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Examples Of Free Will In 1984

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The Development of the Theme of Free Will in 1984 "We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will” (Orwell 258). These are O’Brien’s words to Winston as the latter is being held and tortured in the Ministry of Truth. What is free will? By definition, free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate, or the ability to act at one’s own discretion. Does Winston even ever possess free will in the first place? Some critics say no, he never made a free choice. Others say yes, in order for Winston to surrender his free will he must have had free will to begin with. Either way, the idea of free will is an …show more content…

In George Orwell's novel, 1984, the theme of free will is developed throughout the book by the characters' thoughts, actions, and words. The first example of the development of the theme of free will is glimpsed through Winston’s thoughts. In the Party, there is the idea of thoughtcrime, which implies that people can make conscious decisions that are against what the party considers good. Thinking submersive thoughts and even having an improper facial expression can make someone guilty of facecrime and/or thoughtcrime, so keeping emotions in check is crucial in the Party (“1984”). Winston is convinced that his thoughts are his own, and that they are not put into his head by the Party. As evidenced by the following excerpt from the text, Winston demonstrates free will through his thoughts. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows” (Orwell 81). These were Winston’s thoughts as he began to think of rebellion, and these thoughts were written in his diary as if he was speaking to O’Brien. Another example of Winston’s thoughts demonstrating free will comes after he wonders why the Party controls so many aspects of his life and how no one else seems to take

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This quote shows that Winston has always felt guilty of his mother’s death as if he had been the reason she was killed. In other instances in the book it is almost like she is haunting his conscience, constantly appearing in his dreams, “Winston was dreaming of his mother” (page 31). This might be another reason why he was so determined to oppose, an obsession with wanting to avenge his mother. Winston fought hard against the government because he desperately craves to feel real emotion, he wants to experience love, to live knowing he accomplished something, despite knowing deep down the party would not allow accomplishments to survive, as they could erase him from history in the blink of an eye. “‘Does he [Big Brother] exist in the same way I exist?’ / ‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien” (page 272).

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Often, we get to hear that criminals were not out of sound mind when they committed their crimes and might receive lighter punishments for that reason. Winston is not like that. He knows exactly what he is doing and still holds a sense of moral when he commits the thoughtcrime at the beginning of the book when he makes the diary entry. He is aware that thoughtcrime is something despicable in the society he lives in and frightens when someone knocks on the door, thinking the Thought Police is already here to arrest him.

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(9). Winston makes a choice. He is allowed to make choices,

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Winston was never a devoted follower, constantly questioning the world around him. Even when in custody, Winston continued questioning motives and denouncing the Party and Big Brother, despite the futility. He knew no societal changes would result from his actions, but desperately wanted to share his ideas with someone, and since he was already being tortured, he was capable of speaking freely in the jail area. The purpose was to rid him of his rebellious mindset, and to do so, O’Brien needed to know everything Winston honestly thought in order to ‘correct’ it fully. For example, O’Brien forced Winston to recognize that whatever the Party said was true by holding up four fingers and saying there were five, “But there had been a moment- of luminous certainty, where each new suggestion of O’Brien’s had filled up a patch of emptiness and had become absolute truth, and when two and two could have been three as easily five, if that were what was needed (Orwell 258).

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In George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, we follow Winston Smith through the challenges of society controlled by the Party; he echoes a warning not to lose your freedom to a higher power. Orwell accomplishes this with many rhetorical devices found in both the book and the current presidential election. Reality control is used to maintain authority over society. In 1984, while Winston is imprisoned in the Ministry of Love, the party slogan,”Who controls the past controls the future.

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Thus he would intentionally turn his back on it and face the other way, still terrified that his back would give off any indication for the Thought Police to arrest him. A constsitant source of worry and fear that emanated from Winston was that his ideas and actions may be viewed as rebellious, resulting in his arrest. Due to his fear, he believed that anyone could be a spy for the Party; he found it difficult to build relationships and trust in people. Overall, Winston's dread similar to many others, of being arrested acts as a potent tool for the Party to isolate, corrupt, and control its people. The threat of totalitarianism, as well as the repression of individuality and freedom of thought, are all represented by the concept of the Thought Police.

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Winston has an imaginative mind and later in the book he claims that the “power that would one day overturn the world” lies “in the proles”. He feels that the fate of the Party would lie in their hands and “when their time came, the world they constructed would not be just as alien to him” since “at the least it would be a world of sanity” (220). Winston expresses one of his heroic qualities through displaying his vision for the good of

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The sudden jump from the dream state to the real world in which “Physical Jerks” exist as an exercise mandated by the Party is intentional. We are shown two contrasting worlds, one in which Winston wants to exist and one in which he does exist. While Winston exists in a world of Big Brother, the Party, etc. he really wants to be free from it all and deep down he knows it. This is an example of doublethink.

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Actions executed by totalitarian regimes such as the loss of eyes and speech are only the beginning. Furthermore, when Winston becomes more suspicious of the man and his questionable humanity, including his speech, he realizes that “it was not the man’s brain that was speaking, it was his larynx” (55). Using the word “larynx” brings to mind the idea of “think before you speak”. However, no one is actually thinking because the Party has taken the privilege of thinking away from the people in order to exact

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At the beginning of the novel, Winston made it prominent that he dissented Big Brother and his party’s idea. He wrote in his diary, in Book 1 Chapter 1, “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER…” (Orwell 18). This shows that Winston dissented his country’s government and was willing to rebel for he knew deep inside that

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Freedom is when you are able to do what you want, when you want, being worry and trouble free. In George Orwell 's book, 1984, some of the characters, like Winston, do not have freedom due to the fear instilled by the Thought Police. The Thought Police, which are affiliated with The Party, prevent the occurrence of Thoughtcrime, much like the law enforcement system system in the United States. The Party they choose for Winston a career that he might or might not be suited for. He is not even able to pursue a marriage partner that he wants to spend his life with, The Party chooses for him.

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He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” (Orwell 298). The only reason that Winston changed his mind was

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The Party’s approach to life has not always been for everyone, including Winston who frequently gets angry at their actions. In the beginning of the book, Winston says he was writing, “as though by automatic action… DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” (1.1.18). His thoughts and actions toward Big Brother and the Party have become so strong that he is involuntarily writing words against them. Winston also resents the rule that there can be no love in Oceania, and leaps at the chance to break it.

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Throughout 1984, Winston is forced to confront a society which rejects the central tenets of humanity and independent thought, and which presides over society through the dissemination of propaganda. Orwell’s novel explores the dangers of totalitarian government and absolute control and is a prophetic tale of power and control that must be heeded in modern times. Totalitarianism is employed to grant absolute power to the Party and ensure the deference of the

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In 1984, Orwell paints a nightmarish picture of a totalitarian system gone to the absolute extreme. He believed that totalitarianism and the corruption of language were connected and he integrated it into the novel by using language as the ultimate weapon of destruction. Big Brother uses the power of language to oppress, persuade and control the people of Oceania. The official language of Oceania is Newspeak, which the party use to control its subjects and outlaw subversive thoughts.

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