1984 Foreshadowing Analysis

Throughout Orwell’s dystopian thriller, 1984, the main character, Winston Smith often has prophetic dreams. Orwell uses Winston’ s ability as a sleep psychic to foreshadow major upcoming plot points throughout the book as well as develop characters and reveal shreds of background into the shady pre-Revolution past.. The meaning of these dreams, mainly the foreshadowing dreams, are, more often than not, not immediately clear. Orwell often employs some sort of symbolism to get the point of any particular dream across. Winston has several dreams throughout the novel that an in-depth analysis and a retrospective look on what the dreams mean could prove both interesting and helpful to anyone who may not have picked up on the use of dreams for foreshadowing

When he comes back, they are nowhere to be found. This causes him to believe that he is somehow responsible for their disappearances. The second part of the dream takes place in a location Winston dubbed as “The Golden Country,” a serene meadow that often recurs in Winston’s dreams (Orwell 30). In it he sees Julia, who at this point is still known only as the girl with dark hair. Julia then rips off her clothes in open defiance of the Party and everything it stands for. This part not only foreshadows Winston and Julia’s meet up in the real life Golden Country, it is also symbolic of Winston’s inner desire to crush the party and his lack of interest in the girl after she had removed her clothes displays his suppressed desire for the girl. He is, however, greatly interested in the gesture the girl made as if the gesture itself, in Winston’s eyes, “seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness by a single splendid gesture of the arm” (Orwell 31). Winston has a few other prolific dreams throughout the