Sunday, April 7, 2013

In 1984 by George Orwell, when Winston helps the girl with dark hair up, we are told that there is a "frightened" look in her eyes. What do we...

In Part One, Chapter Nine, of 1984, Winston encounters the girl with dark hair and later reflects that she had looked "frightened out of her wits" at that time. This girl, later introduced as Julia, is not frightened because she is scared of Winston or because she is nervous about declaring her love to him (as she does via a handwritten note). In truth, she is frightened because in the moment before she handed Winston the note, she tripped and fell over, directly in view of a telescreen. As such, there is a very real possibility that Big Brother was watching and that he saw the note in her hand. Winston realises this later:



Whichever way you turned, the telescreen faced you.



As Party members, Winston and Julia are not allowed to have a relationship. In Oceania, all relationships must be sanctioned by the Party and sex for anything other than procreation is not allowed. Both Winston and Julia know that breaking this rule is perilous: if caught, they might be imprisoned and placed in a labour camp or even shot and killed. This explains the terror in Julia's face at the moment she fell down.  

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 can be called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time in America’s short history that pow...