Orwell's 1984
Let's use this space to start our collection of quotes from 1984. Start posting anytime, and please .. only one or two at a time. Then come back and make comments. Please include page numbers, as well as explaining the context for the quotes.
Labels: AP English
posted by msmith at 10:11 PM
12 Comments:
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1/23/07, 12:01 PM
p. 110 - Winston has just received a note from Julia which states simply “I love you,” and he has to wait before looking at it again:
“The afternoon was more bearable. Immediately after lunch there arrived a delicate, difficult piece of work which would take several hours and necessitated putting everything else aside. It consisted in falsifying a series of production reports of two years ago in such a way as to cast discredit on a prominent member of the Inner Party who was now under a cloud. This was the kind of thing that Winston was good at, and for more than two hours he succeeded in shutting the girl out of his mind altogether. Then the memory of her face came back, and with it a raging, intolerable desire to be alone.”
Many people mine the contents of “1984” for ingredients which have either literally “come true”, or which still seem to be “relevant to today.” Although Winston’s job is fascinating, and certainly his function still exists inside government today, there is another sense in which the above passage resonates strongly with me. The whole Winston/Julia affair is fascinating. What draws them together? What do they get out of the relationship? It seems to me the answer to that question is (apart from sex) they provide themselves with an alternative reality, one which is deeply rooted in an inner, interior, deeply felt perception of another world. This other world is private, as opposed to the outward and false world of the party. The individual knows, in his heart of hearts, that the Party is lying, but cannot independently confirm this feeling. But then, along comes Julia, and Winston is no longer alone.
I also like this quote because it shows how Winston is able to channel his mind when he needs to. He can engage in his meaningless work and keep thoughts of his private life at bay... but only for so long. Sooner or later the life force re-asserts itself.
1/26/07, 10:43 AM
The quote below is after Winston helps his neighbor with the clogged sink and starts to write in his journal. He is thinking in this quote about the outside and the world he lives in.
“Down in the street the wind flapped the torn poster to and fro, and the word INGSOC fitfully appeared and vanished. Ingsoc. The sacred principles of Ingsoc. Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forest of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was a monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainly had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what why of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure for ever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back at him:…” (Page 27)
Winston sees himself as an “alone” “monster” that lives in a “monstrous world”. He sees the world as scary and damaging. The principles of INGSOC are the basic principles that control his life; newspeak, doublethink, and the ability to change the past. The uncertainty of the not knowing our own past and future is unnerving. Winston wonders whether there is another human who had the same thoughts as him and this possibility gives him hope that the Party could not last forever, but is crushed by Ministry of Truth’s slogans; “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is strength.”
1/29/07, 9:22 PM
Erin quoted:
"He knew the reason [he disliked Julia]. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about her."
I really liked this quote too, Erin. First, because it shows just how much Winston is sick of the "clean living" propaganda and all those "types" of people who ram it down Winston's throat. Second, I liked it because of the irony. Julia seems to be a sporty, jock type, but in reality she is just acting that way. She belongs to the "Junior Anti-Sex League", for example, merely as a cover for her real nature. Julia is pretending - her outside activities merely serve as a cover for her inner beliefs. Under normal circumstances that would be called hypocrisy, but really what choice does she have?
1/30/07, 11:21 AM
This quote is from when Julia and Winston had their meeting in the woods and Julia has just announced that she has been with Inner Party members scores of times.
"Scores of times she had done it, he wished it had been hundreds- thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew? Perhaps the Party was rotten underneath the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self denial simple a sham concealing iniquity. If he could have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly he would have done so." Page 128
I like this quote for many reasons but mainly because of the fact that it shows the fear Winston holds that the Party will last forever. He knows that he is doomed, that his fate was sealed from the minute he opened his journal and so he is not really afraid OF the Party. He states that if he could infect them all and ensure that they would soon die off or become too sick to lead he would do it in a heartbeat. This demonstrates his deeply fear that although he will die for his beliefs along with all those like him; it may not do any good. He hopes that they are, in reality, diseased and corrupt so that he may convince himself that all he does is not for nothing. Winston understands that he is almost completely alone in his arguments and this passage demonstrates that and his hope that the Party will self destruct therefore leaving a path for those left behind to recreate the system.
1/30/07, 9:42 PM
Anna quoted:
"He felt as though he were wandering in the forest of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was a monster. He was alone." (p. 26)
This is definitely what frightens Winston. He has no independent confirmation of what he "knows" to be true: life should be better than this. Everything around him screams out how wonderful the world is, but inside he knows better.
1/31/07, 11:04 AM
Erin quoted:
"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world.... If there was hope, it lay in the proles"
We talked about this in class, but it needs to be emphasized again. This is actually one of the rare places in the book where an element of hope is introduced, and it rests on the back of the "emotional intellligence" of the proles. They may not be thinkers or intellectuals, but they understand things intuitively, at least Winston feels this to be true. The other thing here is that Winston is rising above the vile nationalism which divides people into warring societies, and looking into the hearts of real people, across the world, and realizing that they are no different from him. In effect he feels less isolated when he grasps this simple truth. There is hope.
1/31/07, 11:10 AM
Lauren's quote:
"Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew? Perhaps the Party was rotten underneath the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self denial simply a sham concealing iniquity."
Very interesting, psychologically, to probe Winston's feelings here. He is glad to find out that there is a secret world of corruption, and Julia has direct experience of the hypocrisy herself. Winston hates purity. He seems (as you point out, Lauren) to be more than willing to bring himself down with the rest of the party, so long as he can bring them down. It's a strange sort of idealism.. but it's all he has.
1/31/07, 11:18 AM
Meghan:
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” Pg. 83
Obviously this is a big quote... a sort of key to the book. Another way of looking at the significance of the quote is to put it this way:
"Freedom is the freedom to tell the truth - not what everyone agrees is the truth."
After Winston breaks through that barrier, he is free... for awhile!
1/31/07, 11:39 AM
Quote #2
This quote is come from a conversation between Julia and Winston at the apartment above the antique shop.
“…She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse.
“We are the dead,” he said.
“We’re not dead yet,” said Julia prosaically.
“Not physically. Six months, a year – five years, conceivably. I am afraid of death. You are young, so presumably you’re more afraid of it than I am. Obviously we shall put if off as long as we can. But it makes very little difference. So long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing.” (Page 138)
The reason why I like this quotes is because it shows the loss of emotion and the uncertainly in the future for Julia and Winston. Winston sees himself and everyone around him as dead because they are not allowed emotions or a free will of thinking and express themselves. Winston believes himself not dead physically, but dead emotionally, and they can only put off death until the Party tells them that they want them dead. And with their lives in the hands of the Party, Winston believes that death and life are the same things as the government controls their lives. He sees humans as humans and the life that they live is in the hands of the Party.
1/31/07, 8:09 PM
"Complete oddity," just about sums it up, Juliana. I think the notion of Doublespeak is pretty much at the core of the meaning of the book.
2/1/07, 8:12 AM
This is directed towards Megan’s quote:
"We are not interested in the good of other; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power." pg. 272
I agree with what you said and to add, I think Big Brother and O’Brien only long for power and pure power because there is nothing else they can have or posses. Materials and money have no meaning to the Inner Party or Big Brother because they can have whatever they want. The only thing that they are wanting is complete control over everything and everyone; it is something almost out of their reach.
2/5/07, 9:04 PM
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