Analyse the character of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four. How is he portrayed as an anti-hero and how does this relate to his rebellion in the novel as a whole?

Samantha Margetts

Analyse the character of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

How is he portrayed as an anti-hero and how does

this relate to his rebellion in the novel as a whole?

In the opening chapter of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the reader is given a description of Winston Smith; our “hero” is described as vulnerable, frail, weak and fearful. However, Winston’s function is crucial. As a trickle of his individuality seeps through, there is promise of only failure if he should take any measures to counteract conformity. Winston’s defeat may be implicit in the opening of the book, but he is not yet defeated.

The reader feels sympathy for Winston. Without Winston as a focus, the novel would lose most of its power. Nineteen Eighty-Four is the story of Winston’s revolt against ‘The Party’. The story begins with a description of the slavish life of Oceania’s citizens. The surprise is that Winston lives a very similar life to ours, as today we are fighting a dictatorship regime, with a war, in Iraq. These oppressed people are brainwashed to not even question ‘The Party’ but Winston slowly regains his memory, and he remembers how the capitalist world slowly changed into this robotic society.

Even the language spoken in Oceania prevented people from speaking their minds and almost succeeded in taking away their individuality completely, as Newspeak would turn the people into clones. This is shown when Symes talks about Newspeak, and says,

“Duckspeak, to quack like a duck. It is one of those interesting words that have contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it is abuse; applied to someone you

agree with, it is praise.”

The orthodox people felt guilty about having thoughts or feelings, which shows the complete control Big Brother had. This is illustrated in the way that Winston had to hide his diary from the telescreen. Winston’s first act of rebellion is momentous. To mark the paper was a decisive act. The passage in which he does this reveals the nature of his rebellion. The fact that Winston should want to keep a diary is significant. For Winston to keep track of history is dangerous, and a political act. At his stage, however, Winston’s rebellion is instinctive and personal, an expression of individuality. He was afraid, as he knew the consequences. People were made to think the did not have the right to feel or think individual thoughts, and the fact that they are forced to think in the way Big Brother wanted them to do so. Winston had no chance of overcoming such power, showing Winston could never succeed in a rebellion against such force. Anyone thinking something that the party did not approve of would be committing thought crime. This was a crime punishable by twenty-five years in a forced labour camp or death. This is a particularly terrifying thought as the labour camp was an idea used by Hitler and Stalin who used theses camps during the Second World War, as Orwell and other people living in 1948 experienced. Winston did not know what he was up against. He was far too unquestioning to be a hero, and was naïve and trusting right up until the end, both of the novel and his torture. His unquestioning nature is shown in part3, chapter 3, when O’Brien talks to Winston about ‘the book.’ O’Brien tells Winston he wrote the book at that “it is all nonsense.” Winston still does not question him. It was clear Winston would never succeed when O’Brien was torturing him and said,

“There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting point of you thoughts.”

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“There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting point of you thoughts.”

Apart from his thoughtful nature, Winston's main attribute was his rebelliousness. Winston hates the Party passionately and wants to test the limits of its power; he commits innumerable crimes throughout the novel, ranging from writing "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" in his diary, to having an illegal love affair with Julia, to getting himself secretly indoctrinated into the anti-Party Brotherhood. The effort Winston puts into his attempt to achieve freedom and independence ultimately underscores the Party's devastating power. By the end of the novel, Winston's rebellion is revealed as playing into 's campaign of physical and psychological torture, transforming Winston into a loyal subject of Big Brother.

One reason for Winston's rebellion, and eventual downfall, is his sense of fatalism—his intense paranoia about the Party and his overriding belief that the Party will eventually catch and punish him. As soon as he writes "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" in his diary, Winston is positive that the Thought Police will quickly capture him for committing a thought crime. Thinking that he is helpless to evade his doom, Winston allows himself to take unnecessary risks, such as trusting O'Brien and renting the room above 's shop. Deep down, he knows that these risks will increase his chances of being caught by the Party; he even admits this to O'Brien while in prison. But because he believes that he will be caught no matter what he does, he convinces himself that he must continue to rebel. Winston lives in a world in which legitimate optimism is impossibility; lacking any real hope, he gives himself false hope, fully aware that he is doing so. Critic Jenni Clader writes, “Winston’s awareness is crucial because it articulates and individualizes his rebellion.” To me, this is shown when Winston is reading ‘the book’ in Mr. Charrington’s shop and Julia is asleep. It shows that Winston is on his own in his attempt to rebel. This is highlighted by the fact that we really on see Julia in Part two of the novel.

Winston is a contrast to other characters in the novel. In the opening chapter, we can compare his physical appearance with that of Big Brother. Big Brother is strong and powerful, compared with Winston, frail and powerless. He is also contrasted with O’Brien, who is also of strong physical appearance, and then again with Julia. This is only an ironic preparation for his final defeat. His physical inadequacy is always in evidence.

Another example of Winston as an anti-hero is during the two minute hate, “within thirty seconds, any pretence was always unnecessary.” This shows The Party’s ability to manipulate the worst in human nature, so with this power, the Party is surely undefeatable. If Winston had been allowed to command more respect at the outset his defeat could be seen as heroic. He never thinks in heroic terms. Initially, he wants normality, or something that he thinks was once normal. Mr. Charrington’s room is the attempt to achieve normality.

Orwell often describes Winston’s bodily parts, his varicose ulcer, his entrails and bowel movements. It is often repulsive. This is not the impression of a hero. Winston is relatively old to be a hero and overthrowing the Party. At thirty nine years old, he is somewhat older than one would imagine a hero to be. When we see Winston with Julia, Julia always takes the lead, giving instructions, organizing. This is anti-heroic, for a person younger than him and of the “inferior sex” to be in control. When they are together, Winston has “the sense of his own inferiority heavy upon him.”

During his torture, Winston is referred to as a child. O’Brien calls him a “learner.” O’Brien became a friend to Winston suddenly, showing Winston to be too trusting. “Winston hung to O’Brien like a baby” although he had caused him pain, Winston was still trusting and believing in the Brotherhood. Winston could never be a hero, “He had understood it all, weighed it all, and it made no difference; all was justified by the ultimate purpose.” O’Brien is everything Winston is not, physically and mentally.

George Orwell, a socialist, always wrote about subjects concerning politics. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, we are told of a totalitarian government ruling a vast power. This story shows how the propaganda used to justify the war with Oceania and Eastasia is effectively used to brainwash a whole nation into hatred of another nation. Because Big Brother could control anyone, and anything, as represented so many times, it was clear from the outset that Winston could not overthrow the party and was not to be a hero. Orwell’s predictions of the future are particularly relevant to present day. The dictatorship described is similar to the regime currently in the media in Iraq, as is the war relevant.

Winston, the hero with no heroic qualities, longed only for truth. But living in a social system where privacy does not exist and where holders of unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or killed, there is no hope for him. His brief love affair ends in arrest by the Thought Police and after nine months of torture, he is released, Winston makes his final submission of his own accord. The fact that the period of time is nine months shows the rebirth of Winston after his education, the same length of time a mother carries a baby for. As Winston was reborn, his previous individuality is gone.

We are shown what Winston is reduced to in part 3 of the novel. It is in this section that we see an aspect of torture. O’Brien is pulling Winston’s teeth out. It makes the reader cringe to read it. The reader gets a description of Winston’s physical appearance. He is almost a skeleton. O’Brien tells Winston how much he has been reduced,

“Look at the dirt between your toes. Look at that disgusting running sore on your leg. Do you know you stink like a goat?”

This is not heroic imagery. He is “the last man” according to O’Brien and by the end of the chapter, Winston has realized what a terrible state he is in, and wept. O’Brien even managed to convince Winston that he did it to himself.

Remembering the past is central to Winston’s rebellion, but he seems to be the only one. His role in the novel can be considered in different lights: Is he the hero in his secret battle against Big Brother, or simply a sentimental man with a death wish. Winston lacks the intelligence or physical ability to use his knowledge against the Party. The trust that Winston places in O’Brien and Mr. Charrington leads to his tortured demise. However, it is Winston’s ability to trust that makes him human and heroic in a world built on deceit. No matter how hard Winston tried, in the end,

“Nothing in the world was as bad a physical pain. In the face of pain, there are no heroes, no heroes he thought over and over as he writhed on the floor, clutching uselessly at his disabled left arm.”

1,759 words

Bibliography

Orwell, George, Nineteen Eighty-Four (Penguin, London, 1987)

Calder, Jenni, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four ‘Studies in Literature Series’ (Arnold, London, 1987)

Nineteen Eighty-Four