The main characters 1984 Orwell. O'Brien and Julia

The action takes place in the author's future world, in 1984, in one of the provinces of Oceania. A certain Winston Smith, an outwardly unremarkable man, intends to start keeping a diary, having bought a notebook from a junk dealer for this purpose. Winston understands that if the diary is discovered, he is threatened with the death penalty or many years in hard labor.

In the room where Smith lives, a television screen is mounted that receives all his thoughts and feelings and transmits them to a special police that conducts total control over citizens, exactly the same screens are present in any other room. Posters of the party leader are posted everywhere, people are constantly reminded that their Big Brother is watching them.

Winston doubts the justice and fidelity of the ideas preached by the ruling party. He is annoyed by the wretched, impoverished reality in which he himself and millions of other people are forced to exist, in relation to the Big Brother he feels deep hatred, and not at all reverence, as the authorities require from an ordinary citizen, he is also outraged by demagogic slogans that ignorance is power, and freedom is slavery.

The party orders to trust only its statements, and not your own senses. Smith is well aware that his thoughts are already a crime under the current regime, and he is a clear candidate for imprisonment or physical removal. Even members of the same family regularly inform each other, the same goes for neighbors and work colleagues.

The man serves in a special Ministry of Truth, his department collects old printed publications, which are immediately destroyed if the information contained in them does not coincide with today's political line. History is constantly being rewritten, and lies are transformed into truth without any difficulty.

Winston perfectly remembers the “two minutes of hatred” that recently took place in his organization, Goldstein, who was previously one of the leading leaders of the party, but then joined the counter-revolutionaries, was sentenced to death by the authorities and disappeared without a trace. Now it is claimed that it is he who is to blame for all the problems in the state, but many continue to support him, those who, as the police believe, are connected with Goldstein, are arrested daily.

During the two-minute session, Smith notices the views of an official named O'Brien, he has long suspected that this person does not believe in the party leadership in everything, and wants to talk with him alone, but does not dare to reveal his doubts. During meetings, Winston also notices a girl working from the Literature Department, who is also watching him closely, he has speculation about her membership in the Thought Police.

Walking around the city, Smith accidentally looks into a junk shop, who shows him a book about the old days, when carpets, fireplaces, beautiful knick-knacks were present in people's lives and there was no total surveillance of television screens. Then a girl from the literary department catches the eye of Winston, giving him a love message.

Immediately after this event, the citizen is detained and sent to the Ministry of Love, in the cell where Smith is now located, the light never goes out, there is no darkness. The man understands that he is facing torture and torture, but is still amazed to see O'Brien enter. It becomes clear to Winston that this official, in fact, devotedly serves the party and is not at all his like-minded person.

Further, Smith is severely beaten for many hours, he signs all the protocols, confessing to crimes that he never actually committed. At the end of the torment, the man's body is fixed in such a way that he is unable to move a single finger, and O'Brien continues to work on him with an electrical device that causes great pain.

He explains to Winston that the party doctrine must be accepted by reason and heart, learn to see reality as the party proposes, and Smith should stop being himself, and become one of those who govern the current totalitarian society. According to O'Brien, the power of the party will last forever, and in the new world there will be no feelings other than fear, and also no other love than that felt for the leader of the party.

However, Winston, despite all the torment, humiliation and beatings, does not want to agree with the theory expressed by the enemy. He believes that a state based solely on fear and at the same time hatred will sooner or later collapse. O'Brien asks his victim to undress and look at himself in the mirror.

A man sees an emaciated body and a toothless face, his executioner claims that humanity is just like that. Smith insists that he did not betray his beloved Julia. But a cage with angry, hungry rats is brought to his face, and Winston is unable to escape, remaining tightly attached to the chair. In complete desperation, he demands that the animals give the girl, but not himself.

In the future, a broken person constantly visits a cafe, where he does not stop drinking gin, alcohol becomes for him the only joy in a hopeless existence. He happened to meet Julia again, and both are aware of the mutual betrayal. None of them wants to communicate with the other anymore, one day Winston hears the joyful news of the victory of Oceania over Eurasia and watches the general rejoicing.

Smith sees the self-confident face of Big Brother, and now he really loves this man, O'Brien achieved his goal, he still managed to "heal" Winston, completely destroying his freedom-loving, trying to think personality.

The action takes place in 1984 in London, the capital of Airstrip Number One, in the province of Oceania. Winston Smith, a short, puny man of thirty-nine, is about to start journaling in an old thick notebook recently purchased from a junk shop. If the diary is discovered, Winston will face death or twenty-five years in a hard labor camp. In his room, as in any residential or office space, a television screen is built into the wall, working around the clock for both reception and transmission. The Thought Police eavesdrop on every word and watches every movement. Posters are plastered everywhere: the huge face of a man with a thick black mustache, with eyes fixed directly on the beholder. The caption reads: "Big Brother is watching you."

Winston wants to write down his doubts about the correctness of the Party's teachings. He does not see in the wretched life around him anything resembling the ideals to which the party aspires. He hates Big Brother and does not recognize the slogans of the party "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength." The party orders to believe only it, and not your own eyes and ears. Winston writes in his diary: "Freedom is the ability to say that two and two make four." He realizes that he is committing a thought-crime. The thought-criminal will inevitably be arrested, destroyed, or, as they say, pulverized. The family has become an appendage of the thought police, even children are taught to follow their parents and denounce them. Neighbors and colleagues inform on each other.

Winston works in the records department of the Ministry of Truth, responsible for information, education, leisure, and the arts. There they seek out and collect printed publications to be destroyed, replaced or altered if the figures, opinions or forecasts contained in them do not coincide with today's ones. History is scraped off like old parchment and rewritten as many times as necessary. Then the erasures are forgotten and the lie becomes the truth.

Winston reminisces about the two minutes of hate that took place at the ministry today. The object of hatred is unchanged: Goldstein, in the past one of the leaders of the party, who then embarked on the path of counter-revolution, was sentenced to death and mysteriously disappeared. Now he is the first traitor and apostate, the culprit of all crimes and sabotage. Everyone hates Goldstein, refutes and ridicules his teachings, but his influence does not weaken at all: every day they catch spies and pests acting on his orders. They say that he commands the Brotherhood, the underground army of the enemies of the party, they also talk about a terrible book, a collection of all kinds of heresies; it has no name, it is simply called "the book".

O'Brien, a very high official, is present at the two-minute session. The contrast between his gentle gestures and the appearance of a heavyweight boxer is surprising, Winston has long suspected that O'Brien is not quite politically orthodox, and is eager to talk to him. In his eyes, Winston reads understanding and support. Once he even hears O'Brien's voice in his sleep: "We will meet where there is no darkness." At meetings, Winston often catches the eye of the dark-haired girl from the Literature Department, who screams her hatred of Goldstein the loudest. Winston thinks she's connected to the Thought Police.

Wandering through the city slums, Winston accidentally finds himself near a familiar junk shop and enters it. The landlord, Mr. Charrington, a gray-haired, round-shouldered old man with glasses, shows him the room upstairs: there is antique furniture, a picture hangs on the wall, there is a fireplace and there is no TV screen. On the way back, Winston meets the same girl. He has no doubt that she is watching him. Suddenly, the girl hands him a note with a declaration of love. They furtively exchange a few words in the dining room and in the crowd. For the first time in his life, Winston is sure that he is facing a member of the Thought Police.

Winston is put in jail, then transported to the Ministry of Love, in a cell where the lights are never turned off. This is a place where there is no darkness. Enter O'Brien. Winston is amazed, forgetting about caution, he shouts: "And you have them!" “I’ve been with them for a long time,” O’Brien replies with mild irony. The warden appears from behind him, he beats Winston's elbow with all his might with a baton. The nightmare begins. First, he is subjected to interrogations by the guards, who beat him all the time - with fists, legs, truncheons. He repents of all sins, perfect and imperfect. Then party investigators work with him; their many hours of interrogation breaks him more than the fists of the guards. Winston says and signs everything that is required, confesses to unimaginable crimes.

Now he lies on his back, the body is fixed so that it is impossible to move. 0'Brien turns the lever of the device that causes unbearable pain. As a teacher who fights with a rebellious but capable student, 0'Brien explains that Winston is being kept here to heal, that is, to remake. The party does not need obedience or humility: the enemy must take the side of the party sincerely, mind and heart. He inspires Winston that reality exists only in the mind of the party: what the party considers to be true is the truth. Winston must learn to see reality through the eyes of the party, he must stop being himself, and become one of "them." The first stage O'Brien calls learning, the second - understanding. He claims that the power of the party is eternal. The purpose of power is power itself, power over people, and it consists in hurting and humiliating. The Party will create a world of fear, betrayal and torment, a world of trampling and trampling. In this world there will be no other feelings but fear, anger, triumph and self-humiliation, there will be no other loyalty than party loyalty, there will be no other love than love for the Elder Brother.

Winston objects. He believes that a civilization built on fear and hatred is about to collapse. He believes in the power of the human spirit. Considers himself morally superior to O'Brien. He includes a recording of their conversation, when Winston promises to steal, cheat, kill. O'Brien then tells him to undress and look in the mirror: Winston sees a dirty, toothless, emaciated creature. “If you are human, so is humanity,” O’Brien tells him. "I didn't betray Julia," Winston retorts. Then Winston is brought to room number one hundred and one, a cage with huge hungry rats is brought close to his face. For Winston, this is unbearable. He hears their screeching, smells their vile smell, but he is firmly attached to the chair. Winston realizes that there is only one person whose body he can shield from the rats, and frantically shouts: “Julia! Give them Julie! Not me!"

Winston comes daily to the Under the Chestnut Café, watches the TV screen, drinks gin. Life has gone out of him, only alcohol supports him. They saw Julia, and everyone knows that the Other has betrayed him. And now they feel nothing but mutual hostility. Victorious fanfare is heard: Oceania has defeated Eurasia! Looking at Big Brother's face, Winston sees that it is full of calm strength, and a smile is hidden in the black mustache. The healing that O'Brien spoke of has happened. Winston loves Big Brother.

Orwell's novel "1984", a summary of which is in this article, is the famous dystopia of the English writer. The work was first published in 1949. Today, its name, as well as the terminology used by the author, have become common nouns. They are often used to refer to a social structure that resembles the totalitarian society described by the author. The novel was often censored, especially in socialist countries, and criticized, most often from left-wing movements in the West.

First part

Orwell's novel "1984", the summary of which you are now reading, begins with the events in London in 1984. The country belongs to the province of Oceania. The protagonist is an unprepossessing 39-year-old Winston Smith. He works for the Ministry of Truth.

At the very beginning of George Orwell's novel "1984", a summary of which is given on the page, he is walking up the stairs to his apartment. There is a poster in the lobby that shows a huge, rough face with black and bushy eyebrows. Signed under it: "Big Brother is looking at you." It will become a refrain to the whole novel, will be used frequently in the works and in ordinary life after the success of Orwell's book.

Smith's room is no different from the habitation of most inhabitants of England at that time. A huge TV screen is built into the wall, which cannot be turned off, it works around the clock. And both for reception and for transmission. A meticulously working thought police can overhear every word, see every movement of any citizen of the country.

The windows of Smith's apartment look directly at the facade of the ministry, which is also decorated with posters. On them you can see paradoxical inscriptions, however, no one doubts their fidelity. "War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery."

Smith's diary

At the very beginning of Orwell's novel "1984", a summary of which can be found in this article, we learn that the main character decides to keep a diary. At that time, this is a deadly undertaking that can end in a sentence of capital punishment or exile in hard labor camps. But it is vital for him, Winston wants to collect all his thoughts and fix them.

At the same time, he does not flatter himself with the hope that future generations will someday learn about the diary. Smith is convinced that the police will get to him sooner or later, because thoughtcrime is severely punished. But even in such a situation, he decides to take risks.

Not knowing where to begin, Smith recalls a morning in his ministry that traditionally began with a two-minute hate. As always, Goldstein was the subject of the two minutes. He was called the defiler of party purity and the main traitor.

In George Orwell's novel 1984, which is summarized here, it is said that Winston met an attractive girl with mischievous freckles during a two-minute. He disliked her at first sight. Such pretty young girls were often the most loyal and fanatical adherents of the ruling party. They uttered slogans at rallies with pleasure, they were voluntary spies and informers.

Dream of the protagonist

At that moment O'Brien appeared in the hall. He was a high-ranking party member in charge of the Ministry of Truth. From the novel by J. Orwell "1984", a summary of which can be read if you cannot master the whole work, we learn that he was heavy and emphatically brought up. At the same time, Winston and some others suspected that in reality he was not as loyal to the party as he was trying to prove.

Smith has recently been increasingly recalling his old dream, in which, in the voice of O'Brien, an unknown person promises to meet him soon in a place where there is no darkness.

Truth Diary

Winston decided to keep a diary when he realized that he could not clearly remember when his country was not at war. At the same time, the Party, according to official sources of information, argued that Oceania had never been in an alliance with Eurasia. Although Smith himself clearly remembered that the union was only four years ago. But this knowledge was stored only in his memory, he could not document it in any way. Therefore, he increasingly questioned what the party was telling him, suspecting that the lie, having settled in history, eventually turns into the truth.

Recently, people around have changed a lot, notes the hero of George Orwell's novel "1984", a summary of which does not replace the work itself. Children are increasingly reporting on their parents. For example, the offspring of his neighbors tried to catch their father and mother on ideological incontinence.

Wilson's work

Returning to his job at the Ministry of Truth, Smith takes up his standard duties. He changes articles in newspapers published in previous years, in accordance with today's realities. Incorrect political forecasts are destroyed, Big Brother's mistakes are blotted out from the pages of the press. The names of undesirable persons are permanently deleted from articles and essays.

During his lunch break, Winston meets the philologist Syme, who is the local Newspeak specialist, in the cafeteria. Orwell's novel "1984" (a summary of the chapters will allow you to get acquainted with the main points of the work) uses special linguistic techniques. Syme says that destroying words is wonderful. Thus, human thought-crimes are made impossible. There are simply no words for them.

At the same time, Winston thinks to himself that the philologist will definitely be sprayed. Although it cannot be said about him that he is unfaithful, a little respectable odor steadily comes from him.

Winston's wife

At the very end of dinner, Smith notices that the girl with dark hair, whom he noticed at the two minutes of hate in the morning, is now watching him intently.

In parallel, he remembers his own wife, with whom they broke up about 11 years ago. Her name was Katherine. Smith understands that even at the very beginning of their life together, he clearly realized that he had never met a more stupid and empty creature. All the thoughts in her head consisted solely of slogans.

Thinking about who is capable of destroying the Party, Winston comes to the conclusion that only the proles are capable of this. In the novel "1984" by George Orwell (we are now describing a summary of the chapters), this is how the lower caste of the inhabitants of Oceania is called. They make up 85% of the total population. When moral issues need to be resolved, they follow the customs of their ancestors, and live so poorly that there are not even television screens in their apartments.

Smith makes an important entry in his diary. "Freedom is the ability to say that two and two make four."

Second part of the novel

The next day at work, Smith again runs into the girl with freckles. She stumbles and falls right in front of him, he rushes to her aid. While Winston helps her colleague up, she discreetly places a note in his hand. It has only three words: "I love you." They arrange a date.

In Orwell's book "1984" the characters go on a romantic walk out of town. It's just that they can't be heard.

It turns out that the girl's name is Julia. She admits that she had dozens of connections with members of the Party. From this, Winston is only delighted, because he understands that only such depravity and animal passion can destroy the Party from the inside. Their loving embrace George Orwell in the book "1984", a summary of which allows you to get an impression of the relationship of the main characters, describes as a political act.

Julia

Julia is only 26 years old. She works in the literary department on a machine that writes novels. For meetings with a girl, Smith rents a room without a TV screen above a junk shop. During one of these dates, they see a rat that emerges from a hole. Julia does not attach any importance to this, but Winston admits that he believes that there is nothing scarier in the world.

Every day Julia amazes him more and more. Once, when he starts talking about the war with Eurasia, she declares that she considers there is no war at all. And rockets can be dropped on London by the government itself to keep people in constant fear.

At this time, a fateful conversation takes place between Smith and O'Brien. They arrange a meeting. In the evening of the same day, Winston recalls his poor childhood. He does not remember how his father disappeared, there was very little food. And with him, besides his mother, lived a younger sister. One day, he took the girl's portion of chocolate from her and ran away from home. And when he returned, he no longer found his relatives. He was taken to a camp for the homeless, where he was brought up.

Relationship between Julia and Smith

The relationship between Julia and Smith develops. The girl wants to meet until the very end, but the hero warns her that if they are revealed, they can be tortured.

The two of them come to O'Brien and confess that they are enemies of the Party. In response, he confirms that the Brotherhood organization, which opposes the Party, exists. He promises to bring Winston the book that Goldstein wrote soon.

At this time, another change is taking place in geopolitical relations. The government announces that it has never fought with Eurasia, it is their ally, and the eternal enemy is Eastasia. For the next five days, Winston works to fix the past.

On the same days, he turns out to have Goldstein's book. It is called "Theory and practice of oligarchic collectivism". He reads it with Julia in the room above the junk shop. At this moment, they are revealed, unknown people carry Julia away. It turns out that a TV screen was hidden in the room. The junk dealer turns out to be an undercover cop.

The third part

In the third part of Orwell's 1984, Winston is transported to an unknown location. He assumes that this is the Ministry of Love. He is placed in a chamber in which the light is constantly on.

Parsons is added to him, who called in a dream to overthrow Big Brother. He was denounced by his own daughter.

In order to get a confession from Smith, he is tortured and beaten. It turns out that he was watched for a whole seven years before being arrested. When O'Brien arrives again, Winston realizes that he has always been on their side. Recalling to him the phrase from the diary that freedom is the ability to say that twice two will be four, his former comrade shows him four fingers and asks him to tell how many there are.

Despite being tortured, Smith replies that it is 4. Only when the prisoner's pain intensifies does he admit that it is 5. But O'Brien notes that he is lying, because he still believes that it is four.

The party cannot be overthrown

It is revealed that O'Brien is one of the party members who wrote the book of the Brotherhood. The party itself is provoking people like Winston to nip protest in the bud. Every year there are fewer and fewer of them.

Smith disagrees only with the fact that he went down. After all, he never betrayed Julia. But it comes down to that too. Winston is being held in a cell. In Orwell's novel "1984", a summary of which is in front of you, Winston, even in conclusion, confesses his love for a girl. He is sent to cell number one hundred and one. There, right in front of his face, they bring a cage with disgusting rats. The main thing Smith is afraid of in this life. In desperation, he asks to give them Julia, but not him. So he finally sinks, betraying the last loved one.

End of the novel

At the end of the novel, Smith spends time in a cafe called Under the Chestnut Tree. He comprehends everything that has happened to him lately.

After imprisonment and torture in the Ministry of Love, he met Julia. Smith notes that she has changed a lot. Her face became earthy, and a scar appeared on her forehead. And when he hugged her, she seemed to him stone, like a corpse. Both admitted that they had betrayed each other under torture.

At this time, solemn fanfares are heard in the cafe. It is announced that Oceania has won the war against Eurasia. Winston admits that he also defeated himself and defeated Big Brother.

Analysis of the novel

The novel "1984" by Orwell, a summary, the analysis of which will certainly be useful to you, raises many important issues.

It tells about censorship that develops in a totalitarian society, nationalism that becomes the basis of domestic politics at the state level, surveillance that rulers need to stay in power.

Until now, much that is described in the novel remains relevant and discussed among residents of various countries. Wherever there are at least the beginnings of authoritarianism or totalitarianism in power, they immediately begin to recall this immortal novel by George Orwell, arguing that everything that the science fiction writer wrote about comes true once again.

The spread of military dictatorship in the 20th century could not hide from the attentive gaze of writers who sensitively recorded the slightest fluctuations in public opinion. Many writers took one side or the other of the barricades without moving away from the political realities of their time. Among the brilliant talents who share the ideas of humanism and individualism of the individual, rudely trampled in authoritarian states, George Orwell, the author of the brilliant dystopia "1984", stands out in particular. In his work, he depicted the future, which should be feared at all times.

The novel tells about a possible scenario for the development of the world. After a series of bloody wars and revolutions, the Earth was divided into three superpowers, which are constantly at war with each other in order to distract the population from unresolved internal problems and completely control it. The description of the book "1984" should begin with the main character. In one of these empires lives a hero - an employee of the Ministry of Truth, a government body that specializes in destroying and rewriting the past to new standards. In addition, it promotes the values ​​of the existing system. Winston sees every day how what is happening in real life is reshaped to suit the political interests of the ruling elite, and thinks about how right what is happening. Doubts creep into his soul, and he starts a diary, to which they boldly confide them, hiding from the ubiquitous cameras (his TV screen not only broadcasts what you need to watch, but also removes his chambers). This is where his protest begins.

There is no place for individuality in the new system, so Smith carefully hides it. What he writes about in his diary is a thought crime and punishable by death. Hiding anything from Big Brother (the supreme ruler of Oceania) is not easy: all the houses are made of glass, cameras and bugs are everywhere, the thought police are watching every movement. He meets Julia, a very liberated person who also harbors an independent personality. They fall in love with each other, and the meeting place is the home of the proles, the lowest caste of workers. They are not watched so zealously, because their intellectual level is below average. They are allowed to live according to the customs of their ancestors. There, the heroes indulge in love and dreams of revolution by the hands of those very proles.

In the end, they meet a real representative of the resistance, who gives them a forbidden book about the philosophy of the coming coup. While reading it, the couple is caught by the thought police: a reliable person turned out to be an agent of the thought police. After severe torture, Winston and Julia give up and betray each other. In the end, they sincerely believe in the power of Big Brother and share the generally accepted view that all is well in the country.

How did Orwell come up with the name 1984?

The author wrote his work in 1948, and chose a title for it, changing the order of the last two numbers. The fact is that at that time the world got to know the most powerful army in Europe, originally from the USSR. Many people, tormented by hardships and hostilities, had the impression that another, no less merciless and dangerous enemy had taken the place of the German fascist aggressor. The threat of the Third World War, despite the defeat of the Third Reich, was still in the air. And then the question of the legitimacy of any dictatorship was actively discussed by people from all over the world. Orwell, seeing the terrible consequences of the struggle of authoritarian regimes and their willfulness within their states, became a staunch critic of tyranny in all its manifestations. He was afraid that in the future, despotic power would destroy "the freedom to say that twice two makes four." Fears for the fate of civilization gave rise to the idea of ​​the dystopia "1984". Apparently, the writer guessed the triumph of totalitarianism in the near future: only 36 years after the creation of the book. This means that the situation was conducive to gloomy predictions, which, largely due to the skillful propaganda of humanistic ideals in literature, did not come true.

The artistic world of Orwell

• geopolitical system. The action takes place in a country called Oceania. She has two rivals: Eurasia and Eastasia. Now with one, then with the other, alliances are concluded, and at this time a war is going on with the other. Thus, the external threat becomes the binding force of the internal order. It justifies food shortages, total surveillance of everyone, poverty and other social problems.
• Big Brother (in some translations of the novel "1984" sounds like "Big Brother"). In order for all this to look organic, employees of the Ministry of Truth rewrite yesterday's newspapers daily and distribute them retroactively. All the miscalculations of the Big Brother, the supreme ruler of Oceania, are also smoothed out. The cult of his personality is very developed and plays the role of a national ideology: he is something like God. Peculiar icons with his image and slogans on his behalf are hung everywhere. It is easy to see in these details a striking resemblance to the geopolitical situation of those years.
• Angsots is the ruling party brought to power by Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein (an allusion to Lenin and Trotsky). First of all, it uses psychological control over citizens, the greatest importance is attached to the mental activity of people. In order to have absolute power over it, officials are rewriting history right up to yesterday's newspapers.
• Oppositionist Goldstein. Of course, the party (it is the only one for the whole country, personifies the power as a whole) also has an internal enemy - a certain Goldstein and his Brotherhood organization. He is a fictitious head of a fictitious opposition, a magnet that attracts those who are dissatisfied with the existing system and dooms them to arrest and torture. It was his non-existent ranks that dragged the main characters of the 1984 dystopia. Bogus criminal cases and swearing at a resistance figure add to the agenda of Oceanian citizens who see nothing but violence anyway.
• Doublethink. However, the absurdity of this political system is that the words familiar to us from childhood take on the opposite meaning: the Ministry of Love deals with torture and executions, and the Ministry of Truth recklessly lies. Famous face commands for the inhabitants of Oceania “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is power” are perceived by people intimidated and dumbfounded by endless propaganda as common truths, although we have before us antonymous pairs, nothing more. But even in the atmosphere of dictatorship they were given a philosophical significance. War serves as a guarantor of internal stability: no one will start a revolution, even if only out of patriotic motives, because the homeland is in danger. The problems of the world are alien to wartime. The freedom of Orwell's heroes is that they feel safe, and they have nothing to hide. They are in unity with society and the state, which means that if the country is free (and the soldiers defend their independence on the battlefield), then the individual is also independent. Therefore, slavish worship of Big Brother will bring true harmony. And ignorance will contribute to this, because an unknowing person knows no doubts and firmly moves towards a common goal in the same line with his comrades. Thus, outright absurdity has long been a national idea in many authoritarian countries.
• Newspeak. This is an invention of the philologists of Oceania. They created a new language of abbreviations and jargon to make thoughtcrime (doubting the correctness of generally accepted life attitudes) impossible. Newspeak was supposed to paralyze thought, because that for which there is no word ceases to exist for a person. The heroes of "1984" without a language will not even be able to communicate normally, therefore, there will be no talk of any rebellion.
• The Proles are the working class, making up about 85% of the population. Their life was left to chance by the authorities, as these people became dull from hard primitive work and are not capable of revolutionary thinking. Their orders are determined by tradition, and their opinions are determined by superstition. But Winston is counting on their breakthrough.
• The Thought Police is a spy organization that controls the mental activity of the citizens of Oceania.

Main characters

1. Winston Smith is the protagonist of the novel "1984", an employee of the Ministry of Truth. He is 39 years old, thin and unhealthy in appearance. He has a haggard face with sharp features, a tired look. He is prone to reflection and doubt, secretly hates the existing system, but does not have the courage to protest openly. From childhood, Winston was selfish and weak: his family lived in poverty, and he always complained of hunger, took away food from his mother and sister, and once took away a chocolate bar from his sister, ran away, and, returning, found no one. So he ended up in a boarding school. Since then, his nature has changed little. The only thing that lifted him up was his love for Julia, which gave rise to courage and a willingness to fight in him. However, a man cannot stand the test, he is not ready for a sacrifice for the sake of his beloved woman. Orwell mockingly assigns to him a humiliating phobia - the fear of rats, which ruins Smith's sincere impulses. It was the cage with rodents that made him betray his beloved and wholeheartedly join the ideology of Big Brother. Thus, the image of a fighter with the system degrades to the typical character of an opportunist and a slave to the situation.
2. Julia is the main character of the dystopia "1984", Winston's beloved woman. She is 26 years old. She works in a literary workshop, writing novels on a special device. She has a solid sexual experience, corrupts party members, being a symbol of indomitable human nature with its instinctive logic of behavior. She has thick dark hair, freckles on her face, a pretty appearance and a beautiful feminine figure. She is brave, much bolder and more outspoken than her lover. It is she who confesses her feelings to him and carries him away to the countryside to express her innermost thoughts. She protests with her licentiousness against the puritanism of the party, wants to give her energy for the sake of pleasure and love, and not for the glory of Big Brother.
3. O'Brien - the owner of a solid rank in the party, a secret agent of the Thought Police. Well brought up, restrained, has an athletic physique. Deliberately creates the impression of opposition. He is a reasoner, his role is similar to the meaning of the image of Mephistopheles in the fate of Faust. He appears to Winston in dreams, gives rise to doubt in his thoughts that he shares the political views of the majority. The hero constantly throws logs into the fire of Smith's protest, finally, openly inclines him to participate in the upcoming rebellion. Later it turns out that he was a provocateur. O'Brien personally supervises the torture of his "friends", gradually knocking out their individuality. The cruel inquisitor reveals at the same time a rare charm, a clear mind, a broad outlook and the gift of persuasion. His position is much more consistent and logical than what the prisoners are trying to oppose to him.
4. Syme is a philologist and one of the founders of Newspeak. All secondary characters are drawn by the author schematically and only in order to show the injustice and depravity of the state system in the anti-utopia "1984".

The meaning of the book

J. Orwell depicted a senseless and merciless duel between the individual and the system, where the former is doomed to death. An authoritarian state denies a person's right to individuality, which means that everything that is dear to us will be trampled if the power of the state over society is absolute. The writer warned us against the collectivism of thought and against the permissiveness of dictatorship under whatever slogans, which certainly cannot be trusted. The meaning of the work "1984" is to present a world that has evolved dialectically according to the laws of today to a state of tyranny, and to show its squalor, its total inconsistency with our values ​​and ideas. The author took the radical ideas of contemporary politicians to the extreme and received not science fiction, no, but a real forecast for the future, to which we, without knowing it, are approaching in the present. Any dystopia exaggerates to make humanity think about what will happen next if the arbitrariness of today is allowed.

In the middle of the 20th century, Oceania had many prototypes. D. Orwell spoke especially harshly about the USSR. He often spoke in the press criticizing the country's authoritarian regime, repressive domestic policies, aggressive behavior on the world stage, and so on. Many details from the book are strikingly reminiscent of the realities of Russia during the Soviet period: the cult of personality, repression, torture, shortages, censorship, and so on. Perhaps the work was in the nature of a very specific satirical attack against the Soviet Union. For example, it is known that the writer came up with the famous “twice two equals five” when he heard the expression “five-year plan in 4 years”.

ending

The discrepancy between human nature and dictatorship is emphasized in the finale of the novel "1984", where the personalities of the main characters were erased beyond recognition. Winston, after prolonged physical suffering, admits that O'Brien is not showing four fingers, but five, although this is not true. But the inquisitor goes further in his experiments: he pokes a cage of rats in the face of a prisoner. For Smith, this is beyond all strength, he is madly afraid of them and betrays Julia, begging to give her to the rats instead of him. However, she also betrays him under torture. So the fighters with the system are disappointed in each other, all their dreams become like baby talk. After that, they can no longer even think about the protest, all their thoughts are completely controlled by the thought police. This crushing internal defeat contrasts with another "victory" of Oceania in the war against Eurasia. To the sound of inviting fanfare, Smith fell in love with Big Brother with complete sincerity. Now he is part of the universal unanimity.

Criticism

For the first time, the novel "1984" was translated into Russian in the 50s of the last century, in 1957 (during the thaw after Stalin's death) a book was even published in samizdat. However, Soviet criticism chose not to notice the pronounced hint of an authoritarian regime in the Russian latitudes and characterized it as a decadent phenomenon of the decaying imperialist West. For example, in the Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary of 1983, regarding dystopia, it is written this: “For the ideological legacy of Orwell, both reactionary, ultra-right forces and petty-bourgeois radicals are fighting sharply.” Their foreign colleagues, on the contrary, noted the powerful social issues and political subtext of the work, focusing on the author's humanistic message.

Modern readers assess the novel in two ways: they do not deny it artistic value, but they do not single out a special semantic variety. The left-wing politician and writer Eduard Limonov notes that Orwell carried out a certain propaganda mission of his party (Trotskyist), although he does it qualitatively. However, it remains unclear that the writer rejects the ideals so dear to the heart of Leiba Trotsky. For example, the idea of ​​a world state is clearly presented as a path to totalitarian power, which causes such a categorical rejection in the author.

Critic, publicist and poet Dmitry Bykov highly appreciates the artistry of Orwell's text, but he does not find deep social thoughts there. And the writer (in the genre of popular science literature) Kirill Yeskov completely criticized the dystopian novel "1984" for the excessive utopianism of the phenomena recreated in it. He stressed the unviability of many of them.

The action takes place in 1984 in London, the capital of Airstrip Number One, in the province of Oceania. Winston Smith, a short, puny man of thirty-nine, is about to start journaling in an old thick notebook recently purchased from a junk shop. If the diary is discovered, Winston will face death or twenty-five years in a hard labor camp. In his room, as in any residential or office space, a television screen is built into the wall, working around the clock for both reception and transmission. The Thought Police eavesdrop on every word and watches every movement. Posters are plastered everywhere: the huge face of a man with a thick black mustache, with eyes fixed directly on the beholder. The caption reads: "Big Brother is watching you."

Winston wants to write down his doubts about the correctness of the Party's teachings. He does not see in the wretched life around him anything resembling the ideals to which the party aspires. He hates Big Brother and does not recognize the slogans of the party "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength." The party orders to believe only it, and not your own eyes and ears. Winston writes in his diary: "Freedom is the ability to say that two and two make four." He realizes that he is committing a thought-crime. The thought-criminal will inevitably be arrested, destroyed, or, as they say, pulverized. The family has become an appendage of the thought police, even children are taught to follow their parents and denounce them. Neighbors and colleagues inform on each other.

Winston works in the records department of the Ministry of Truth, responsible for information, education, leisure, and the arts. There they seek out and collect printed publications to be destroyed, replaced or altered if the figures, opinions or forecasts contained in them do not coincide with today's ones. History is scraped off like old parchment and rewritten as many times as necessary. Then the erasures are forgotten and the lie becomes the truth.

Winston reminisces about the two minutes of hate that took place at the ministry today. The object of hatred is unchanged: Goldstein, in the past one of the leaders of the party, who then embarked on the path of counter-revolution, was sentenced to death and mysteriously disappeared. Now he is the first traitor and apostate, the culprit of all crimes and sabotage. Everyone hates Goldstein, refutes and ridicules his teachings, but his influence does not weaken at all: every day they catch spies and pests acting on his orders. They say that he commands the Brotherhood, the underground army of the enemies of the party, they also talk about a terrible book, a collection of all kinds of heresies; it has no name, it is simply called "the book".

O'Brien, a very high official, is present at the two-minute session. The contrast between his gentle gestures and the appearance of a heavyweight boxer is surprising, Winston has long suspected that O'Brien is not quite politically orthodox, and is eager to talk to him. In his eyes, Winston reads understanding and support. Once he even hears O'Brien's voice in his sleep: "We will meet where there is no darkness." At meetings, Winston often catches the eye of the dark-haired girl from the Literature Department, who screams her hatred of Goldstein the loudest. Winston thinks she's connected to the Thought Police.

Wandering through the city slums, Winston accidentally finds himself near a familiar junk shop and enters it. The landlord, Mr. Charrington, a gray-haired, round-shouldered old man with glasses, shows him the room upstairs: there is antique furniture, a picture hangs on the wall, there is a fireplace and there is no TV screen. On the way back, Winston meets the same girl. He has no doubt that she is watching him. Suddenly, the girl hands him a note with a declaration of love. They furtively exchange a few words in the dining room and in the crowd. For the first time in his life, Winston is sure that he is facing a member of the Thought Police.

Winston is put in jail, then transported to the Ministry of Love, in a cell where the lights are never turned off. This is a place where there is no darkness. Enter O'Brien. Winston is amazed, forgetting about caution, he shouts: "And you have them!" “I’ve been with them for a long time,” O’Brien replies with mild irony. The warden appears from behind him, he beats Winston's elbow with all his might with a baton. The nightmare begins. First, he is subjected to interrogations by the guards, who beat him all the time - with fists, legs, truncheons. He repents of all sins, perfect and imperfect. Then party investigators work with him; their many hours of interrogation breaks him more than the fists of the guards. Winston says and signs everything that is required, confesses to unimaginable crimes.

Now he lies on his back, the body is fixed so that it is impossible to move. O'Brien turns the lever on a device that causes unbearable pain. Like a teacher who fights with a rebellious but capable student, O'Brien explains that Winston is being kept here to heal, that is, to remake. The party does not need obedience or humility: the enemy must take the side of the party sincerely, mind and heart. He inspires Winston that reality exists only in the mind of the party: what the party considers to be true is the truth. Winston must learn to see reality through the eyes of the party, he must stop being himself, and become one of "them." The first stage O'Brien calls learning, the second - understanding. He claims that the power of the party is eternal. The purpose of power is power itself, power over people, and it consists in hurting and humiliating. The Party will create a world of fear, betrayal and torment, a world of trampling and trampling. In this world there will be no other feelings but fear, anger, triumph and self-humiliation, there will be no other loyalty than party loyalty, there will be no other love than love for the Elder Brother.

Winston objects. He believes that a civilization built on fear and hatred is about to collapse. He believes in the power of the human spirit. Considers himself morally superior to O'Brien. He includes a recording of their conversation, when Winston promises to steal, cheat, kill. O'Brien then tells him to undress and look in the mirror: Winston sees a dirty, toothless, emaciated creature. “If you are human, so is humanity,” O’Brien tells him. "I didn't betray Julia," Winston retorts. Then Winston is brought to room number one hundred and one, a cage with huge hungry rats is brought close to his face. For Winston, this is unbearable. He hears their screeching, smells their vile smell, but he is firmly attached to the chair. Winston realizes that there is only one person whose body he can shield from the rats, and frantically shouts: “Julia! Give them Julie! Not me!"

Winston comes daily to the Under the Chestnut Café, watches the TV screen, drinks gin. Life has gone out of him, only alcohol supports him. They saw Julia, and everyone knows that the Other has betrayed him. And now they feel nothing but mutual hostility. Victorious fanfare is heard: Oceania has defeated Eurasia! Looking at Big Brother's face, Winston sees that it is full of calm strength, and a smile is hidden in the black mustache. The healing that O'Brien spoke of has happened. Winston loves Big Brother.