Name:- Payal Bambhaniya
Batch:- M. A. Sem. 2 (2022-2024)
Enrollment no.:- 40692064202221
Roll no.:- 14
Subject Code:- 22400
Paper no.:- 107
Paper Name:- The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War II to the End of the Century
Topic:- '1984' as a Dystopian Fiction
Email ID:- payalbambhaniya92@gmail.com
Submitted to:- SMT S. B. Gardi Department of English, MKBU.
'1984' as Dystopian Fiction
Table of contents:-
- Introduction
- George Orwell
- Dystopian Fiction
- Characteristics of Dystopian Fiction
- 1984 as Dystopian Fiction
- Conclusion
Introduction:-
A Dystopia is a society characterised by a focus on that which is contrary to the author's ethos,such as mass poverty, public mistrust and suspicion, a police state or oppression. Dystopian usually extrapolate elements of contemporary society and this can be read as political warnings. The history of dystopian literature can be traced back to the reaction to the French Revolution of 1789, and the prospect that mob rule would produce dictatorship. Until the late 20th century it was usually anti-collectivist. Dystopian Fiction emerged as a response to utopian Fiction. Utopia is a place, state or condition that is ideally in respect of politics, laws, and conditions.
George Orwell:-
Eric Arthur Blair is best known by his pen name George Orwell. He was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism and support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary Criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is famous for his works Animal Farm, 1984, The Road To Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.
Blair was born in India, and raised and educated in England. After school he became an Imperial policeman in Burma, before returning to Suffolk, England, where he began his writing career as George Orwell - a name inspired by a favourite location, the River Orwell. Orwell work's remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"- describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices - is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police" , "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink ", and "thoughtcrime".
1984:-
1984 is a Dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by George Orwell. It was published in 1949. It describes the theme of totalitarianism, mass surveillance and repressive regimentation of people and behaviour within society. The novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the way in which they are manipulated. The adjective Orwellian is popularized after this novel and along with many other words like double think, though police, thought crime, Newspeak and big brother have entered the English language. It is a futuristic novel which deals with real life ideas like surveillance, totalitarianism and violation of freedom of expression. Main Characters of the 1984 novel are as below.
Winston Smith
O'Brien
Julia
Big Brother
Syme
Emmanuel Goldstein
Winston Smith is the protagonist of 1984. He is the character that the reader most identifies with, and the reader sees the world from his point of view. Big Brother is a fictional character. Julia is the female character and lover of Winston Smith. O'Brien represents the party and all of its contradictions and cruelty.
Dystopian Fiction:-
What is Dystopia?
Dystopia- imaginary future world serves as a moral or political warning, often of the threat of oppressive regimes. Dystopian literature are often visions of "dangerous and alienating future societies", intended to criticise current trends in culture. The term was coined in 1868 by the English Philosopher John Stuart Mill.
Dystopian is a futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
Characteristics of a Dystopian Fiction or Society:-
Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
The natural world is banished and distrusted.
Citizens conform to uniform expectations, Individuality and dissent are bad.
Society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
The genre of dystopian Fiction grew out of a response to the utopian Fiction of the 16th century. Which posited that human beings were perfectible and that alternate social and political structures could override human selfishness and antisocial behaviour. Conversely, dystopian writers believed that inherent human nature meant utopias were an impossibility, and society was doomed to get worse, not better, if people didn't actively resist the corrupting forces of power and greed.
Dystopian literature is a world in which everything is imperfect, and everything goes wrong. It shows nightmarish images about what might happen to the world in the near future. Usually the main theme of Dystopian works are rebellion, oppression, revolutions, wars, overpopulation and disasters. How Dystopian Fiction works; it shows the past of the present society which helps us understand the difference created in the new society and reason for its decline. In this 1984 to Winston finds his space and tries to remember the past. But he isn't able to, which can be read as the party's corruption on his emotional life. Parties corruption on his emotional life. Party's oppression of the memory of people.
Dystopian literature concerns the issues of humanity and society and warns the people about their weakness. This literary technique is used to discuss reality and depict issues that might happen in the future. Thus its role is to educate and give awareness to the people. Earliest dystopian works is Gulliver's Travel, it's a blueprint for dystopian literature. Imagining a world where certain trends in contemporary society are taken to extremes, exposing their underlying flaws.
The protagonist in the dystopian literature often feels trapped and struggles to escape, they question the existence of social and political systems. They have an instinct of something being terribly wrong in the society they live in and through their perspectives, they show the audience the negative aspects of the dystopian world.
Dystopian Characteristics and 1984:-
Totalitarianism is a form of government that attempts to assert total control over the lives of its citizens.
Totalitarianism is the main theme of the novel. It tries to warn the people from the extreme level of control and power possible under a truly totalitarian regime. In the novel we see that no one has ever seen Big Brother but still everyone has to keep following him. The name of the unknown Big Brother party not only controls social or seual life of people but controls their memory, thoughts, feelings and also over personal space. With the idea of looking for the welfare of the nation the complete surveillance over the people by party, not physically but mentally also. Even if they think against the party they were arrested under 'thoughtcrime'. As the novel progresses we see how the resistant character Winston, who is just trying to have 'Ownlife' and some rational thinking, is tortured and brainwashed by the party. The party uses a number of techniques to control its citizens, each of which is an important theme of its own in the novel. In short, totalitarian control over the people's thoughts and feelings.
Language is one of the central characteristics of dystopian Fiction. 1984 clearly saw the control of language through its motto 'War is peace, Slavery is freedom'. With the help of language they try to play with their Minds. Orwell in the novel imagines if the language is centralized by the agency. In the Novel we see that the party is bringing new words into existence through 'newspeak'. The aim of Newspeak is: don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it". The party is constantly refining and perfecting Newspeak, with the idea of a completely new language which will consist of no negative language through which the party can be criticised., No one will be capable of conceptualising anything
that might question the party's absolute power.
O'Brien and Winston Smith are engaged in the ministry of Truth to use and abuse language to rewrite history and distort facts for the public consumption. The oppressive controlling part is trying to make it impossible to even conceive of disobedient or rebellious thoughts, because there would be no words with which to think them. If one does so, with an example of the Winston Orwell show, they are tortured, brainwashed and are made to love Big Brother.
In 1984 we could clearly see the telescreen and microphone. The party is able to monitor its members almost all of the time. Additionally, the party employs complicated mechanism to exert large-scale control on economic production and sources of information, and fearsome machinery to inflict torture upon those it seems enemies. 1984 reveals that technology. Which is generally perceived as working toward moral good. Can also facilitate the most diabolical evil.
In 1984 we could clearly see how party control over the Mind. The party barrages it's subject with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind's capacity for independent thought. The giant telescreen in every citizen's room blasts a constant stream of propaganda designed to make the failures and shortcomings of the party appear to be triumphant successes. The telescreen also monitor behaviour everywhere they go, citizens are continuously reminded, especially by means of the omnipresent signs reading
"Big Brother is Watching You",
that the authorities are scrutinizing them. The party undermines family structure by inducting children into an organisation called the junior spies, which brainwashed and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any instance of disloyalty to the party. The party also forces individuals to suppress their sexual desires, treating sex as merely a procreative duty whose end is the creation of new party members. The party then channels people's pent-up frustration and emotions against the party's political enemies. Many of these enemies have been invented by the party expressly for this purpose.
In 1984 , society was made up of three distinct social classes: the inner party, the industrious outer party, and vast numbers of uneducated proles. When Winston reads Goldstein's book , he learns that the history of humankinds has been a cyclical struggle between competing social groups: the High, the middle, and the low. This theory originated from the law. This theory was originated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th century and became known as Marxism. At various points in the narrative, Winston entertains the hope that the proles will become conscious of their oppressed state and initiate a revolution. At other times, he despairs that since the proles cannot rebel until they become conscious, and cannot become conscious until only after they have rebelled, such a development is extremely unlikely.
While the party's primary tool for manipulating the populace is the control of history,they also control Independence and identity. For example, the basic traits of establishing one's identity are unavailable to Winston and the other citizens of Oceania. Winston does not know whether he is married or not. He does not know whether his mother is alive or dead. None of his childhood memories are reliable, because he has no photos or documents to help him sort real memories from imagined ones. Instead of being unique individuals with specific, identifying details, every member of the outer party is identical. All party members wear the same clothing, smoke the same brand of cigarettes, drink the same brand of gin, and so forth. As such, forming a sense of an individual's identity is not only psychologically challenging, but logistically difficult.
Most of Winston's significant decisions can be interpreted as attempts to build a sense of identity. His decision to purchase a dairy and begin recording his thoughts is an attempt to create memory and history. His decision to purchase the paperweight is driven by a desire to have something of his own that represents a time before the party. Ultimately, though, Winston's attempts to maintain his independence and create a unique identity are no match for his individuality. When he is returned to society he has lost all independence and uniqueness, and has become part of the party's faceless collective.
Conclusion:-
In short, Orwell's 1894 is known as dystopian Fiction. The society in 1984 is always in fear of wars, government surveillance and political oppression of free speech. Totalitarianism destroys the individuality and identity of one. All these things we can see in the novel '1984'.
Words Count:- 2,118
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