Dreams and Fantasies in 1984 There is a reoccurring theme in the novel 1984, by George Orwell. The main character, Winston Smith is often fantasizing about his utopia, and dreaming about past events

Dreams and Fantasies in 1984 There is a reoccurring theme in the novel 1984, by George Orwell. The main character, Winston Smith is often fantasizing about his utopia, and dreaming about past events. In a world where everyone is controlled and everything is decided for you, Winston relies on his subconscious mind to maintain his sanity.Winston works rewriting the past in a department for the Party. His memories of the past are usually the opposite of the Party's version of the past. Winston is very confused about whether or not he is losing his mind. His dreams reveal the reality of the Party and the truth of the past, enabling him to trust his own instinct of what is right and wrong, keeping it clear in his mind what the past was really like. In one dream Winston envisioned his mother and his baby sister sinking into a well or lowering off the side of a ship - he wasn't quite sure. He felt as if they were being sucked towards death.

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He knew they were sacrificing their lives for his own. Winston realizes "...that his mothers dhree of them. Winston, of course, demanded the whole piece. His mother responded by telling him not to be greedy. She gave him the majority of the piece and the rest to his little sister, but he stole it from her. She started to cry while Winston ran away with the chocolate. His mother held his baby sister in her arms, trying to console her. It did not produce more chocolate, but it was only natural for her to do it. His mother was an unusual woman, yet intelligent, noble and pure, "her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from the outside" (136). He realized that in those times if you loved someone, you loved them from the bottom of your heart, no matter what. If you had nothing else to give, you gave love. Contrasting this with today, Winston recognized that the Party persuades you to think that impulses and feelings are unimportant, ultimately robbing you of your power. Whatever happens really makes no difference, in the end you are vanished. What mattered then were individual relationships, nowved that this was the reality of the past, he thought it was a false memory. He could no longer distinguish between fact and fiction; he now believed the only love that existed was that for Big Brother. He did not want to admit that his memories of the past were the truth. This is the turning point for him, where he no longer uses his memories to guide him.In the same respect as his dreams, Winston fantasizes to keep his hopes up. He has fantasies about his utopia the Golden Country. The Golden Country was an old pasture with a path, and a molehole here and there. There were elm trees that swayed faintly in the breeze. Somewhere that couldn't be seen was a stream with willow tress. Winston dreamt of the golden country so often that he wasn't sure if he had seen it in real life. He had pictured Julia (at that time she was "the girl with dark hair", before they had met) coming toward him in the field. She had thrown her clothes aside with a graceful, careless gesture. This impressed him. Not her nudity,ely something to be grateful for. Furthermore, Winston had bought a glass paperweight from Mr. Charrington's Antique shop. He found the inside very intriguing. It had a depth to it, even though it was transparent. He thought of the outside arch as the sky and the inside as a complete little world. He imagined he was inside, along with Julia and their apartment. The symbolism of this paperweight indicates that Winston feels protected from reality of the real world, the Party. The outside glass is his protection. The inside contains his Golden Country and perfect relationship with Julia, transparent and free of flaws. They have a stronger emotional bond than the average relationship of those days. This is his escape from the harsh reality.The dreams and fantasies that Winston has allow him to remain in a positive state of mind; it is because of this that the Party does not overpower him. Winston and Julia had a conversation about the lies of the Party. Julia learnt at school that the Party had i Winston is definitely devoted to oppose the Party, and it is evident that he would do whatever it takes. Although, from his dreams he has realized that his love for Julia is his firearm against the Party and he finds strength and support in her.When Winston began to regain his health in the ministry of love he began to dream a great deal. They were all surpassingly happy dreams. He would dream himself into the Golden Country with his mother, Julia and even O'Brien. "Such thoughts as he had when he was awake were mostly about his dreams" (227). Previously he had told O'Brien that he believed that even if he gave up, the spirit of mankind could overthrow the Party. He had almost completely given into the Party but he had not betrayed Julia. Winston did not want to give up the possibility that the Party could be destroyed. Finally, at the end of the story Winston gave into the Party, but willingly. He had made a good effort to remain an individual but he decided it just wasn't worth the struggle.

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sydneyhopcroft

2nd of Mar 2012

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is very good. Through the essay the candidate has upheld the required standards of English writing, with an adept handling of spelling, grammar and punctuation. A wider range of punctuation could be useful in showing the candidate's ability to write with confidence and dexterity.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis is good here. The candidate demonstrates an adept understanding of how to effectively analyse the text for Orwell's use of dreams in Winston's character, and also understands how the totalitarian oppression from The Party and Big Brother crushed these dreams, though there are missed opportunities to quote some of the most infamous quotes from the text, as they lend themselves very well to this answer - the quote that O'Brien says: "If you want an image of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever". This kind of quote shows a full understanding of the novel and how to apply evidence from it into the answer. Examiners looks for this - candidate who can construct an analysis with appropriate evidence from the source text.

Response to question

This essay is a response to a question that asks candidates to consider the dreams and fantasies of the protagonist of George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', Winston Smith. This answer shows a candidate capable of focusing extremely well on the proposed question, with little divergence if not to fortify the answer with an understanding of the book as a whole, identifying key points during the novel where Winston's imagination leads us to see his dreams and fantasies. It may have served the candidate better to consolidate all the comments about Winston's dreams of hope; of love; of freedom; of his family; of his memory in their own paragraph and link them via the means to which The Party destroy his chances of ever achieving such. This way, each paragraph covers a specific angle of dreaming that Orwell places in the text and will consistently refer directly to the question, and it shows the examiner that the candidate has the ability to effectively structure their answer to address all aspects that the question proposes. It will also save time as the candidates using this structure will not need to switch and change between points.

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