Critical Appriciation of the Two Minuets Hate in 1984

Write a critical appreciation of pages 16-18 "in its second... uttering a prayer". How does the two minutes hate contribute to your understanding of the nightmare world in which Winston lives? The two minutes hate is almost a celebration of a cult, a sort of gathering of religious fanatics to honour their ruler, Big Brother. Orwell uses it to show the expressions of anarchy amongst the 'leaping and shouting' people and how this would be their only chance to express their human feelings in the nightmare society in which they are forced to live. Winston's dystopian world is displayed in Orwell's unsympathetic parody of the two minutes silence in commemoration of WWII and epitomises the 'frenzy' of emotions, the terror and violent culture that Winston has to tolerate. His elaborate view of religious or political fanatics scrutinises these kinds of obsessions and demonstrates how it can over-power a person's life. Control is one of the main components of the two minutes hate. The people are helpless, they are 'like that of a landed fish' in the robotic machine that is Big Brother. They cannot escape from 'the voice' that 'continued inexorably' and there is no escapism to be had in the 'frenzy' of voices yelling at the screen. This reflects a nightmare that is inescapable until we awake. Winston longs to awaken in a society capable of love, without suffering, but it seems he

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic utopias that the old reformers imagined." Discuss the anti-utopia that Orwell is portraying with reference to totalitarian regimes.

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic utopias that the old reformers imagined." Discuss the anti-utopia that Orwell is portraying with reference to totalitarian regimes. Hitler, Stalin and Big Brother, tyrants all. Throughout Nineteen-Eighty Four, there are clear similarities between Winston's world and the totalitarian regimes that now form part of our history. However, as O'Brien goes on to explain, there are just as many differences. The concept of a 'utopia' was defined, although not invented, in a sixteenth century essay by Thomas More describing a perfectly ordered world wit complete equality. AS O'Brien expresses, this was the initial aim of the 'old reformers'; indeed, the concept of communism in Russia and China, in its origins, seems closely linked to the principles of Utopia. While O'Brien may simply be referring to More in his dismissal of 'stupid hedonistic utopias,' totalitarian dictators such as Hitler, in principle at least, did have this aim in his quest for the augmentation of the German State. In this respect Big Brother has learnt both from literature and history. As O'Brien states, though the Twentieth Century trend of mass propaganda, dictators such as Hitler and Franco lied to themselves and indeed others with respect to their apparently selfless intentions. He observes

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  • Word count: 613
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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