Figurative Language In 1984 By George Orwell

In 1984 George Orwell utilizes forceful verbs, words with negative connotation and figures of speech to create an anxious mood. Orwell’s use of evident verbs enforces the mood of anxiety. The verbs “gazed” (3), “hovered” (5), and “scrutinized” (4) all impose the mood of anxiety. The verb “gazed” (3) provokes the feeling of not only being watched but stared at. Orwell does this knowingly, causing a mood of anxiety towards readers because one does not feel at ease when being watched or “gazed” at. The verb “hovered” raises a readers discomfort. When one is being hovered over there is no ease, on the contrary it causes nervousness and anxiety. Being hovered over creates an atmosphere of uneasiness; when one is hovering, they are snooping, they

The word scrutinized means every move, every shift, every blink is being analyzed, not just watched. When everything one does is being analyzed it feels as if one is not able to move freely for fear of doing something wrong, even if one has never done a wrongdoing; increasing the mood of anxiety. Furthermore, Orwell uses words with negative connotations such as “covering” (4), “escape” (3) and “dark eyes” (4) to evoke an anxious mood to the reader. “Covering” contains negative connotation because it means there is something to hide. This raises the levels of anxiety because it means an object is purposely being covered to hide something from onlookers. One is not at ease knowing information is being hidden from them. When one is in constant fear of not being able to see the entire truth one would think to “escape”. “Escape” holds the negative connotation of running away from a

In addition to these contributors to a mood of anxiety, Orwell's use of oxymorons enhances that mood. Oxymorons such as, “bright cold day”(4), “slipped quickly through the glass door”(3) and “sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue” (4).“Bright cold day” is a great example because it shows a contradiction to a bright day. One would think that a bright day would be a nice one but it is stated that it was cold which brings the mood down. It creates an anxious mood because although it would seem like a beautiful day on the surface, beyond that it is cold and windy “little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals” (4), proving that beyond the onlookers view of that beautiful day it was harshly cold shaping the mood to an anxious one. Reason being: One does not feel at ease at being deceived by a pretty picture and finding out it was an illusion made up but in reality its harshly cool. Another example of oxymorons: “slipped quickly through the glass door”. Slipping quickly through a glass door is a contradiction because it is as if the character is trying to get in without being noticed but it is a glass door so it's inevitable that he will be