposture, keeping the masses in perpetual fear. ‘In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is to keep the structure of society intact’.
In context, the fear driven state is inspired by Orwell’s views on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Written in a time when most of Europe and South East Asia were devastated, totalitarian governments were rising and technology was advancing rapidly, Orwell takes the concept of oligarchical
Analyse how conflict has been represented through your prescribed text.
Thesis:
In 1984, conflict is overwhelmingly pervasive. Unlike most narratives where conflict is a trigger or catalyst for an unfolding plot, conflict is the very essence of Orwell’s story. He asserts, that in the context of a dark political dystopia the real and abiding battle is between totalitarian impulse to control and the freedom of individual expression and identity. The ultimate end in this society, which is well beyond redemption is victory to the party and the total dehumanisation of its subjects.
A facet of the Party’s control in 1984 is the dissemination of fear and inferiority, ‘A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself’. Omnipresent surveillance and the Thought Police create a societal fear of unorthodoxy, a tool of the Party to keep them obliviously subdued. This conflicting fear is clearly revealed in Winston, who after buying a diary, carries it ‘guiltily home’, feeling that even with nothing written in it, it is a ‘compromising possession’. The consequences of being caught reinforce these fears, including draconian forms of punishment, then the eventual healing. ‘We do not merely destroy our enemies, we change them’.
Other means include the war between the superstates. Orwell represents this as an imposture, keeping the masses in perpetual fear. ‘In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is to keep the structure of society intact’.
In context, the fear driven state is inspired by Orwell’s views on Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Written in a time when most of Europe and South East Asia were devastated, totalitarian governments were rising and technology was advancing rapidly, Orwell takes the concept of oligarchical