1984 is a novel written in 1948 by George Orwell and published in 1949. It is one of the most famous dystopian novels. George Orwell was inspired in particular by the Soviet Union but also other pre-war regimes to create his novel.
This novel is often cited when it comes to talking about the evolution of freedoms in our society. The dictatorship presented in the novel may seem unrealistic, but it is above all the message sent by Orwell that was important. Before we go through the chapters one by one, this video is funded by Vivid.
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In short, do not hesitate to try this online bank! PART I - Chapter 1 In this first chapter we discover the character of Winston, the protagonist of the 1984 novel. He is in his room which is equipped with a telescreen which monitors him.
It's a kind of television but with a camera. Oceania is the country where Winston lives. There are two other countries: Estasia and Eurasia.
Big Brother is at the head of the Party which governs Oceania. There are four important departments. The Ministry of Truth (Miniver), it deals with all the arts, propaganda, history change, etc.
It is the most important ministry. The Ministry of Peace which deals with war. The Ministry of Love, which takes care of monitoring populations, is the most dangerous ministry.
The Ministry of Abundance which deals with the economy. Every day, on the telescreen there is a program called: the two minutes of hate. A show where we carry our hatred towards Emmanuel Goldstein.
An enemy of the party who is known to have written a mysterious book that should not be read. And that he is a member of an armed rebel group called La Fraternité. That day, Winston saw the show at work at 11 a.
m. He works at the Archives Commission. He remembers that while watching the show he felt like he was being spied on by a young dark haired woman, but he also remembers having a second of knowing gaze with his colleague O'Brien.
This knowing look is at the origin of the whole story of the novel since Winston will want to start writing in a notebook what he thinks of the dictatorship. -I still find that the world in which I live is a dictatorship. For a second with O'Brien, we looked at each other.
Did he also seem to think that we are in a dictatorship? Hmm… I would like to know… Winston decides to write that in his notebook. Winston is part of the middle class.
There is also an upper class that works in the party. And a lower class that are the proletarians. Chapter 2 Winston is afraid because he wrote in a notebook.
Ding Dong! -Oh no, it's the thought police! -Hello, it's the neighbor, Mr.
Persons, I have a problem with my pipes. -Oh thanks for helping me fix this pipe! - Mom, I'm not happy!
I wanted to go see the hanging in the public square. I'm not happy ! -Alala children!
They love our country! In any case, Winston, after having written in his notebook and thought such things about the dictatorship, prefers to admit already dead. Chapter 3 In this chapter 3, Winston dreams of his mother.
He has vague memories, and of his sister too. He's about 39 or maybe 38. He has memories that there was no Oceania before.
Except that if we are in 1984, 39 years ago we were in 1944. However, Oceania was born from the revolution that took place in 1930. So there is something wrong.
That is not right. Especially since Big Brother has been the leader of the party since the revolution, but Winston has no memory of Big Brother until the 1960s. Moreover, according to official history, Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
But strangely, a few years ago it would seem that it was more against Estasia that she was at war. At that moment, the telecran asks him to make better physical efforts. - Come on!
a bit of sport ! You have to do workout ! Think of all our soldiers who went to war in Malabar!
Chapter 4 Winston goes to work. He works at the Archives of the Ministry of Truth. Its job is to modify old documents that find errors.
For example, since the ration of chocolate goes from 30 grams to 20 grams, we will change the past and say that the ration goes to 20 grams and that it has never been so much before! We also have to change the past of Withers who was vaporized, he is a former member of the party and we have to change the documents that spoke good about him. Winston decides to invent the person of Ogilvy, a brilliant soldier who died at 23 in the Malabar war, to replace the documents that speak well of Withers.
Chapter 5 We discover life at lunch, where Winston goes to eat with a colleague named Syme. Syme is a specialist in the language of the party, the neo-speaking. (or Newspeak in old French translations) Syme explains that the goal of neo-talk is to reduce the number of words to reduce the number of concepts one can think of.
-This Syme is too smart. It is bound that one day or another he will end up getting sprayed because it is embarrassing for the Party. Then Winston meets Mr Parsons.
-Oh thanks for helping my wife with the plumbing! And sorry for my two kids who can seem rude with their toy guns. But they love the Party.
The other day my daughter denounced someone because they had funny shoes! Haha! Winston believes that one day the other his two children will end up denouncing their mother.
But maybe not their father because he looks too stupid. Chapter 6 In Chapter 6, Winston thinks about sex! But it is forbidden.
He remembers the last time he had sex with a prostitute from the proletariat. Sex and desire are strictly prohibited by the party. He also remembers his former wife, Katherine, who was always cold with him.
Winston realizes that he may even be getting emotional too far and needs to be careful. Being perpetually spied on, a sign of ambiguous emotion can put him at risk. Chapter 7 Winston still thinks about the Party and the fact that he has proof that he lies all the time.
He keeps thinking of O'Brien that he thinks he could help him. But he doesn't know anything about him. If ever this is not the case, he would be exposed.
Chapter 8 Winston decides to go for a walk in the proletarian districts, the people who live there are less watched by the Party. Some may remember the past, but they don't care. Winston walks into a flea market and buys a paperweight with coral.
He had never seen one before. The seller also shows him an engraving of a church. He didn't think such a thing could exist.
All of this is obviously illegal. He even thinks he's followed by the dark haired girl. -I could kill her with this paperweight by pushing it through her skull.
No… Too late, she left. PART II - Chapter 1 Winston walking through the office meets the dark haired girl. She falls, he helps her to get up and while he helps her, she gives him a note.
He wrote “I love you”. -Oula. It is surely a trap, it is obligatory.
She must be a spy. Finally Winston thinks a little and thinks that maybe this is a way to be able to communicate. So he decides to find an opportunity to talk to her, especially in the dining hall.
- Here, she is alone, I will sit down next to her. -Hey ! Winston!
Come eat next to me! - Thin… Indeed, in this dictatorship, it would be very suspicious to want to sit next to a girl that one does not know. Winston will have to find a golden opportunity.
After a few days, he manages to sit down next to her and exchange a few words without looking at himself. - Go to the main street when there are crowds. The next day, they meet at the planned place.
And the girl tells her where to meet next time. -OK I will discreetly give you the directions to meet in the countryside out of sight. Chapter 2 They finally meet in a secret location in the countryside.
-Hello, I'm Julia, I work for the Anti-Sex League, let's make love. They make love. Julia explains to him that she has already made love like that with other members of the Party , which reassures Winston.
Chapter 3 The two continue their life normally, they try to cross paths in unknown places , avoiding always choosing the same ones. We learn more about Julia, including the fact that she is not really in favor of making a revolution to fight against the dictatorship. She is only 26 years old which means that she has never known the era before.
For her, it's normal, sometimes you just have to cheat a little to be able to do illegal things. Chapter 4 Winston rents a room where he bought his paperweight. The goal is to spend time with Julia.
But he begins both to experience jealousy a little because he doesn't see it often and at the same time the desire to move on to a more romantic life as a couple. Chapter 5 So do you remember Syme we talked about a few chapters ago? And who seemed too smart?
Well, there it is. He disappeared. He never came back.
He wasn't just dead, he was vaporized. It meant that officially he had never existed and that he should not be named. Meanwhile, it's preparations for the Week of Hate and everything needs to be prepared to make it good.
There is even a song that will be created for the occasion. Winston is obviously a little confused with all this commotion and what is going on in his life. Chapter 6 During this period of preparation, Winston meets O'Brien.
-It's okay ? -Yes. -I remember that you had a friend who knew a lot about Newspeak.
- (My god, but he's talking about Syme, it's forbidden to talk about it, you have to act as if he had never existed) Uh yes maybe. -We could discuss Newspeak at my place if you want. -Ah .
. Yes… After this discussion, Winston understands that something strange is going on. Why did O'Brien tell him about Syme without naming him?
Maybe that's a way to prove he's rebellious too? This is all strange. Chapter 7 One morning Winston cries because he thinks back to his past, during the famine where he fled one day with a piece of chocolate that he had stolen from his little sister.
It was the last time he had seen his mother. When Winston returned home, neither his sister nor his mother was there. He tells all this to Julia.
It makes them want to know more about O'Brien. Chapter 8 Winston, accompanied by Julia, decides to go see O'Brien. And too bad if it was a trap.
The curiosity was too great. Once arrived, O'Brien greets them. -Wait, I'm going to cut my Telecran, as a member of the Party I have the right to cut it for half an hour.
-Very well. Well, let's talk about what to talk about. - Uh yes .
. . It was to talk about the newspeak .
. . - Yes but in fact we do not care.
Welcome to the rebellion. Do you want to join the Brotherhood, the rebellion of Emmanuel Goldstein? -But it exists ?
-Of course it exists! Here we fight against the Party, but in secret. And we do it until death!
Are you ready to die? -Yes. -Are you ready to kill innocent people if necessary for the fight?
-Yes ! -Are you ready to throw sulfuric acid on child if asked? -Yes !
In short, after this interview, Winston is ready to participate in the fight. Julia a little less because she knows that it means to separate from Winston. Chapter 9 The next day, a speech takes place against Eurasia, but during the speech Eurasia allies with Oceania, so the speech continues to speak badly of Estasia as if nothing had happened.
-We hate Eurasia and our ally is Estasia! - Yeah! -And so, uh .
. . Yes, our ally is Eurasia.
-Is that so ? -Yes. And it always has been!
As for Winston, he had Goldstein's famous book in a small suitcase, he didn't dare take it out anywhere he waited several days before finding an opportune moment to read it in the room to be rented. This chapter 9 is super long since it explains everything that happens in Goldstein's book. In the first chapter of the book, there is the explanation of the world, where the borders of the countries are, the proportion of people in the party, etc.
How do wars, elites, religions, etc. work? Then Winston goes directly to the third chapter which seems more interesting to him because it is called War is peace.
It explains the need for war which allows the three great dictatorships to use their labor force to destroy each other and never evolve. Chapter 10 Then, while reading, Winston is interrupted. He is with Julia in the room to be rented and a mechanical voice speaks to them.
There was in fact a telescreen in the room and it was the manager of the flea market who had placed it there. In fact, this manager simply worked for the Thought Police. Guards arrive immediately to arrest the two rebels and put them in jail.
Part III - Chapter 1 Winston has been put in prison, separated from Julia of course. There he meets Ampleforth, a poet who was sent to prison because he had written a poem badly. He had to change a verse and to keep it rhyme he used the word “God”, god in English.
However, it is forbidden to speak of God. He now knows that he will have to end up in the terrible cell 101, the worst room, where we endure the worst torture. In Winston's cell, he even ends up one day by meeting his neighbor Parson whom he thought too stupid to dare to challenge the Party.
He had said something out loud in his sleep and his daughter reported it. Winston also hopes he can find a way to be in contact with O'Brien, the latter had told him that he would help kill himself if he had to. And that's where he finally meets O'Brien.
-They had you too? -Oh me, they had me a long time ago. -What?
- Yes, I am from the thought police! Chapter 2 O'Brien explains a lot of stuff to him. Already a member of the thought police and his goal is to pretend to enlist people and then arrest them, as was the case for Winston.
Then the fact that one of the mistakes in the past is that we kill the martyrs, and that Oceania does even better today, it does not kill any martyr because the rebels first believe in the cause of Oceania before being killed. They will therefore wait until Winston believes in the Party before killing him, when he least expects it. With a pistol shot in the back of the neck.
Chapter 3 In this chapter, the turtles continue towards Winston. We try to make him believe what he doesn't believe yet. He ends up having to do it little by little.
Chapter 4 Once Winston has been tortured for weeks and weeks. It is not known for exactly how long Winston was sent to a break room. Where he can recover from his emotions.
The goal is to get him to start thinking right again. He begins to think that two plus two is five as O'Brien asked him to believe. Chapter 5 Winston is finally tied to a chair in room 101, he will suffer the worst torture.
Its head will be put in a box where there are rats ready to devour it. Winston is so scared that he asks for Julia to be killed for him. That's what O'Brien wanted to hear.
O'Brien is therefore satisfied with the betrayal and offers to free Winston. Chapter 6 There you are, Winston is free. His mentality changed with these weeks of torture and today he is a member of the party.
He earns a better living and realizes that he enjoys it even better, because he no longer has the constraint to hate what he experiences. While at the cafe one day, he learns that there is a problem. One of the territories of Oceania begins to be invaded, it is the south of Africa.
It is a serious problem. Usually wars are fought on neutral territories, but there, it is directly a territory of Oceania. Winston knows there will be a recap a few hours later, and he looks forward to it.
He is very scared even. During this time, he also meets Julia by chance. He didn't want her anymore and it's mutual.
They leave each other very quickly. In fact, the news of the war interests Winston more. Ultimately, when the news arrives, it's good news.
Big Brother announces that the war has been won! And that it is one of the greatest victories in the history of mankind. Winston is happy, very happy.
For the first time, he really feels something. He feels he adores Big Brother. He was therefore killed with a pistol shot in the back of the neck by a guard.
Because now Winston could die without being a martyr.
