The passage from the book (page 70 t0 72) Nineteen Eight-Four identifies that the main element is narrative. The narrator is third person but we see into his mind, this is shown by the author using the character's name and also referring him as 'he'.

Prose Commentary

Masroor Butt

English

IB1

The passage from the book (page 70 t0 72) Nineteen Eight-Four identifies that the main element is narrative. The narrator is third person but we see into his mind, this is shown by the author using the character’s name and also referring him as ‘he’.

The passage is about Winston who is writing in his diary. He is writing about the bitter experience with the prostitute who he first saw her in the dark as a young pretty girl but turned out to be an old fifty year old women. In this passage it is felt that he is sexually frustrated and he accuses his wife Katharine that she is very loyal to the party just like all the other women of the Party. “Chastity was as deeply ingrained in them as Party loyalty”

The writer’s attitude to the subject matter in the passage is very negative; already from the first sentence you get the idea “Winston sighed inaudibly”. This gives us the feeling that what he is going to write about is going to be horrible or something negative. Later he writes down in his diary about the bitter experience “She threw herself… in the most course horrible way you can imagine, …skirt”

One more thing, which is very negative, is that in the last paragraph of the passage Winston writes that it was very difficult to write down this diary entry. “He had written it down at last, but made no difference” The last sentence of the passage is also very negative that he was so disgusted about the prostitute he had made love with “The urge to shout filthy words at the top of his voice was as strong as ever”

The main character in the opening is clearly the diary writer Winston Smith. In this passage we ...

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The main character in the opening is clearly the diary writer Winston Smith. In this passage we learn quite a lot about him. He is a person who will examine, inspect, observe everything and look around where ever he goes; “The paint was plastered so thick on her face that it looked as though it might crack like a cardboard mask” He also seems a person who easily gets paranoid especially when he starts thinking about the guards maybe waiting for him outside to arrest that

The location of the passage is in Winston’s house in his room and the importance of its location is that it smelled of bugs and a very disgusting kind of scent “He saw himself there in the dim lamplight, with the smell of bugs and cheap scent in his nostrils”

The location of the passage in the diary itself is set in the basement kitchen where there was a lamp on the table. The lamp on the table gives the importance of the location because due to him turning up the lamp he saw that she was old and that she didn’t have any teeth. “I turned up the lamp. When I saw her in the light she was quite old woman, fifty years old”.

The feelings of Winston are very depressing due to the fact that he could not have a real love affair because it was not allowed in the Party. He didn’t have a real love affair with his wife Katharine because she is very loyal to the party and therefore he was forced to get a prostitute for some sexual healing.

The writer has created the passage in such a way that there is suspense. He has done this by making Winston write his diary in three steps and having intervals between his diary entry. He stops then thinks about it then continues writing that makes the reader more excited and wants to know that for example how would she look like when he turned the lamp on but then again there is a interval “I turned up the lamp. When I saw her in the light----”

By reading the prose I can easily say that this is not a realistic story but a science-fiction story. I can say this by that in this world real love affair is thinkable and that it is not a rebellion. One thing also to be noted is that why would there be guards outside a house even if you are busy with some prostitute, this also gives us the impression that this is a science-fiction story.

The writing process in the passage is that while he is writing the diary he always thinks extensively about what he is going to write. While he was talking about how some women are really royal to the party, you could feel that he had this determination of writing the diary “But the rest of the story had got to be written down”. This tells us about him that although it was a bitter experience he still wrote it down so he could remember this pungent day. This shows that he is a person who wants to remember all the bitter things of life. “He had written it down at last, but it made no difference”

The purpose of close description by the writer was to make us fully understand what is happening and that we can imagine and visualize what is happening. The close description also puts us in the shoes of Winston and visualizes ourselves as Winston is writing the diary for example.

The pace of the prose in some sentences fast and slow. This shows that the writer is suggesting a reflective mood and also at the same time creating some fast action. The reflective mood by using long, slow words often in conjugation with sound which are long and slow e.g. “He saw himself standing there in the dim lamplight, with the smell of bugs and cheap scent in his nostrils and in his heart a feeling of defeat and resentment which even at that moment was mixed up with the though of Katharine’s white body, frozen for ever by hypnotic power of the party.” For creating faster action the writer used short, simple words and brief, efficient sentences e.g. “Winston sighed inaudibly” and “The therapy had not worked”.

Words: 1,018

30.10.02