Nineteen Eighty-Four Essay
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is situated in Oceania which is controlled by Big Brother who is the leader of the Party. It is a totalitarian state where thoughts are illegal. Winston is the main character of the book and despises the Party completely. He soon falls in love with Julia who also hates the Party. But will their hatred against the society they reside in be strong enough to abolish the totalitarian system in Oceania? These two characters contradict each other in several different ways such as they are complete opposites in appearance, they have contrastive thoughts, and they revolt against Big Brother extremely differently.
The first item we can note effortlessly when we read the novel is the physical difference between Winston and Julia. In the first chapter we have a vivid description of Winston when enters the Victory Mansions. “The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way” (Page 3). From this fragment we can conclude that he seems to have health problems, we also learn about his age. Later on we also receive the knowledge that he has a constant cough, he has a thin body and is frail. The obvious differences between Winston and Julia are that Julia is young, energetic, healthy, beautiful and confident. After the couple meets a few times, Julia seems to exert youthfulness into Winston. “The smell of her hair, the taste her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity…” (Page 146). Even though they are physically different they still devoted to one another.
