Summary and Analysis of 1984

Based on the Book by George Orwell

• Publisher: Worth Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781504044981
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Crítica literaria moderna

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of 1984 tells you what you need to know—before or after you read George Orwell's book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This short summary and analysis of 1984 includes:

• Historical context
• Chapter-by-chapter overviews
• Character analysis
• Important quotes
• Fascinating trivia
• Glossary of terms
• Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work

About 1984 by George Orwell: George Orwell's classic novel 1984 is a cautionary tale about a dystopian society under the crushing and watchful eye of a tyrannical regime led by Big Brother. The dark story revolves around Winston Smith, an everyman who is tired of the government's lies and relentless persecution of people who dare think for themselves. He manages to find the strength to stand up to a totalitarian system and, in the process, finds love and affection in a world where both have been deemed obsolete. Originally published in 1949, Orwell's 1984 is a masterpiece of modern fiction and one of the most enduring and influential books of the twentieth century. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction.

Summary

ONE

I

On a cold, windy April day in 1984, Winston Smith comes home at lunchtime from his job at the Ministry of Truth. He wears company-issued blue overalls and appears frail and older than his thirty-nine years. Because of a varicose ulcer in his ankle, the climb to his dingy, seventh-floor flat in the Victory Mansions is painful. Winston rests on the landings where enormous posters of a mustachioed man stare at him. The caption reads: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

Inside the apartment, Winston looks out the window at the towering white Ministry of Truth pyramid where he’s employed as a clerk rewriting records. There are three other pyramids housing the Ministry of Peace (the war department), the Ministry of Love (the frightening department of law and order), and the Ministry of Plenty (the department of economic affairs). From a distance he sees the slogan inscribed on the Ministry of Truth’s facade: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

Winston can’t remember what London was like before it became the chief city of Airstrip One of Oceania. He pours a teacup of oily Victory Gin and sits in an alcove, his back to the ubiquitous telescreen, which can see and hear everything in range. He takes out a pen, a bottle of ink, and a blank book, and recalls the incident that triggered his decision to start a diary.

It was last week, at the Two Minutes Hate. He was surprised to see a dark-haired young woman and O’Brien, a high-ranking Inner Party member. Winston was wary of the too-attractive dark-haired woman, suspecting she might be an agent of the Thought Police. O’Brien, on the other hand, gave him the impression of being a counter-revolutionary. The Hate session began with a screeching noise, followed by the onscreen face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, along with Goldstein’s bleating voice.

Goldstein is the commander of the Brotherhood, an underground network conspiring to overthrow the State. Winston felt loathing for the dark-haired girl, partially because she was pretty and sexless—a symbol of chastity common in young Party comrades. The Party expects him to hate Goldstein, but he views Goldstein as a guardian of truth and sanity in a world full of lies. Winston despises Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police, and prays the rumors of a growing resistance are true. At the Hate session, O’Brien’s eyes met Winston’s, and he thought it was a sign of their solidarity.

Back at his apartment, Winston scribbles down words in a stream of consciousness, then writes the phrase “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” over and over again. The act is punishable by death.

A knock at the door makes him jump.

Need to Know: Winston is on the threshold of joining the revolution, but he doesn’t know how. If there are others who feel as rebellious as he does, the diary could be a way to preserve his memories for future readers—maybe O’Brien. The words in the diary are proof that something exists outside himself.

II

In his haste, Winston leaves the diary open on the table with the treasonous words in sight. He answers the door and finds Mrs. Parsons, his neighbor and the wife of his colleague Tom Parsons, in need of help unclogging her sink since her husband’s at work. Inside the Parsons’ flat, their two unruly children surround him with a menacing game of name-calling: “traitor,” “thought-criminal,” and “Goldstein.” Their taunting unnerves him. Mrs. Parsons explains that the children are agitated because they can’t go to the hanging at the park.

In the hall, returning back to his apartment, something stings the back of Winston’s neck. He turns to see Mrs. Parsons pulling her son, holding a slingshot, back inside. The fear on her face is warranted, since every week a child reports his parent to the police.

Seven years earlier, Winston dreamed that a voice in the dark whispered, “We will meet in the place where there is no darkness.” Now he recognizes the voice as O’Brien’s, and wonders if it’s a prophecy.

A bulletin over the telescreen reports that Party forces have won a glorious victory. Also chocolate rations will be reduced. Winston looks through the window down at the street where a poster with the word INGSOC (the sacred principles of the Party) flaps in the wind. Before Winston heads back to work, he writes, “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death.” He washes the incriminating ink stains off his fingers and hides the diary in a drawer.

Need to Know: Thought used to be free and truth used to exist. Now conformity and uniformity are required. Big Brother controls everything—even thoughts. Without personal freedoms people are essentially dead.

III

When Winston was 11 years old, his mother, father, and baby sister disappeared—probably swallowed up by the purge of the 1950s. He often imagines his family sucked down into a deep well or watery grave. One night, he dreams of a green pasture and the dark-haired girl walking toward him, tearing off her clothes. He wakes with the word “Shakespeare” on his lips, just as the telescreen whistles and announces that Physical Jerks (daily exercises) begin in three minutes. Winston crawls out of bed and labors to follow the rhythmic movements of the woman on the telescreen.

Winston remembers only bits and pieces of his childhood, before the country was at war and when Airstrip One was called England, Britain, or London. Today Oceania is at war with Eastasia and Eurasia. Reality is controlled by the principles of “Newspeak” and “doublethink.” Knowledge only exists in consciousness, so when the Party erases history and replaces it with a fable, it’s acceptable to the masses.

Need to Know: Working for the Ministry of Truth means Winston must live in a state of knowing and not knowing: conscious of the truth, while telling the Party’s carefully constructed lies.

IV

Inside Winston’s cubicle at the Records Department are three orifices: a small tube for written messages, a larger one for newspapers, and a wide slit covered by wire grating for scrap paper. Nicknamed “memory holes,” documents slated for destruction are dropped in the slots and incinerated in furnaces. Winston’s job entails rewriting Party statements and promises. He substitutes the facts with new and corrected ones. Newspapers, books, magazines, leaflets, films, photographs—any type of documentation—are corr...