representation of the anti-hero Winston

representation of the anti-hero Winston

Composers through their texts of value, portray the reactions of individuals and collectives to certain events and circumstances in order to provide insight into both individual and collective human experiences. This is poignantly explored throughout George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian satirical novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), which influenced by the brutal regimes of Hitler and Stalin during WW2, acts as a didactic political warning to society of the effects of a totalitarian society. Throughout the novel, Orwell provides insight into both individual and collective human experiences through his exploration of resistance and rebellion, subversion of love, suppression of individuality and unmediated power. Along with portraying the human qualities and emotions associated with, or arising from these experiences which helps responders gain insight into key concerns and characters in the novel.

Through the representation of the anti-hero Winston, Orwell offers insight into individual human experiences through Winston’s reaction of resisting and rebelling against The Party. This delineation shows that if we don’t protect our fundamental rights, we as a society are prone to the all-encompassing, complete manipulation and tyranny of totalitarian control systems. Winston reacts to these conditions by resisting The Party’s subjugation and rebelling. This is achieved through the diary, along with the old-fashioned pen, which plays an important role in the exposition of rebellion.  Even before he writes in it, it is a symbol of everything The Party is against, as it is an instrument of the past and they don’t have ‘absolute control’ over the narrative of the present. This individual effort to rebel is culminated in “His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper… printing… DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” where the extended sexual metaphor emphasises how passions that compete with one’s loyalty to The Party were acts of rebellion and resisted The Party’s value of ‘absolute control’. Winston, knowing that his rebellion is punishable, purposely acknowledges that his life is bound from the minute he opens his diary and imprints its pages, as highlighted in the declarative statement “To mark the paper was a decisive act.” This reinforces the courage of an individual to overcome such fears of a society but also foreshadows Winston’s eventual ‘death’. However, because of the presence of totalitarian control, society as a whole has been manipulated into not possessing the capacity or capability to resist such subjugation, as reflected in the presumptive tone of Syme, a representative of censorship in the party, “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” Orwell analysis this manipulation of language and portrays how it can control the collective human experiences of society and destroy their consciousness to resist. This reflects his subversive and contextual attitudes towards fascism and communism. Winston’s individual reaction to this collective human experience provides insight into how our shared human experiences shape who we become in different ways.

Orwell presents us with an interesting portrayal of the collective human experience of love by expressing Winston’s reaction to the subversion of love through his contrasting relationships with Katherine and Julia and his seemingly inconsistent relationship with O’Brian. We see that The Party has desperately and successfully removed love for anything but Big Brother from its members. This is evident in Winston’s failed marriage with Katherine where she had been convinced that the intimate act of sex was just their “duty to the Party”. This is further explored when Winston describes Katherine to Julia as “a wife I can’t get rid of”. Julia as a woman who not only enjoys sex but bonds with him on a personal level, is the antithesis of Katherine. This is ironic as Winston sees inhibited feelings of love, as a force that can destroy the Party. The entire progression of their feelings towards each other is manufactured by The Party and was only allowed to bloom so O’Brian could crush them later. Their love for each other is seemingly so strong but is eventually crushed by the tortures within Room 101. The tortures break Winston to the point where he screams to O’Brian “Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones”. In this exclamation, O’Brian realises that his defeat of Winston is complete and has broken his love for Julia. With the destruction of this universal human experience complete, the strongest love that remains in Oceania is the warped love of the tortured to his torturer. In the absence of normal love among individuals, the party creates this unconditional love for itself and its leader within each of its members. Orwell’s portrayal of Winston’s journey to eventually loving Big Brother leads up to his final line, “He had won victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” where this nihilistic denouement highlights the complete destruction of natural love. Orwell has successfully offered insight into how the collective human experience of love can be manipulated and destroyed within a totalitarian society, engaging responders to the consequences of the subversion of love.

The destruction of the human condition is further explored through his representation of the individual and collective responses to the suppression of individuality present within a totalitarian society. Orwell depicts a bleak dystopia devoid of freedom and individuality where control is maintained through ritual and enforced homogeneity. This elimination of individuality is evident in the Two Minutes of Hate where “a desire to kill… seemed to flow through the whole group like an electric current turning one against ones will”, reflecting similar demonstrations in Stalin’s Russia, the metaphor expresses how a ruling party can exert their power by controlling intrinsic human emotions like hate and create a sense of uniformity within society. This allows responders to see how our emotions can be manipulated offering insight into how our experiences shape our emotions and qualities. Orwell continues to explore the manipulation of human experiences through his portrayal of Newspeak, a language developed to limit the linguistic expression of its members. The extent to which this move beyond just ‘physical’ control has suppressed individuality within its citizens is evident in how Winston now addresses people. Winston writes “If there is hope… it lies in the proles.”, this continued use of the reoccurring motif of the diary, as a symbol of Winston’s individual expression, reveals that the protagonist can now only conceive of people as groups rather than as individuals. This is furthered in Winston’s letter to future generations, “to a time when thought is free… men are different from one another… truth exists… From the age of uniformity…solitude…doublethink – greetings!”. This pensive tone in the form of a letter, advocates for truth, individuality and freedom and is directed to future responders. This helps to enlighten responders about the sad truths of letting a totalitarian society develop and displays how these freedoms have been all but forgotten. Orwell’s instructive and hopeless vision of society conveys to responders how Winston responds to the suppression of individuality offering insight into how individual and collective human experiences influence the human condition.

Furthermore, the ways in which unmediated power can suppress and influences the human experiences of its subjects is explored through Orwell’s representation of The Party and its desire to have ‘absolute control’. Orwell draws upon the worst excesses of power under Nazi and communist rule, including torture and surveillance which it utilises to degrade the population of Oceania to servitude and misery. This representation depicts that totalitarian regimes feast on human suffering, culminated by the official slogan of The Party, “War is peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is strength” where the paradoxical statement highlights 1984 as political satire and exemplifies the nature of unmediated power. This unmediated power is achieved though the lack of pluralism where the ruling party is able to censor all aspects of society and instil seemingly factual convictions to such an extent where “2 + 2 =5”. This is achieved through the use of the cult figurehead Big Brother and the constant surveillance of the “telescreens”. The audience feels the omnipresent nature of Big Brother through the second person narration of “There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched” where the use of Winston as an internal focaliser directs the audience to empathise with Winston’s reaction towards this constant subjugation. It reveals individuals’ paranoias and anxieties which act to make them experience a version of life that is inconsistent with our understanding of what it means to be human. The audience witnesses The Party as an oligarchical political class whose power stems from the subjugation of the other classes through its control of information and how it is presented to its citizens. Winston’s work in the Ministry of Truth ironically consists of him falsifying the past to ensure it endorses current party policies as well as protecting it from opposition. Following his torture of Winston, Winston obediently repeats the slogan “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past” where the anaphoric sentence structure reveals that by controlling the present, The Party is able to manipulate the past and thus able to justify its actions in the present. This allows the audience to see how ignorance makes the masses more susceptible to control. Orwell’s representation of how unmediated power can suppress and influence the individual and collective human experiences of its members, offers insight into one of the consequences of a totalitarian society.

Inconclusion, Orwell’s text of value portrays the reactions of individuals and collectives to certain events and circumstances in order to provide insight into both individual and collective human experiences. This is achieved through his exploration of various key concerns and the human emotions and qualities associated with or arising from these experiences.

Relationships

Orwell presents responders with an interesting portrayal of the collective human experience of relationships by expressing Winston’s reaction to the subversion of love. This is achieved through the exploration of Winston’s contrasting relationships with Katherine and Julia and his seemingly inconsistent one with O’Brian. We see that the installation of a totalitarian society has removed the vital emotion of love from relationships and seen through Katherines indoctrinated and robotic tone, the intimate act of sex was reduced to solely your “duty to The Party”. In comparison, Winston’s relationship to Julia is one where they connect on a personal level. This is explored in how Winston describes Katherine to Julia “as a wife I can’t get rid of”. Julia as a woman who not only enjoys sex but also has a conventional relationship with Winston, is the antithesis of Katherine. This is ironic as Winston views inhibited feelings of love as a force that can destroy The Party. The entire progression of their relationship towards each other was cultivated by The Party and only allowed to bloom so O’Brian could crush it later. Following the complete destruction of this natural human experience through the tortures of Room 101, there loyalties to each other had been severed with Winston encouraging O’Brian to “Tear her face off” and “strip her to the bones”. With the destruction of natural relationships complete, the strongest relationship that remains is the warped connection between the tortured and their torturer. In the absence of normal love among individuals, The Party create unconditional love for itself and its leader, Big Brother. Orwell’s portrayal of Winston’s journey to eventually loving Big Brother leads up to his final line, “He had won victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” where this nihilistic denouement highlights the complete destruction of natural love and the creation of this warped version of love. Orwell has successfully offered insight into how the subversion of love within a totalitarian society, can completely manipulate and destroy this vital collective human experience.

Identity

The destruction of the human condition is further explored in Orwell’s representation of the individual human experience of identity present within a totalitarian society. Orwell explores how individuals and collectives respond to the oppression of a totalitarian regime to offer further insight into how the suppression of individuality effects individual human experiences. The depiction of a bleak dystopia devoid of freedom and individuality where control is maintained through ritual and enforced homogeneity becomes blatantly apparent in the Two Minutes of Hate. Winston describes that “a desire to kill… seemed to flow through the whole group like an electric current turning one against ones will”. Reflecting similar demonstration in Stalin’s Russia, this metaphor expresses how a ruling party can exert their power by controlling intrinsic human emotions like hate and create a sense of uniformity within society. This offers insight into the connection between our experiences and the emotions we possess. Orwell continues to explore the manipulation of human experiences through his portrayal of Newspeak, a language developed to limit the linguistic expression of its members. The extent to which this move beyond just ‘physical’ control has suppressed individuality within its citizens is evident in how Winston now addresses people. Winston writes “If there is hope… it lies in the proles.”, this continued use of the reoccurring motif of the diary, as a symbol of Winston’s individual expression, reveals that the protagonist can now only conceive of people as groups rather than as individuals. Furthered by Winston’s letter “to a time when thought is free… men are different from one another… truth exists… From the age of uniformity… solitude… doublethink – greetings!”. The pensive tone in the form of a letter, advocates to future responders the importance of the building blocks of identity – truth, individuality and freedom, emphasising the consequences of a totalitarian society where these freedoms have all but been forgotten. This instructive and hopeless vision of society under totalitarian rule conveys how Winston and society have responded to this oppression in detriment of our individual human experiences.