Symbolism in George Orwell's 1984

¶ … 1984 and the Concept of Past vs. Present

1984 is a novel by the Englishman Eric Blair, who wrote under the pseudonym of George Orwell. Published in 1949, it depicted the futuristic and dystopian world of Oceania, controlled by a totalitarian government benevolently named Big Brother. The novel deals with many themes, from the suppression of truth to the denial of history and human nature. This paper, however, will analyze the use of language in 1984 and the thematic concept of Past vs. Present, as Orwell presents it through symbolism, archetypes and motifs.

The past is at war with the present in Orwell's 1984 -- and the present is winning thanks to the Big Brother regime -- a symbol for the kind of governmental paternalism that Orwell saw developing everywhere around him. As D.J. Taylor remarks, "God was dead and yet the secular substitutes put in His place, whether totalitarianism or western consumer capitalism, merely travestied human ideals and aspirations" (2). What Orwell attempted to do, Taylor claims, "was to take control of that immense reservoir of essentially spiritual feeling…and use it to irrigate millions of ordinary and finite lives" (2). 1984 is, in a sense, the literal irrigation of which Taylor speaks. And yet the novel is disturbingly bleak and its hero does not come to a happy end. His spirit is crushed, in other words, by the brutal hand of Big Brother, who stops at nothing to wipe out all unapproved manifestations of humanity -- including the past.

To facilitate this war against the past, Big Brother uses a host of linguistic tools that warp the traditional agreement between intellect and reality. The distortion of language (through "newspeak") is the most important feature of the dystopian world of 1984. As a result, the world is seemingly upside down: humans are essentially dehumanized and thought is stifled by the government. Winston Smith attempts to delve into the past in order to try to make sense of the present -- but Big Brother thwarts his attempts. The Past is kept buried: all that matters in Oceania is the version of the "past" that Big Brother approves.

"Newspeak" is the official language of Oceania and "doublethink" is the official philosophy of Oceania. "Newspeak" and "doublethink" are also linguistic devices by which Orwell (through Big Brother) twists the meaning of words and phrases to convey deceptive ideas: for example, one of Big Brother's coercive slogans is "Ignorance is Strength" (4). This, of course, is only part of the Ministry of Truth's "newspeak": the other debilitating slogans are "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery." All three slogans are contradictory to reason and are perfect examples of ironic juxtaposition -- but because they are promoted with all the force of authority and backed by the so-called Truth Ministers, they carry. In fact, the slogans appear all over Oceania and merely by force of repetition reinforce the outrageous notion that intellectual honesty is unnecessary. "Newspeak," as Orwell, implies is also a shortening of titles -- eliminating a sense of formality and tradition; thus, the Ministry of Truth is Minitrue and the Ministry of Love is called in "newspeak" Miniluv.

Miniluv is particularly revealing of Orwell's use of language: "love" is reduced to "luv" -- a kind of sentimentalized version of a timeless concept, now replaced by a sickening sweetness that is anything but healthy. The word itself, "luv," is insubstantial and lacks signification. Love, as it has existed in the past, is replaced by "luv" in the present -- just as history of the past is re-written in the present, breaking any connection between truths of the past and the reality of the present.

To get Winston and the rest of the citizens of Oceania to embrace the dishonest ideology, Orwell emphasizes the fact that a new linguistic terminology is essential in the battle against the Past; it coaxes the citizens into accepting false doctrine and becomes a staple in the Party line to control reality. As Orwell states, "History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right" (155). Big Brother replaces tradition and reason as the new source of information, language and ideas.

Because language is such a powerful tool, it is utilized by Orwell to show the complete dominance of Big Brother and its willingness to pervert, corrupt, destroy, suppress, oppress, and obliterate all avenues to Truth. In a way, Winston Smith represents the futuristic Everyman -- a modern representation of the medieval Christian archetype, who comes face-to-face with the truth. In Everyman, Everyman comes face-to-face with Death and the fact of Judgment; in 1984, Winston comes face-to-face with the hideous character of Big Brother and its commitment to falsehood and deception in order to manipulate and control. Big Brother is represented by O'Brien who puts a human (if not horrific) face on the totalitarian government. O'Brien is an archetypal villain -- one who seems benevolent on the surface, but underneath is rotten to the core. He is a kind of Iago to Winston.

Orwell uses symbolism to further illustrate the disconnection between truth and reality. The Ministry of Love, for example, is a windowless building -- and is described as "a place impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests" (5). As Ruth Ann Lief states, this depiction of Orwell's Ministry of Love is "prophetic" (100) in that it symbolizes the absolute militarization of the world and identifying it (absurdly) with Love. The connection between Orwell's Miniluv and today's military occupation of the Middle East is not difficult to see, especially when one remembers that modern warfare is typically described as Good vs. Evil -- with U.S. military might representing Goodness and Love. So, too, does Big Brother represent Love -- as a cold, lifeless, blood-thirsty, violent, hypocritical system, which reduces "love" to "luv."

Therefore, the mood of the novel is pessimistic and cynical. Winston cannot escape the clutches of Big Brother because he possesses no transcendental truth (Williamson) -- although he longs for historical truth. Thus, Orwell returns to the theme of Past vs. Present in the end of 1984 by showing Winston's collapse under the pressure of O'Brien and Big Brother. His love for the search for historical truth is replaced by an empty, brainwashed love for the totalitarian state, which seeks to control the present by destroying the past.

Another way Big Brother attempts to control is found in the scarcity of products in Oceania. Scarcity is a motif that Orwell employs to show another one of the tricks by which the government manages to control and manipulate the citizens -- the proletariat -- the "proles." Big Brother relies heavily on propaganda, and scarcity is one of its propaganda lies: there is not really any scarcity; it is only another fabrication to convince the "proles" that they must conserve and rally behind the government in these times of scarcity. Product scarcity becomes also a symbol of the intellectual scarcity that exists in Oceania. Duped into believing that they are lacking in consumer goods, they really show that what they are lacking in is intellect and spirit.