Concept of Humanity in 1984 by George Orwell: Critical Analysis

By utilising the idea of a dystopian world, George Orwell, the author of the book ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, explores the ways in which humanities individual and collective human experiences affects our understanding of the complexity of human qualities and emotions.

Through Winston, Orwell suggests that it is inherent for a human to rebel against utter dehumanisation and control. Winston’s struggle against the strict control touches the reader, who adamantly admits his courage to retain his humanity, aware that ‘until [he] becomes conscious, [he] will never rebel, and until [he] has rebelled, [he] cannot become conscious.’ This demonstrates to the reader the profound importance of human values in society. Winston’s hope and desire to release himself from the party’s threshold is inherent in his nature and because of this, because there are still human qualities such as compassion inside him, he is unable to choose any other option other than to helplessly fight the party. Orwell’s metaphorical representation of the diary is used to portray a vehicle for Winston to try to get in touch with his humanity. It is an attempt to connect with the past and to reconstruct his memory, things that are integral in his mentality. The diary allowed Winston to convey his thoughts, however committing Thought Crime, it showed Winston’s quest for humanity. ‘He had moved from thoughts to words, and now words to actions.’ It is because of this hope for humanity, and his remembrance of a time ‘when words like love and tragedy had some meaning’ that he commits to rebellion that is sure to end in his demise. In stark contrast, Orwell draws a distinction between Winston and Parsons. Parsons was a ‘fattish but active man of paralysing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms’ and was a complete adherent, one of those ‘devoted drudges’ to the Party, however he too was sent to Room 101 also. The difference between the two was that Parson’s latent devotion to the party rid him of any humanity and individuality right to his death where he was completely ‘vaporised’ for only subconsciously rebelling. Winston, on the other hand, is a seeker for the truth and is completely discontented with the Party’s totalitarianism and knowing full well his destiny, he still had hope for humanity, however what he gains in his ‘lunatic-like rebellion’ is his own identity and learns the emotions of love through his relationship with Julia.

In depicting a world of inhumanity and despair, a world in which personality is extinguished and replaced by mindless devotion, Orwell is able to highlight the importance of hope and love. In Ninety Eighty-Four, love is the exact opposite of the totalitarian structures of the life governed by Big Brother. It is the mere presence that is an act of defiance towards the regime. Winston clings to anything that is hopeful or fruitful and is overwhelmed by the notion of love. Love engulfs him with a wide variety of sensations. Even before he was in love with Julia ‘their embrace had been a battle, the climax, a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.’ Winston’s rebellion against the Party was made even sweeter by the fact that he felt lust and desire, feelings that were meant to be contrived and distorted. He felt humane and now had a desire to live. The healing of his varicose veins and improved physicality are only indicative of Winston’s’ quest for humanity. The hope for some sort of humanity is validated by Winston and Julia’s love. All of this managed to divert his mind from the current state of society and he doesn’t long for anything else other than hoping that his new life he has found will last, because whilst it does, everything else seems meaningless. With love, Winston’s humane capacities such as compassion become more apparent. What started off with an ignorant kick to the hand, he has now able to reminisce and feel gratitude for his mother’s sacrifices. Orwell symbolically represents hope through the birds, Proles and the Golden Country. These all suggest that the dominated world does not have such a bleak outlook. Possibly the greatest reminder of humanity, the birds represent freedom and freedom of actions in a world that is so contrived and controlled. The Proles as it is only, they who seem to possess that ‘ancestral memory’ which sees them carry out that ‘gesture’ of loving protection of which Winston dreams and sees in the cinema. Even though they lack cognisance; they are still there in the society and Orwell utilises the metaphor of ‘a horse shaking off flies’ to advert the potency of the proletariat. Hope lies in the washerwoman who sings for no other reason but to express her joy, just like the thrush of the Golden country. Orwell highlights the impact that hope and the attributes it can bring can affect a person’s humanity and identity, and forever how long it may last, is still worthwhile. Orwell presents reader with such a bleak and glum society in order to depict Winston’s hope as somewhat lunacy, yet Julia, the birds and the proles serve to effectively highlight that it is possible to have lived, if only temporary.

When the propaganda, deprivation and rigid guidelines fail to convert someone to the Party doctrine, the government uses torture to brainwash their citizens, however the fact that the Party must turn Winston into a walking zombie to crush his inner revolt reveals the Party’s ultimate frailty. O’Brien resents hope in a brighter future and the party can only brainwash a person using torture; however, there will always be a party of a person that will always ‘feel’ differently. ‘There is something in the universe, some spirit, some principle that [the party] will never overcome the spirit of man.’ It is Winston’s hopes of something greater than man as an individual. He believes that in the possibility that something will rise from the corrupted sphere that the Party bought on humanity and that it will end its tyranny. The fact that after Winston’s re-education, he is still able to recall past memories of his mother however much he tried to block it out of his mind underlines the party’s weakness. Winston may be only one dissident, but for the hope for mankind, there are other dissidents that are just like Winston that will encapsulate the power back to humanity and restore order in society. Winston’s hope and actions are only a small piece to a big puzzle of humanity, but without it, it would be incomplete. The Party ultimately keep Aaronson, Rutherford, Jones and Winston because they are fearful of the repercussions of their actions and hence most monitor their re-education, proving the Party’s psychotic urge for control and ultimately their insecurities about losing power. The party hates those who can rebel and questions their power, however while hope exists, the party’s totalitarianism will be never fully adequate. This highlights that human kind will never be completely over come by the leviathan political incumbency in the Party and that even though Orwell portrays the futility of one man’s attempt against an oppressive tyrannous regime, Winston is not a lunatic for believing in the possibility of a better existence.

Conversely, Orwell accentuates how a person’s hope and desires in a better existence can lead to naivety and lack of judgement. Winston understands that he cannot succeed against the infallible party yet he still attempts to do so because he believes that ‘some failures are better than others.’ His pursuit for freedom can be seen as one of his vulnerabilities. Apart from having ‘a smallish, frail figure’ and generally bad health, Winston has poor judgement of others, lacks a strong survival instinct and displays poor moral values at times. Essentially Winston fails in all his attempts at judging people. Winston had thought that Julia was an ‘amateur spy’ or possibly even ‘an agent in the Thought Police,’ while O’Brien is thought to have been ‘on [his] side’ and have ‘[known] precisely what [he was feeling].’ It also never occurs to him that Mr. Charrington could have been vaguely suspicious. Juxtaposed against Julia, it is evident that Winston is much less able to survive in the World of Oceania because as a rebel, he is naive to think that the Part can be brought down so easily by a single mans rebellion. However despite his vulnerability and naivety, Orwell offers readers that there will still be hope for Ocean even after Winston’s eventual capitulation as man must always exist in order to be oppressed and subjected to vulnerability.

In his bleak text ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ Orwell offers hope in the form of Winston and his single crusade against an oppressive totalitarian regime. Orwell highlights the product of this hope such as love, independence and humanity in order to provide readers with enough evidence to suggest that in posterior times, man will eventually overcome the sadistic power that is the Party. Although Winston may possess lunatic qualities and may seem foolish and naive to ever rebel, Orwell ultimately portrays Winston as a ‘noble everyman’ who accepts his limited life for the better of mankind.