Critical Review of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

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 Critical Review of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell wrote 1984 as a message after years of considering the twin dangers of

Stalinism and Nazism. The book takes place in 1984 in Oceania, one of three authoritarian states

that are always at odds. Oceania is governed by an all Party, which has duped the people into

accepting Big Brother's instructions without question. The movement also coined the term

"Newspeak,” an agenda-driven vocabulary intended to limit free speech and spread the Party's

doctrines. Its slogans include “Ignorance is Power,” “War is peace," and "Freedom is slavery,"

all of which represent doublespeak. Its depiction of a state where daring to think outside the box

is punished with brutality, where the public is constantly watched, and where party propaganda

surpasses free expression and rational is a sobering reminder of the dangers of unchecked

regimes. The Thought Police and constant monitoring are used by the Party to keep power.

Winston is a symbol of refined life's principles, and his loss serves as a stark reminder of those

values' weakness in the face of all-powerful states. One of the main themes in the novel 1984 is

totalitarianism. It depicts a government in which even the president is unknown to the general

public. This theme serves as a message to the people that some regimes use propaganda to get

the public to accept the government's lies, as is the case in the current states.

George wrote the novel to caution the world of what he dreaded would be humankind's

destiny if the public permitted authoritarian regimes to take power, as they did lately in Nazi

Germany and the Allied Powers under Stalin. Orwell's main goal in writing 1984 was to educate

people of the grave dangers that totalitarianism poses. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate

how an oppressive regime can achieve and maintain terrifying degrees of authority and

influence. The concepts of individual rights and liberties, as well as critical thought, are flattened

by the administration's all-powerful side. Orwell was a Communist who believed in the power of
revolt to advance civilization, but he saw too many such uprisings go wrong and transform into

authoritarian rule. Orwell observed such changes firsthand in Russia and Spain, where he

experienced the collapse of nationalism and the resulting obliteration of civil rights, economic

power, and efficient government.

Orwell spoke out loudly and vigorously against communism at a time when much of the

Western nations lauded it as a step toward human advancement and the establishment of

administration fairness. George Orwell portrays a dystopia, or the perfect totalitarian state, in his

novel 1984. Orwell showed the world what accepting communism could lead to if it were

allowed to thrive unchecked in this novel. The Party has perfected every element of continuous

reflection, as shown by its ability to crack even an autonomous thinker like Winston, and has

perfected every aspect of social control, primarily by taking advantage of the technological

advancements.

Facing signs of Stalin's despotism, Anglo-American intellectuals were unable to condemn

the Soviet regime after Second World War since Russia had been an ally against Japan and

Germany. During the Interwar Period, Orwell experienced firsthand the violent repression of

competing political parties by Soviet-backed Communists, and he emerged from the conflict as a

vocal opponent of communism. He worked relentlessly for the remainder of his life to uncover

the horrors of totalitarianism and foster "social democracy," as he called it. To critics who

wanted to see the book as a criticism of Soviet Communism, Orwell insisted that he set it in

Britain to prove that totalitarianism could thrive anywhere if the public did not oppose it.

INGSOC reflects the worst aspects of both the Nazi and Communist governments in the book.

The Party's ultimate goal is to govern its citizens' minds and their bodies, and therefore existence

itself. Totalitarianism emerged as a result of Socialism, which aimed to establish more

egalitarian economies by centralizing labor and abolishing private property in favor of communal

ownership as a reaction to urbanization. The methods by which an authoritarian regime

centralizes and spreads its control are outlined in the novel.

Orwell portrays the ideal authoritarian government, the most radical manifestation of a

current states dictatorship with complete authority that can be imagined. According to the title, if

people did not resist totalitarianism, in just thirty-five years, a version of the future portrayed in

the novel could become a possibility. Orwell imagines a world in which the authority tightly

controls and monitors any areas of human existence, to the point that it is unethical to have an

untrustworthy opinion. As the novel unfolds, Winston Smith, a cautiously defiant young man,

sets out to test the Party's influence, only to find that the Party's ability to manipulate and

subjugate its topics much exceeds all his most naive expectations (Orwell, 1990). To rule its

members, the Party uses a number of strategies, which the reader learns about from Winston's

eyes, and each of which is a main theme in the novel.

The Party inundates its supporters with mental stimuli in order to obliterate the mind's

capacity to reason for itself. Any citizen's room has a large video recorder that delivers a constant

stream of commercials designed to make the Party's losses and shortcomings seem to be

triumphant victories. Citizens' acts are frequently tracked by telescreens wherever they go.

Officials are continually reminding people that they are being watched, specifically by the

pervasive signs that read "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU" (Orwell, 1990). Kids are

inducted into a gang known as the Young Agents, who are brainwashed and given the authority

to spy on their families and account any incidents of deception to the Party. The Party, which

sees sex as merely a reproductive duty to form new Party candidates, often forces people to

suppress their sexual desires. People's bottled-up rage and anger are then harnessed into forceful,
fierce displays of hatred directed towards the State's election rivals. A number of these enemies

were deliberately produced by the Party for this drive.

In regard to their thoughts, the Party has full control of their bodies. The Party is always

on the alert for potential of dishonesty, to the point that even a slight facial twitch can result in an

arrest, as Winston points out. A person's nervous system becomes his biggest adversary. People

in the Party are required to partake in morning exercises known as the Aggressive Jackasses and

then work long days at public offices, leaving them tired. As revenge and "reeducation," anyone

who tries to criticize the Party is subjected to continuous and brutal torture. Winston realized that

nothing is more robust than physical suffering. No amount of personal loyalty or spiritual belief

can transcend it after being exposed to weeks of this intensive therapy. The Party can manipulate

reality and persuade its subjects by manipulating the minds of their captives by physical torture.

The Party controls and edits the content of all newspapers and records in order to achieve

its objectives. The Party forbids people from keeping personal records of their past, such as

photographs or emails. As a result, people's minds get hazy and unreliable, and they are

enthusiastic to believe whatsoever the Party says. By influencing the current, the Party will

deploy the past. And by wielding historical influence, the Party will justify all of its recent acts.

Telescreens and concealed microphones conveniently significant around the region

enable the Party to keep a near-constant eye on its members. In addition, the Party employs

complicated mechanisms to retain broad control over wealth formation and information streams,

as well as frightening robots to torture those it deems to be rivals. The film 1984 shows how

technology, which is often believed to foster moral good, can often foster the most hideous of

evils.
 Linguistic is essential to human thought since it limits and forms the ideas that people

will articulate and express, according to one of Orwell's most influential idea in 1984. Orwell

claims that if language control were centralized in a political body, the department would alter

the very meaning of language, finding it unbearable to even imagine uncooperative or subversive

thoughts since there is no other way of describing them. This idea is encapsulated in the

Newspeak linguistic, which the Party has embraced as a replacement for English. The Party is

continually perfecting and reviewing Newspeak in order to guarantee that no one can understand

anything that threatens the Party's total domination. Many of Orwell's theories about language as

a driving factor have been updated by authors and theorists attempting to address colonialism's

legacy. International powers seized military and political dominance over remote territories

during the colonial period. As part of their colonization, they established their language as the

official language of state and commerce. Postmodern authors also examine or correct the harm

caused to local peoples by the loss of identity and the lack of language and historical relation that

comes with it.

Winston investigates highly dangerous and essential incidents of rebellion against the

Party in 1984. He eventually takes his revolt to a new level by romantic relationships with Julia.

Since it involves the thoughtcrime of lust, the engagement is a double revolt. Winston does not

expect that his or others' decisions can contribute to the Party's demise in his lifetime. Still, until

the Thought Police apprehend him, he hopes that somebody will be able to look back on

Winston's time from a free planet in the future.

The proles, the city's socioeconomic lower class, are Winston's most tangible prospect for

real revolt against the Party. He points out that the proletariat now outnumbers the Party and that

the proletariat has the power to bring out a revolt if it would ever organize itself. The dilemma is
that the proletariat has been impoverished for so long that they cannot see beyond their

immediate survival needs. The idea of wanting to make the planet a happier place is too hard for

them to bear. Many of these points are made in the context of the Party's reputation as a

revolutionary commodity. Winston claims that the Party was formed after a movement that

toppled the current British social order in the mid-1960s. The Party says that the Transition is

still ongoing and will be completed until they have full power.

The Party's primary tool for influencing the vote is history regulation, but they still have

an eye on independence and identity. Winston, like the rest of Oceania's residents, lacks the basic

features of naming oneself. Winston has no idea how old he is. He has no idea whether he is

homosexual or not. He doesn't know whether his mother is still alive or not. None of his

childhood memories are reliable and he has no photographs or records to help him discern

between real and imagined memories. Rather than being migratory species with precise,

identifying details, every member of the Outer Party is identical. Members of the Party all dress

the same, smoke the same brand of cigars, drink the same brand of gin, etc. As a result,

establishing a sense of individual identity is both mentally and logistically daunting.

The majority of Winston's significant actions can be viewed as efforts to forge an

identity. His decision to buy a notebook and start writing down his feelings was motivated by a

need to preserve memories and tradition. His desire to buy anything, which depicts a time before

the Party, drives his decision to buy the piece of plastic. In the world of 1984, Winston's

romantic relationship with Julia and their decision to share an accommodation where they can

spend time together are both risky offenses. Winston affirms his autonomy and further helps to

establish his identity as an individual who resists the Party's control by wanting to make a

relationship with Julia. However, Winston's efforts to preserve his integrity and establish a
distinct personality ultimately fall short of the Party's expectations. Winston's encounters in the

Ministry of Love reflect the complete dismantling and destruction of his personality. When he

returns to society, he has lost his sense of independence and individuality and has become a

faceless member of the Party's collective.

Orwell implies that there is no chance for stopping the proliferation or development of

such a regime by finishing the novel with Winston vanquished in any sense of the word. Most

critically, Orwell warns that this result was possible at the moment, as long as the country

accepted and welcomed communism.

 Reference

Orwell, G. (1990). Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). The complete novels, 7.