Van Amelsvoort 1

Mary van Amelsvoort

Dr. Elaine Bailey

ENG1120M

2 April 2019

Watch Out: The Telescreen as a Means of Control in Nineteen Eighty-Four

A totalitarian government relies on, as the name implies, total control of the state and the
people in it (Britannica). Examples of this have been seen throughout history, most notably
during the reign of Joseph Stalin in the USSR. Representing this type of ruling, Big Brother and
the Party make up the totalitarian government in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. To
ensure total control over the people of Oceania, the Party uses various methods of propaganda
and surveillance as enforcements of good behaviour. The telescreen encompasses both themes of
propaganda and surveillance as a device which both watches and listens to citizens of Oceania,
while simultaneously broadcasting Party information. Indeed, it is the telescreen alone which is
most beneficial to the control which allows for the success and power of Big Brother’s
totalitarian government.
The telescreen acts as a major form of surveillance for the Party and allows Oceania’s
citizens to be monitored in both private and public settings. The telescreen is similar to a modern
television where it can be used to transmit messages and programmes, but opposite to a
traditional screen, it can also watch and listen to the user. Because of this potential of being
watched or listened to throughout the day, citizens learn to control as much of their comportment
as possible. This is not always foolproof as the telescreens are capable of picking up quiet,
uncontrollable sounds such as a heartbeat (Orwell 82). The fact that the telescreen can monitor
these minute details about a citizen is not itself the only issue; there is also the fact that “there
was … no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment” (4). The
possibility of being constantly surveilled is, according to Jeremy Bentham’s The Panopticon
Writings, what most influences a person’s actions. Bentham explains “that the persons to be
inspected should always feel themselves as if under inspection, at least as standing a great chance
of being so,” because it is one of the most fundamental keys to their total control (43). This
theory would indicate that the Party can control its people just with the threat of being watched
and without the use of actual punishments. Therefore, as a symbol and threat of being surveilled,
the telescreens act as tools for the control of thoughts and actions of members of Oceania.
In opposition to the surveillance and control which is created when one knows that they
are being watched, there are examples of how instilling a false sense of security can also be used
as a form of control. In an attempt to find a private place to have sexual relations and talk,
Winston and Julia find a room above an antique shop that, according to the owner, does not have
a telescreen (Orwell 100). While in the room, they feel free to discuss their hatred of the party,
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their love for each other, and once Winston receives it, what is written in Goldstein’s book for the
traitorous group called the Brotherhood (209). It is because of this feeling of privacy and
freedom that Winston and Julia lose their inhibitions about their sentiments or thoughts about the
Party. This instance, as well as their discussion with O’Brien during which they assumed that the
telescreen was switched off, is ultimately make up the proof of their traitorous thoughts, which
results in their capture. This is what Bentham identifies as the actions of a spy, where “the object
of that contrivance was, to know what prisoners said without their suspecting any such thing”
(Bentham 94). Furthermore, in the essay “Propaganda and Surveillance in George Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-Four: Two Sides of the Same Coin,” author Michael Yeo explains that this type
of “surreptitious surveillance … detect[s] what people really think or believe by surveilling their
speech and action when they are disinhibited in the (illusory) belief that they are in a private
setting” (54). Thus, it is both the presence of the telescreen as a reminder of the constant
surveillance, as well as its feigned absence which allows citizens’ true sentiments to be
monitored that grants the Party almost total control over Oceania.
In addition to the monitoring, the telescreen is used to subject citizens to constant
propaganda. Because it cannot be turned off, except for by ranked Party members, it is always
transmitting information and programmes created by the Party. The telescreen is also used as a
symbol of the power of the government. In a thesis titled “The Power of The Gaze: Seeing and
Being Seen in ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’” the focus on how “the
observing gaze, which is categorized by the [Thought Police, the Big Brother posters and the
towering department buildings], maintains the sense of terror and fear” (Davidson et al. 17) and
how these are the main factors resulting in the success of the Party. Although this thesis used
non-technological examples which also induce fear, such as the posters, buildings and human
spies, it is ultimately the telescreen which enables all citizens to be watched in private or public
areas. The telescreen is a means of control of the thoughts of citizens because it allows for the
constant presence and rotation of propaganda that promote the values and mottos of the Party.
Continuing the analysis of the use of the telescreens, the Two Minutes Hate also presents
a form of surveillance over its viewers. The Hate occurs daily in the Records Department
(Orwell 11) and consists of the showing of traitors of the Party, including one named Emmanuel
Goldstein (14). As a form of surveillance, the Two Minutes Hate combines the pressure of being
watched by the telescreen with peer pressure; this ensures participation and belief in the
programme which is being shown and the reaction which it provokes. When Winston takes part
in the Two Minutes Hate, it is in the middle of his work day. Since he works in a government
office, specifically in the Ministry of Truth, he is constantly surrounded by others who have
seemingly dedicated their lives to the values and beliefs of Oceania, the Party, and Big Brother.
This environment acts like the telescreen, where it forces him to always be weary of his actions,
but in this case he is certain that he is being watched constantly. The Two Minutes Hate differs
from his time in his office because rather than forcing himself to act a certain way or keep certain
facial expressions, he is inspired to react with hate toward the programme because “it was
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impossible to avoid joining in … A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to
torture, to smash faces in … seemed to flow through the group like an electric current” (Orwell
16). So as much as one is forced to join in because of the sheer energy of the group, not joining
in consciously is not an option because of the surveillance present during the Two Minutes Hate.
The Hate really controls the citizens in two ways: first as a form of surveillance, but also
as a specific example of the propaganda used by the Party. The Party, as a totalitarian regime,
relies not only on the control of the citizens but also on their support for a common goal, though
the achievement of said goal is not generally acknowledged (Britannica). In the case of Oceania,
the common goal is the winning of the war and the punishment of those who oppose Big Brother
and his ideologies. For this purpose, the Two Minutes Hate is a form of propaganda which
glorifies the Party ideologies and punishments of traitors, particularly Emmanuel Goldstein who
is featured daily (Orwell 14). The programme continues with stories of his traitorous ways
followed by an image of Big Brother, almost breaking through the chaos as a sort of saviour for
the people (18). The presentation of Goldstein as an enemy of the state assures the power of the
state, firstly because they can say what they want about him because the people cannot
understand his complicated language and only know as much about him as the government
discloses (Orwell 160; Tessier 52) and also because the brotherhood, like the Two Minutes Hate,
consists of people who unite for the same causes but do not otherwise know each other (Tessier
54). Though the Two Minutes Hate aims to unite the people in favor of Big Brother, in featuring
Goldstein it also unites those who are against the Party. The Two Minutes Hate is an effective
way of presenting Party propaganda by means of the telescreen because of its presentation of Big
Brother and Goldstein as opposing forces.
In summation, to ensure control over citizens’ thoughts and actions, the Party relies on
the use of the telescreen. It is a fundamental tool for effective and efficient control because the
telescreen gives the impression of constant surveillance surveillance and because it provides
persistent presentation of Party ideology. The nature of the government of Oceania relies on total
control, with little need for punishments or threats. Without the telescreen and its availability in
the public and private parts of everyday life, this type of control may not have been possible.
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Works Cited

Bentham, Jeremy. The Panopticon Writings. Verso, 1995

Davidson, Camilla Irene Fauskanger et al. The Power of the Gaze: Seeing and Being Seen in

‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ , 2014, The Arctic University of

Norway, Master Thesis.

munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/6621/thesis.pdf;jsessionid=D1E8C4F71E4F8CBCF

4902B04CADFB6D8?sequence=2. Accessed 31 March 2019.

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Totalitarianism, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 25 October

2015, britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism. Accessed 1 April 2019.

Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin Books, 1990.

Tessier, Sebastien. George Orwell: Une Critique du Pouvoir, 2006, The University of Ottawa,

Master Thesis, ProQuest,

search-proquest-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/docview/304919069/abstract/4C57B0B44A39

4CDBPQ/1?accountid=14701. Accessed 1 April 2019.

Yeo, Micheal. “Propaganda and Surveillance in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: Two

Sides of the Same Coin,” Global Media Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, 2010, pp. 49-66.

EBSCOhost,

web-b-ebscohost-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=9765

6de0-f420-415a-9db5-23f3cc9b96fc%40sessionmgr104. Accessed 31 March 2019.

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