The Dangers of a Totalitarian Dictatorship
...urvive, but yet, his private thoughts haunt him in the end as he becomes a victim of technology. O’Brien, an agent of the Inner Party, is suspicious of his activity and tricks Winston and his lover Julia into expressing their thoughts. When Winston and Julia meet with O’Brien, O’Brien says, “I think it is fitting that we should begin by drinking a health. To our Leader: To Emmanuel Goldstein.” (141) Goldstein is the leader of the Brotherhood, which is the Inner Party’s enemy. Winston and Julia agree with O’Brien and swear loyalty to the Brotherhood. Since O’Brien turns off his telescreen, they think that the government is not watching them, but the government is examining their behavior by means of hidden microphones and cameras inside the room. By swearing loyalty to the Brotherhood and drinking wine, which the government does not allow, they become enemies of the Inner Party. A couple days later, they finally realize that the government has been watching them when a voice repeats them from a secret telescreen saying “You are the dead.” (182) Mr. Charrington, the owner of the antique shop where Winston and Julia meet privately, enters their room revealing that he is a special agent for the Thought Police. They are now “dead” because they are caught committing thought crime. Winston and Julia are found guilty of thought crime because of the machinery that the government uses. George Orwell is showing how technology is a dominant way of controlling people’s lives. The government also shows their authority by controlling the minds of their citizens. The government uses a new language known as Newspeak, which gives new meanings to words with the purpose of preventing citizens from having rebellious thoughts and expressions. The new language destroys the connotations of each word so that each word has only one meaning. For example, an “unperson” is a person who has been politically disgraced and has been purged. Newspeak is a way to prevent people from expressing their thoughts with English words. In order to control their citizens’ thoughts, they do several things. Firstly, they have signs across the city stating “Big Brother is Watching You” which is a warning to citizens not to commit thought crime. They also manipulate and form children into spies so that they can watch over their parents’ thoughts and actions. If someone is suspicious of thought crime, the government will mentally torture that person to free them of their thoughts as they do to Winston. Winston is once again a victim of another control. After the regime convicts him of thought crime, Inner Party members question him under glaring lights. It is a mental torture that makes Winston confess to numerous crimes that are serious in the government’s point of view. He confesses that he is “a religious believer, an admirer of capitalism, and a sexual pervert.” (200) He also confesses that he is a follower of Goldstein and that he murders his wife although his wife is still alive. With the exception of his wife’s murder, these confessions are true. In most democracies, none of these acts are criminal. He never murders his wife, which makes him innocent. He is obviously a victim of the government’s mind control. Winston’s friend and co-worker, Mr. Parsons, is another victim of the government’s manipulation. His daughter is a spy for the government and tells on him for committing thought crime. Winston and he are indeed victims of the psychological manipulations that the government has over their citizens. In this novel, mind control proves to be another frightening supremacy that the government possesses. Physical control is another power that the government uses to persuade their citizens to abide by their laws. The government makes it mandatory for their citizens to undergo grueling days of exercise. The citizens are constantly tired, which makes it hard for them to control their thoughts. Their minds are unable to think when their body is in a state of exhaustion. If the citizens do not participate in these exercises, the administration physically tortures them. Although Winston goes to the exercises, he is a victim of physical control. He only goes because a woman always reprimands him about what will happen if he does not go to the exercises. He has to do something for which he has no desire. He also is brutally beaten at the end when O’Brien and other Party members interrogate him. When he goes to the brutal Room 101, he faces his greatest fear. He confronts a helmet-type cage full of rats. Because of his fear of rats, he confesses one final thing before they kill him. He says, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” (236) After he betrays Julia, the government realizes that he is no threat to them. They let him live because his relationship with Julia ...