“The Time Machine” was first published in 1895. The young mastermind Albert Einstein was introducing new theories into physical science, concerning time and time travel. British society was still in the stages where the poor were very poor and the rich were very rich. These are the two main reasons that The Time Machine would not have come across as completely bogus at the time of writing. Wells describes a horrific situation; something that many target readers will be sensitive to. This is a technique that Orwell also employs.
As the title suggests, “Nineteen Eighty-Four” portrays Britain in the year 1984. Although Orwell may have been exaggerating in this portrayal, this novel was first published at a time when Orwell’s suggestions came across as credible possibilities – similar to “The Time Machine.”
The novel follows the life of a certain “Winston Smith” in this future Britain, under the government, called “The Party” of Oceania. This government practices what it called English Socialism. It criticises capitalism, and emphasises how life has improved dramatically since the eradication of capitalism and the introduction of English Socialism. However, Orwell gradually reveals a totalitarian society. Ironically, capitalism is very evident in this society.
Winston’s, and every other party member’s, days are monotonous endurances. They live in a world where totalitarianism has overcome their lives. In fact, totalitarian ways mean that people cannot know whether totalitarianism has overcome the world, the nation or merely their own community. Winston Smith is a representation of the many civilians who have become rebels in their mind but are too frightened to let their rebelliousness be outwardly expressed.
The government monitors every move Winston makes, via a technology called the telescreen. Every word he utters is recorded. All interactions with other people are analysed. Society has reached a stage where sleep is a threat to oneself, for the reason that the telescreen may pick up words of rebel that escape ones mouth during a dream.
The social order is hierarchically arranged. The “lowest” and most numerous class is the “prole.” I put “lowest” in speech marks because they actually are not treated as the lowest form; they are given more freedom than party members. These come next. Normal party members, like Winston, are employed by the party to work in one of four ministries. Here they carry out various tasks to ensure that the party runs smoothly. Winston works in the ministry of truth, where day after day, he rewrites newspaper, magazine and other such articles as the party sees fit. For example, if a previous article states that Oceania is at war with Eurasia, but the party is now at war Eastasia, all copies of that article must be tracked down and rewritten to agree with the current situation. In reality, Oceania may not be at war at all, but in order to unite all citizens and in an effort to take over their minds and control their thinking, Oceania is at war with Eastasia and Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Above the ordinary party members is the Inner Party. Such members are privileged; they live luxurious lives, in large houses with servants. They make the decisions that other civilians have to follow. Finally, at the apex of the hierarchy, stands Big Brother. All decisions pass through Big Brother before they are finalised. The character, though, is very vague. He appears only on large posters with the caption “Big Brother Is Watching You,” and the word “Ingsoc,” – an abbreviation for English Socialism – and on the propaganda transmitted through telescreens. The people are taught to love Big Brother, and obey his every command without hesitation. And that is what people do. The description of Big Brother, not coincidentally, fits that of Stalin.
Similarly to “The Time Machine,” “Nineteen Eighty-Four” suggests that if current ways are continued, human intelligence will generally decline. In “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Orwell makes it clear that civilians are unintelligent by giving examples of characters that ignore the obvious truth and continue their lives as if nothing if wrong with the world.
Orwell then demonstrates that these people have no choice. Winston and his lover Julia, whom he discovered was also rebellious at mind, are found out whilst attempting to assimilate with the proles. They are taken to the Ministry of Love, where, to the reader’s horror, their way of thinking is altered so that they conform to the party and learn to truly love Big Brother.
A world where the government has so much power, that it can control people’s thoughts and wishes, may seem bizarre to present day readers, but it was not so to the Britain of 1949. At the time, totalitarian tyrannies were in the recent past or in current practice, i.e. the Nazis and The Soviet Union under Stalin. Britain was still recovering from the devastation that the war with the Nazis had brought and people were still very traumatic and sensitive with the subject. Orwell would not have to think twice about whether this novel would might received as an exaggeration.
The Time Machine is written from a first person point-of-view. This allows the story to be more dramatic, as the character’s feelings and thoughts can be shared with the reader. It also makes it easier for the reader to imagine the situation, as they can imagine themselves in the place of the main character. “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is written from a third person point-of-view, but orients around Wilson. Often, Orwell goes into the mind of Winston and writes in the first person. This allows Orwell to express Winston’s thoughts, but also write about certain aspects without bias.
Both novels use vivid descriptions of horrific situations as their element of satire. By depicting a hell-world, and suggesting that the existent of these hell-worlds was brought around because of corrupt political practices, the authors are ridiculing their target political practices. Both authors begin with mildly shocking descriptions and then, develop the scenario by introducing increasingly shocking descriptions. The more they can shock the reader, the more effective they’re text will be.
“The Time Machine” begins with “The Time Traveller” very eager to travel forward in time. He arrives in a harmonic, serene world, as if it had been taken out of a dream, at a time which he first refers to as “The Golden Age.” However, this is only the cover. The Time Travel then discovers some of the inhabitants of this future world, the Eloi, who, as I have explained, are devolved humans, with child-like tendencies.
One of these Eloi creatures, through gesturing “asked [the Time Traveller]… if [he] had come from the sun in a thunderstorm!” Such a question immediately forms low opinions of the Eloi. In “Nineteen-Eighty Four,” the stupidity of people is not so extreme, but it is evident in the way characters converse and act. For example, a character called Parsons, continually compliments Big Brother and the Party and cheerfully carries out his duties to the party such as collecting money from party members for the Party. He is oblivious to the fact that the party is more-or-less robbing party members of their money; a very tiny percentage of this funding will go towards the public. Although this fact is all-too-obvious, many characters like Parson simply ignore it. Another indication is Orwells direct description of these characters’ actions: “…Winstons handed over two notes, which Parsons entered in a small notebook, in the neat handwriting of the illiterate.” Orwell is directly illustrating that Parsons is almost illiterate.
In both cases, the authors reinforce the declaration that intelligence is dropping by demonstrating depreciation in language.
The Time Traveller describes the language of the Eloi to be very basic, with sentences and expressions often composed of not more than two words. In fact, he learnt a good amount of the language during his short stay. Wells is suggesting that since human intelligence is decreasing, the need for a diverse language, rich with adjectives and adverbs, is diminished. Hence humans only speak when they need to, and when they do, they’re speech has a very basic structure, composed mainly of a subject and a verb, for example.
In “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Orwell writes about a new language, called “Newspeak”, which the government is introducing. He explains plans to rid the world of plain English, or “Oldspeak,” and replace it with Newspeak, the idea being that if the government can control people’s speech, then ultimately, they can reduce the thoughts and decisions that people are capable of making. This way people can have uniform thinking, one of the endeavours of totalitarianism. Orwell has included a detailed analysis and explanation of Newspeak in an appendix, but the two fundamental rules behind the language are: to remove the majority of the words from the English language and replace them with modified versions of other words; and to abbreviate proper nouns and multiple-word phrases and statements, and respell them. The adjective “good,” for example can be modified to express adjectives such as “bad” and “excellent.” These, respectively, would be “ungood,” and “plusgood.” An example of the second rule of Newspeak is “Ingoc,” an abbreviation of “English Socialism.” The general suggestion that Wells and Orwell are making, is that the deterioration of language indicates that past political practices lead to a reduction in general intelligence levels.
An interesting similarity is that the main character in both books stumbles across a female to whom they feel attached. Although the relationships between the Time Traveller and his female, “Weena,” in The Time Machine, and Winston and his female, “Julia,” is different, I believe they serve a similar purpose in the stories. The fact that both couples are eventually tragically parted suggests that in the futures in the books, love is not welcome. In The Time Machine, Wells describes how couples seemed to only exist in order to reproduce, and how nobody expressed any emotional attachment to anybody else. For a very short period, The Time Traveller and Weena show attachment to eachother, but Weena is killed off in a horrific setting, where the Morlocks drag her away while The Time Traveller is asleep.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, although neither Winston nor Julia is killed off, Orwell yet again shocks the reader in ending the two character’s love for each other. After being brainwashed at the Ministry of Love, both characters automatically lose all attachment to each other. Orwell has demonstrated that even Love, is under the power of the government.
I believe that Orwell and Wells are targeting readers who have been or are in love. These readers or Nineteen Eighty-Four may be thinking to themselves, “Ah, but one thing the government cannot control is love!” And then, to the reader’s astonishment, Winston and Julia are no longer lovers. Why? Because the government did not want them to be.
In many cases changes expressed in both books are much more extreme in “The Time Machine” than in “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” For example, in “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” although people have generally become less intelligent, they have not become so to the extent of the races of “The Time Machine;” people can still read, write and speak with great expression and effect, but only to the extent that the Party allows. I believe that this is because Wells is dealing with a much later date, and so can make radical changes and claim that over long periods of time, such changes are possible. Orwell was only writing thirty-five - or so - years into the future, and so modifications cannot be as extreme.
Due to their hidden messages, both books seem to be targeting readers who would be capable of decoding the front-text. The Time Machine also discusses scientific and philosophic matters, which would be difficult to comprehend if the reader is not familiar with that area of science. Nineteen Eighty-Four also requires the reader to be psychologically mature, as it includes some pages that portray sex.
The major difference between the two books is the political philosophies that they are criticising. “Nineteen Eighty-Four” suggests that Orwell disapproves of communism – especially Stalin and his reign of terror - and, obviously, totalitarianism. The general message in the book is that theoretical communism is not possible, and real communism always involves a tyrant. “In The Time Machine,” Wells is targeting capitalism. The Time Traveller states, “…social difference between the capitalist and the labourer was the key to the whole position.” He believed that over time, industrial workers were banished to the underground and evolved to work here.
I think that both books were an excellent read. The authors effectively included powerful messages in an engrossing storyline. The use of satire gave the texts their power. “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is amongst my favourite books, not only because Orwell, being the master satirist that he is, cleverly ridicules Stalin and communism in general, but also because Orwell has a unique style of communicating with the reader. His texts are informal and interesting, allowing him to form tight relationships with the reader.
