Orwell and 1984 (Overview)

Orwell and 1984 (Overview)

1. 1903: real name: Eric Arthur Blair born in India

2. 1911: boarding school in England, but he doesn't feel at ease because the other students were snobbish and from wealthier families

3. 1922: joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (officer)

4. 1927: resigned (disappointment by imperialistic oppressive methods) and returned to Europe, where he lived on the streets in Paris and London experiencing life as a homeless

5. 1932: began a teaching career

6. 1936: married Eileen O’Shaughnessy.

7. 1936: fought on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War

8. severely wounded, returned to England

9. 1941: joined the BBC and is rejected for military service due to his poor health

10. wrote essays exalting British institutions if compared to totalitarism (Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin)

11. 1945: "Animal Farm" - satire of Russian Revolution

12. 1945: 1945 his wife died

13. 1949: publication of 1984

14. 1950: re-married but three months later died. (suffered from tubercolisis)

15. awareness of social injustice

    • emotional identification with the working class.
      • role of the artist ➝ to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions from them ➝ social function.

16. SOCIAL THEMES

    • realistic language
      • misery caused by poverty
        • depravation of society

17. The essay

    • Orwell warns against “the vagueness and the sheer incompetence of modern English prose”. A writer should use a clear and direct language, so as to become an actual instrument of information and communication

18. 1984

    • to suggest that society could easily be transformed in reality in the near future
    • science-fiction
      • satirical meaning
    • DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
      • = speaks of negative utopia
        • the world represented is completely negative, the worst imaginable
    • The War inspired Orwell and also the 2 atomic bombs
    • oppressive world
      • no privacy
      • no space for love or happiness or different idead
      • London, in the future
      • terror and constant control
        • telescreens
        • microphones
        • videocameras
      • Punishment against the rebels
        • duty to eliminate those who deverge from the Party
      • BRAINWASHING
    • BIG BROTHER
      • distant, yet omnipresent oppressor
      • symbol of the total control of the individual's life by mass media
      • "Is watching you!" - posters everywhere
    • prophetic picture of a world where individuality is annihilated
    • provides the account of the way a totalitarian state attempts to control the thoughts of its citizens through language.
    • the world is divided into 3 great powers
      • Eurasia
      • Eastasia
      • Oceania
        • England is part of
      • continually at war with each other
    • PARTY VS PROLES
      • Ministry of Truth
        • manipulates people's mind
          • modifies and rewrites books and documents adapting them to the political needs of the moment
            • historical memory and consciousness CANCELLED
              • REDUCTION OF VOCABULARY
                • IMPOSSIBILITY TO THINK AND REACT AGAINST THE PARTY
          • rewrites history and past
      • Thoght police
        • torture
    • Importance of memory and trust.
    • protagonist: Winston Smith
      • not casual: reference to Churchill
        • works for the Ministery of Truth but is not devotes. Has a love-story but is betrayed and punished by a "friend" of him. Hated the party and tried to rebel but is defeated and learns to love Big Brother.
    • IT'S A WARNING against the danger of total adhesion to a political system and its leader
      • warning through a negative example in order to avoid it

19. LANGUAGE

    • clear
    • uncomplicated
    • influenced by his work as journalist
    • opposite words and paradox are employed in the slogans

20. PESSIMISM

    • = struggle against all superpowers can never be successful

21. NEWSPEAK

    • the official language
    • eliminates undesirable words
    • aim: to reduce human conscioussnes and soppress free thinking

22. DOUBLETHINKING

    • manipulation of the mind by making people accept contradictions and every idea
    • makes people believe that the Party is the only institution that knows right from wrong.
    • possibility to believe in two ideas at the same time, even if they're contradictory