Emmanuel Goldstein
The Leader of the Brotherhood. Orwell leaves ambiguous whether the Brotherhood actually exists or is merely propaganda perpetuated by the Party, as he never appears in the novel. He seems to have been a Party leader who fell out of favour with the regime, as he’s a foil for Big Brother. The Party describes him as the most dangerous and treacherous man in Oceania.
Quotes
Goldstein remarks on the ‘total part’ of totalitarianism: ‘All beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterise our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived’
In his book Goldstein describes the goals of the Party in a way that is later reflected by O’Brien’s conversations with Winston in the Ministry of Love: ‘The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought’
This section from Goldstein’s manifesto explains why the Party keeps such tight control of both history and personal memory: ‘The Party member, like the proletarian, tolerates present-day conditions because he has no standards of comparison. He must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries, because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off than his ancestors and that the average level of material comfort is constantly rising’