Book 3 Chapter 2
Winston endures prolonged torture sessions. O’Brien tells Winston that his crime was refusing to accept the Party’s control of history and his memory. O’Brien personally takes over, torturing Winston when he does not give the correct answer to the questions O’Brien asks, many of which have to do with memory and objective truth. He begins to love O’Brien, because O’Brien stops the pain; he even convinces himself that O’Brien isn’t the source of the pain. O’Brien tells Winston that Winston’s current outlook is insane, however, torture will cure him.
O’Brien finally answers Winston’s primary question, the question that has haunted him throughout the story(the why of the Party’s behaviour). Winston also learns that he is thought to be insane, and O’Brien (who acts strangely like Winston’s friend), explains that he will cure him. O’Brien allows Winston to ask him whatever he wants, and O’Brien seems to answer honestly. O’Brien reveals that the Party has perfected the system practiced by the Inquisition, the Nazis, and the Soviets, it has learned how to eliminate its enemies without making martyrs of them.
It converts them, and then ensures that, in the eyes of the people, they cease to exist. Winston sadly begins to accept O’Brien’s version of events, realising he got most of it wrong. Defeated he begins to understand how to practice doublethink, refusing to believe memories he knows are real. Winston asks about Julia. O’Brien tells him that Julia betrayed him immediately.
Winston asks if Big Brother exists in the same way that he himself does and other people do, and O’Brien replies that Winston himself does not exist. Winston asks about the Brotherhood, and O’Brien responds that Winston will never know the answer to that question. O’Brien changes his tone, Winston asks what waits in Room 101, and O’Brien states that everyone knows what waits in Room 101.
Plot Summary
1984 is a dystopian novella by George Orwell published in 1949, which takes place in 1984. The Novella explores the ideas of a totalitarian state controlling every aspect of life, even people’s thoughts. The state is called Oceania and is ruled by a group known as the Party; its leader and dictator is Big Brother.
The Novella follows the life of Winston Smith, the central character, is a thirty-nine-year-old man living in London. He is a low-ranking member of ‘the Party’, who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its ominous ruler Big Brother. He secretly hates the Party and decides to rebel by starting a diary in which he reveals his rebellious thoughts and plans. By owning a diary, Winston commits thoughtcrime and knows that one day he will be discovered by the Thought Police and potentially killed.
Winston is fascinated by the lives of ‘proles’ (the lowest class in the social hierarchy of Oceania). They are the only group allowed to live pretty much as they like without heavy police surveillance. He later befriends a prole, Mr. Charrington (the Owner of shop in the prole district), who shares his interest in the past and life before the rule of Big Brother.
Whilst at work, Winston is approached by a woman who works in another department, she pretends to fall, as a result he helps her up. As he does this, she slips a piece of paper into his hand. It says, ‘I love you.’ Winston is surprised and disturbed by this; any sexual relationship between Party members is strictly forbidden. However, it’s something he’d never seen before, which as a result leaves him intrigued. They later agree to secretly meet in the country, only in places that aren’t under surveillance. He begins a love affair with the woman, who we later learn is called Julia. Winston and Julia eventually rent the room above Mr. Charrington’s junkshop as a long-term private place for the two of them.
A member of the Inner Party, known as ‘O’Brien’, finds an excuse to give Winston his home address, an unusual event. Winston, whilst being quite taken back is overjoyed, as he’d always believed O’Brien may not be like the other members of the party and might share his hatred of the Party. Winston and Julia secretly travel to see O’Brien and he enlists them into the Brotherhood (a secret organisation dedicated to fighting Big Brother). He arranges to give Winston a copy of “The Book,” a document that contains the truth about Big Brother and the development of the super-states. Winston and Julia rush to their room above the junkshop to read the book, hoping to finally confirm their suspicions. Only for the Thought Police burst in to arrest them. They then learn that Mr. Charrington is a Thought Police agent. They are therefore separately taken to the Ministry of Love. There, Winston learns that O’Brien is in fact an orthodox government agent and has deliberately tricked him. O’Brien takes charge of the process of “re-integrating” Winston, by torturing and brainwashing him until he fully believes in the Party and it’s viewpoints. As the final step of this process, Winston is forced to betray his love for Julia, and his feelings for her are destroyed.
Winston is released after all of his torturing, only to live out his final days as a broken man. Soon, the Thought Police will execute him for his crime, the Novella ends with Winston having submitted completely, as he even loves Big Brother.