Room 101

in Orwell’s 1984
Facilitated by
Mr. Mohamed Nasr
English & SAT Instructor(NIAS)
 Description
• Room 101 is different for everyone.
Inside Room 101 is every person's
greatest fear and for everyone their
greatest fear is very different. O'Brien
describes Room 101,
• "The worst thing in the world varies
from individual to individual. It may be
burial alive or death by fire, or by
drowning, or by impalement, or fifty
other deaths. There are cases where it is
some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.“
• Question : What is your worst fear?
•For Winston, Room 101 contains
the rats. He is terrified of rats.
Purpose
Inside Room 101 O'Brien has a
helmet he has fashioned in which
there are rats and if certain doors
on the helmet open the rats, hungry
rats, will be released to gnaw off
Winston's face.

•The point of Room 101 is to ensure

the final stage of reintegration,
acceptance.

•Question : Is there room 101 in

reality?
•Where can you find this room? Why
is it there?
 Origin
• THE REAL ROOM 101 
 
Orwell based Room 101 in
part on his experiences of the
BBC and the political vetting
that used to go on in its
conference room on the first
floor. There is also a theory
that the headmaster's study,
in his old school St Cyprians
(pictured), was a model for
Room 101.
• Activity: Draw and design your
own torture room.  
 Room 101 & the Matrix
• Room 101 is the tiny apartment where 
Thomas A. Anderson lived in the 
Matrix.
• In his room, Neo is awakened and
confused by strange messages from his
computer that tell him, "THE MATRIX
HAS YOU..." and "FOLLOW THE WHITE
RABBIT.“
• . Morpheus asks Neo if he wanted to
meet, and instructs him to go the
intersection of Wells and Lake Streets.
It would be the last time that Neo
would inhabit Room 101.
 Fact or Fiction ?
• The room number, 101, is an
allusion by The Wachowski
Brothers to Neo's destiny as 
The One, and contrasts to 
Room 303, a surveillance room
used by Trinity. 101 is also the
number usually attributed to a
course or manual for beginners in
a particular field (here would be
philosophy).
• Question: What does room 101
symbolize?
 Mystery Solved
• In Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston
entered as an open opponent to Big
Brother, and when he came out he
confessed his love for B.B.
• Room 101 is both End and Beginning;
Life, death and resurrection. 1 - 0 - 1,
Alpha - Omega - Alpha. Pillar - Sun -
Pillar? Thing, No-Thing, and Thing
again. It is the culmination and ending
of one's life 10, and the start of the
next, 1.
• Question : How often do you change
your mind about fundamental things?
Thank You