An exploration of Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World

An exploration into the theme of control in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’

The novels 1984 and Brave New World portray a futuristic world where the authoritarian states have effectively manipulated the thoughts and actions of its population using various controlling methods which deny citizens their individuality. In both novels, leaders have attempted to create a Utopian society, one that they consider to maintain peace and stability but in which have become oppressive and tyrannical. To do this, history is distorted or ignored completely and control is used as a means to keep the population content and sufficed.

The role of the dystopian novel is one that projects trends of the present world into the future, criticising and challenging the traits of today. Huxley aims to do this by offering us a warning of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. He provides a challenging, compelling vision of the future that entails the risks of developments in biotechnology and society. Orwell depicts the conflict between the individual and the social system. Through Winston he shows that one will feel isolated in a world that denies our needs and perceptions.

In Brave New World, embryos are pre-conditioned into classes. The classes; Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are programmed and treated using hypnopaedia to behave in certain ways that define their classes, hence allowing social stability. There is little individuality as every class is programmed to be suited to certain jobs and be content with their position in life. The inhabitants survive on superficial happiness. Huxley is exploring to what extent this is sufficient for the human being. He raises the question of whether human nature would be incomplete without love, emotions and compassion.

In 1984, the population of Oceania is divided into two groups, much like classes. This includes the lower and upper Party members and the proletarians, who are defined as lower class. The proles are similar to that the savages in Brave New World; they are not controlled as the rest of the population are and live separately. Although control can be imposed on them, the proles and savages do not pose a threat to the government and live uninterrupted by the rules of society.

The Proletarian sector makes up the majority of the population of Oceania. Although proles appear to have more freedom, they are easier to control. A party slogan says that “Proles and animals are free”, they are unconfined and unrestrained unlike the Party members. They lead ignorant lives, lacking the energy and interest to revolt against the Party, mostly unable to comprehend how they are being oppressed. Even Winston believes that “If there’s hope…it lies in the proles”, they could overthrow the party if they could understand the power they have. As a result, the party has complete control over the proles that they do not even seem to contemplate changing their circumstances.

“Until they have become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they will never become conscious.”

There is power in numbers but the proles fail to see this as a method to overthrow the party. Instead they represent the ignorant masses who do not possess the ability or the education to understand the wider picture of state control and oppression. In both novels, the authors aim to reflect on modern society, where wealth and status are considered more important than what one does or thinks. We still survive in much of a hierarchal society, where those higher up are more privileged and who have some sort of power over those in lower down. In Brave New World, the lower class Epsilons are often employed within dangerous factories whereas those higher up are not. The classes of 1984 also recall this concept of our present society.

As the proles pose little threat to government, they are not monitored by both the Thought and Civil police.

“…the great majority of proles did not even have telescreens in their homes. Even the civil police interfered with them very little”

In such conditions, crime flourished and things that the Party members were prohibited to do soon became invisible in the world of the proles. Criminality such as prostitution, drug-dealing and theft went unpunished. Promiscuity and divorce were also permitted. The proles had the freedom to regulate their lives to their own moral code, one that was different from the Party members. Unlike the Party members, they were free to travel wherever they liked within the country whereas the Party members had to have a special Party permit to be allowed outside of 100 miles of their home, checking points also existed to check Party members’ ID. Orwell uses the proles to show us that those who pose no threat to the government are often ignored and overlooked in the society that exists around them. Though they have not consciously rejected the Party’s vision, they are unable to understand it. For this reason they are rendered incapable of challenging the Party.

The savages in Brave New World could also provide a similar theme to the proles in 1984. They remain within Savage Reservations, where they also live uncontrolled and uninterrupted with the outside world. Similarly, they have children by ‘natural’ means, retain many religious beliefs and value familial relationships. By also having little access to the technology that dominates the civilized world they have chosen to provide a contrast to the life that lacks individuality and loving relationships. Huxley is showing us that his aims were not to portray the effect of scientific marvels but to comment upon the human condition and to serve warnings of this. He does this by contrasting the lives of Bernard and Lenina with that of the Savages.

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The proles form a larger majority of the population. We learn from Orwell’s use of language and description that the Party members find it unnecessary to indoctrinate them. They remain happy when supplied with pornography, alcohol and the lottery. As long as they are kept contented, they will not question their lives or rebel, just as the classes in Brave New World do not when they are provided with soma. The lottery has weekly pay-out of enormous prizes. Being state-controlled, it gives the proles a sense of hope for a better life and is devotedly followed by most of them. To the proles, the lottery represents their idiocy, their anodyne and their stimulant just as soma does in Brave New World. Soma is used as a stimulant to keep the population entertained and to divert their attention away from issues such as state control and the government.

Being a state-produced drug imparted to the population of the World State, it provides a sense of immediate gratification and is used as a means of escape from any emotional distress such as grief, humiliation and disappointment that they do not wish to experience. As it does not carry any negative effects and allows its patients to pursue happiness through the “extended soma-holidays” that it enables, soma could be seen to symbolize the detachment of people from their own humanity. It represents a symbol of the powerful influence of science and technology on society. Because of this, the tone in the novel is pleasant and light-hearted just as the drug enables its consumers to feel. It only shifts with the confusion that John begins to feel when he moves from his small, confined world to the ‘civilised’ State.

It could be argued their use in the worlds of 1984 and Brave New World both emphasise the society of consumerism and hedonism, one that is possibly nearly upon us. The items used to suffice the proles in 1984 have been long available in our society, and are often used for the same purpose. While the attitudes and behaviours of the citizens appear to be bizarre and cruel, they in fact convey their societies to be much alike to ours. They suggest that theirs is a version of our society’s economic values, in which individual happiness is equated with the ability to satisfy needs and success as a society is connected with economic growth and affluence.

The proles are observed to be natural inferiors by the Party members. They are kept in subjection like animals and are easily controlled through the use of some simple rules. Although they remained mainly unmonitored, the Thought police did eliminate individuals who were identified as risks of doing anything higher than their status. Such elimination came from suspicion and rumours, of which were started to control views on subjects. The Party controlled the thoughts and feelings of its population with the use of propaganda such as posters that promote the Party. Hate week where posters of the enemy soldier were put up nearly everywhere, they advertise slogans such as the ambiguous “Big Brother is watching you” and the paradoxical “freedom is slavery” to indoctrinate the population. The proles, who are normally apathetic about the war, are controlled by the Party for events such as Hate Week. Political feelings and judgments are provoked this way. Orwell uses the slogans to further reflect reality for the oppressed. Winston is aware, whilst writing his diary entries that the printed word is dangerous. Orwell uses writing and the role of the author to illustrate the horror of 1984, the written word was in most cases destroyed or rewritten in Newspeak.

There is also further evidence in the novel for a wide spectrum of literary techniques that Orwell uses to represent the exploitation of control. His diary entries help him to develop a sense of reality and individual identity different from those laid down by the Party. There is the cheerful tone of Julia when she says “just let me show you what I’ve brought” and the language of the proles such as “I arst you civil enough…”, which is somewhat cockney. The crude questioning for meaning from Winston’s early diary entries, evident from “They’ll shoot me I don’t care”, contrasts with the fluent directness of Goldstein in his speeches, for example “the war has a direct economic purpose…for labour power”. It could be argued that the Party’s moral code could be interpreted as a satire on our society. Possibly, the role of language in the novel is one that focuses on moments in life which provoke strong feelings and reflect on what those the feelings may be in a society that strictly controls this.

Religion is still maintained in both novels but since the totalitarian governments control thoughts, beliefs and faiths are regarded with caution. In Brave New World, it is as scientifically expansive that there remains no need for the God of Christianity. Since science is what has shaped this society, it is valued more than a spiritual Creator. Religion is not obsolete, there is a state religion that is accepted and ritually celebrated by the population. This is the worship of Ford or “Our Freud”, a parody along with others in the novel such as “Orgy-Porgy” that imply that humans are being motivated into the morals of the society this way.

As the population and their thoughts are controlled with the use of drugs and computer-generated atmospheres, this leads the citizens to truly believe in some form of deity. Only the skeptical and individual Bernard refuses to be drawn into this belief. To the others, the Ford is referred to as “wonderful” with the population feeling a sense of “achieved consummation” and “a rich and living peace”.

Traditional beliefs of religion are maintained in the Savage Reservations. Beliefs in Jesus, Pookong and other faiths are celebrated and worshipped. Possibly, Huxley is suggesting that this is an alternative form of control; it forces humans to believe in something which they may not consider to be entirely true. Since there is no control over such belief, ceremonies are held to mark these principles. These ceremonies mark manhood and hope, for example when a youth has to walk around some snakes being whipped until he falls over. Those of the ‘civilised’ world consider these rituals to be “queer” and animalistic.

Although both the novels provide a group of people that still represent our modern way of life, they are despised and those of higher status still seek to oppress them. In 1984, thoughts were controlled through constant policing by the Thought Police. This force of control was much similar to that of the secret police. The population is monitored with the use of telescreens in every room. They monitor facial expressions and from this gain an indication into the thoughts of an individual. Facecrime, a Newspeak word, is the crime that accounts for displaying unorthodox facial expressions which entails incarceration or even death. To avoid this, Party members try to keep ‘correct’ facial expressions and to behave appropriately at all times. Even the trustworthy and elite Inner Party members are watched by telescreens, though such security is less imposed on them. Such a form of control meant that one had to maintain an expressionless face and to instinctively control their actions. Orwell uses the telescreens to symbolise how the government abuses technology for its own needs, just as Brave New World does. He, like Huxley, also highlights that technology which is perceived to work towards moral good can also facilitate the most diabolical evil.

The Party not only controlled thought but provoked it too. The Two Minutes Hate, in which most of the population had to take part in, was used to incite hatred towards Emmanuel Goldstein, a traitor against the Party who led a rebel party called the Brotherhood. The population was shown anti-Party material from the media to generate hate towards these enemies. This method created a revolting ecstasy of terror and vindictiveness that created a desire to kill and torture in an individual. This way, the Party achieved total control over thoughts.

To control, fear was used to instigate the population into believing that thought deviation brings about death. Everyone lived under the fear and threat of each other, as even one’s own family could denounce another to the Thought Police. An example of this feeling is what Winston experiences when he begins writing a diary. The Party effectively uses this method to break family ties, eliminating trust which could give rise to rebellion. Parents no longer discipline their children as in the Parson’s family as often children overheard compromising remarks from within their families and condemned their parents to the Thought Police. They were often celebrated in the media as “child heroes”.

Similarly, Brave New World uses the constant observation of those around you to create suspicion and fear. This deters anyone from creating lasting relationships. Since children are produced artificially in bottles, the need for family life has been abolished. They are conditioned and raised according to the wishes of the State. In addition, sexual promiscuity further emphasises the loss of familial relationship, where labels such as “mother” and “father” are considered obscene.

In both the novels, children are socially conditioned from an early age to accept and share the views of the controllers. They grow up following and practicing the ideologies of their superiors. Being indoctrinated with these values, they live and behave according the policies of the State. In Brave New World, the children are exposed to sleep therapy which enable the State’s views to be infiltrated into the mind. The children grow up quoting the phrases and slogans that they have been programmed with such as “everyone belongs to everyone”. They accept and validate this as the truth, and use it to judge and decide throughout their way in life. In regard to classes and professions, their tastes and likes are also conditioned. For example, Deltas are conditioned to have ‘instinctive’ hatred towards books and flowers and to be more accustomed to loud noises and electric shocks. This shows that reflexes and reactions are also controlled.

Children born into the society of 1984 are controlled through childhood and adolescence. Their minds are controlled through organizations such as the Spies, the Junior Anti-Sex League and the Youth League. Children grow up to love the Party and to adopt their policies fully. They adore the songs, the banners, the slogans and the worship of Big Brother – all to the extent that these are implicit methods of control too. The slogans are intimidating, often creating a satire of the values of our present society.

Sex and sexual desire is also controlled but its effects on the mentality of individuals mean that lasting relationships are never formed. In Brave New World, sexual promiscuity is a source of happiness that is accepted and valued. This source of pleasure is only ever explored physically, limiting the emotions that the individual can feel. As taught in childhood, sex is practiced routinely by almost everyone. In fact, it is looked upon as immoral if one does not partake regularly in sexual activity. For example, a young boy who did not want to join in “erotic play” started crying and was led away by a nurse for psychological testing. Lenina also makes a remark saying, “one’s got to make the effort, one’s got to play the game”.

In 1984, women are conditioned not to like sexual activity but to see it as a method to create more Party members. To them it is a duty, though it will eventually be replaced by artificial insemination. The Party wishes to “kills sexual instinct” and if this was not possible then to “distort it and dirty it”, hence manipulating the perception people have on this subject. By allowing sexual reproduction, marriage is also validated to some degree. By removing love and affection from society, those who do marry have not consolidated their marriage with any physical attraction. Such attraction between couples is seen as unlawful and is likely to be disallowed or terminated. The resulting frustration is conveyed as hatred towards the enemy state. This means that not only are emotions controlled but so are the relationships between individuals.

Newspeak is the word used to describe the language being developed in 1984, in time it will replace Oldspeak and will become the only thing spoken. The superiors in society believe that reducing a language to such a level will make thoughtcrime impossible. Theoretically by changing the language, the superiors will be certain enough not to include words that could conceive disobedient and rebellious thoughts. Figurative speech is restrained and generally takes the form of simple, even commonplace similes which adds emphasis and connotation to what one is trying to say. An example of this is Victory Gin, which is “like a dose of medicine”, meaning that it is unpleasant but therapeutic. 1984 has the tendency to use words to describe objects in a way that does not enable language to gain words. It simply makes use of common ones, also by removing words that represent opposing concepts. An example of this is “ungood” that removes the need for the word ‘bad’. Such modification of language not only eliminates unnecessary words but also promotes a narrowing of thought and, therefore, awareness. The idea of Newspeak is that language should become less expressive and the mind would therefore be easier to control.

As a force of control, it will structure and limit the ideas that individuals are capable of formulating and expressing. It will breakdown an individual’s capacity for independent thought. However, this raises the question of how far this can remain a force of control. Is it possible for natural language to change and can unofficial meanings be outlawed?

Another concept of Newspeak is Doublethink, which is essential to be able to live and accept the rules of the state. Doublethink enables an individual to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time: to know and not to know. The use of this ability makes it possible for an individual to believe anything the Party tells them even if they possess any information that contradicts it. An example of this in the novel is when the population knows that the quality of their lives are decreasing but are told by the Party that their quality of life is increasing. They are forced to believe that the Party is right, despite knowing something else. Doublethink is also important in understanding the Party’s hypocrisy. Since the Ministry of Truth controls the past, it distorts the truth and conducts propaganda. The Ministry of Love is at the centre of the torture and punishment given to prisoners of thoughtcrime. The Ministry of Peace deals with war and the Ministry of Plenty is involved in the decisions made concerning shortages.

In a world where verbal language is being corrupted, there is also emphasis in the novel on body language. Orwell uses it as a technique to show this as a method of expressing feelings more openly such as the “magnificent gesture by which a whole civilisation seemed to be annihilated” when Julia removes her uniform. Winston even recalls when his mother put his arm around his sister and that he sees of a “Jewish woman…trying to shelter the small boy from the bullets”. The author also shows value for importance of relationships through this.

His tone in the novel communicates the feelings of fear, paranoia, loneliness and sexual desire experienced by Winston. They represent his confusion and isolation from the inability to conform to the rules society, similar to how Bernard feels in Brave New World. He expresses his ideas in a way that shares his thinking process and the themes of his society with the reader and his use of rhetorical questions for description creates mockery. Arguably, the creation of a fictional world such as this has to use the language of common thinking and thought – something that will further reflect the tyrannical reality.

We see the events of the novel from a single consciousness, one that is beyond his control as it is constantly under attack from the outside through the propaganda and on the inside by his nightmares and memories. As a result we often see Winston’s consciousness move from past to present and from waking to dreaming. It could therefore be argued that 1984 is a work of paranoid fantasy. The narrative of the novel begins with Winston’s decision to think for himself, something that goes against the rules of the state and that can be punishable by death. Being set in three parts, we follow the process of Winston’s rebellion against his state. Orwell’s message, common to other Dystopian novels, is that the totalitarian society can crush even the strongest individual, as Winston is eventually converted.

The significance of motifs in the novel such as the pastoral golden country and the idea of the paperweight suggest that these are the underlying forces that run beneath the events of the novel. They also stand for the deepest desires that Winston wishes to attain. Possibly, they also detract from the book’s reality and show us the power that human emotions and fantasies have.

In both novels, the control of history is another method used to subjugate the population of a society. In 1984, Ingsoc or English socialism was an aspect of the past. The Party has the ability to control and manipulate every source of information. The effects of this help justify the Party’s controlling techniques in the present. In the novel, Winston works for the Ministry of Truth which controls the output of news, entertainment, education and culture, rectifying the past for the interests of the Party. An example of this is when Oceana was in war during Hate Week, Eastasia changed to Eurasia and any reference to the war thereafter became obsolete in the media.

In addition to the alteration of historical events, the state also controls history on a more personal level. If a Party member was executed or arrested they would be officially referred as an “unperson” and any evidence of their existence also became obsolete. As a result, it would be impossible to prove such an individual’s existence; it would be as though they never existed at all. Their disappearance would be accepted and no one would question or talk of them. Doublethink enables to do this as does fear, the Party benefiting from this.

Shakespeare provides a theme of language through which John the Savage understands the world. The novel explores the themes of love, humanity and tragedy through plays such as Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest. It provides a contrast to the indoctrinated phrases that the rest of the State is forced to speak and the emotions that they desire to eliminate. In addition, since the plays referred to in the novel are mainly tragedies, it raises the thought that artificial happiness and sacrifice have eliminated the occurrence of tragical situations. John argues that there must be the possibility of genuine pain and danger if human life is to have any meaning. For him, Shakespeare’s plays have practically offered him a version of our own society that validates the emotions experienced by humans.

Arguably, the Shakespeare theme could also suggest the conflict between magic and science. John the Savage finds the ideals of Shakespeare’s words “singing and magic”, often referring to them in his morals. To him, the theme opens possibility of emotions that have been closed to the rest of the population – feelings that are “real”. At one point, Winston also recalls Shakespeare. Perhaps this, like in Brave New World, is another technique used to show us that 1984 is a society less natural than the one that allows the experience of tragedy as depicted in Shakespeare. Its control methods are perhaps incongruent with human nature itself.

In Brave New World, history is completely ignored and focus is exerted on the present and future of the state. The effect of this shapes people and their thoughts of history through the way it undertones the negative social differences of previous generations. The controllers of this society ignored the positive aspects of the previous world in order to make the new society devoid of any similarities.

In 1984, control over individuals has gone to the extent that the Party even has power over memories. Individuals can never be sure if their memories are real or state-enforced. At one point in the novel, Winston questions Julia on whether “the past, starting yesterday, has actually been abolished…” Every record has been destroyed and falsified, every picture re-painted and every date altered. The past has been changed for the interest of the present and future. Although everything from the past is forbidden, there are no laws against them. The superior members have created a society where unwritten law prohibits and controls individuals.

Brave New World and 1984 both use the idea of control but more likely, their authors had different intentions in portraying a futuristic world with tyrannical elements. Huxley intended to create a society that was not entirely bad, on the surface it is an acceptable society but one that has totalitarianism outlining it. He urges us to be appreciative of love, relationships and individuality. In 1984, Orwell uses Winston to represent a view of the future overridden by fear and propaganda. He presents a society that abuses human endeavour in an effort to monitor and control its population. Both of these novels portray an attractive life in a Utopian society, but only if one can conform to the rules. Those who cannot are branded as subversives and punished as traitors. The portrayal of these societies makes us thankful to be free individuals who value the depths of human nature.