Situational Irony In 1984 George Orwell

George Orwell’s 1984 is a novel that follows the thoughts and choices of Winston Smith in a dystopian society called Oceania which is located in post apocalyptic Europe. Time and time again—readers are reminded of the dangers and risks of being caught by the Thought Police; therefore, in order to survive, one must always hide their thoughts from the government. However, it was not a surprise, but a matter of time, before the government grabs a hold of Winston for his thoughts or his affair with Julia—a member of the Junior Anti-Sex League—due to his spiraling and repeating curiosity of the Ministry of Love. However, what did cause controversy was the insidiousness and betrayal of O’Brien, whom is a member of the government and who Winston and

From the beginning, it’s clear Winston had his own opinions and beliefs about Oceania. When he was writing in his journal, he wrote “in large neat capitals- ‘DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER’...over and over again, filling half the page.” (Orwell 18). This evidently shows that Winston was against the government; he wished and wanted the government to fall and crumble. He believed the government was wrong, and he knew he and everyone else who lived in Oceania were oppressed. However, after being brutally tortured by O’Brien, Winston breaks and betrays Julia which was his only reason for not caving into what the government wants. Knowing that as long as he loved Julia and didn’t betray her, he’d have at least some part of his humanity intact, yet he is presented with his worst nightmare and begs to be spared and inflict the torment on Julia instead. O’Brien knew he finally broke Winston, so he allowed Winston back into the city. At the end, it’s evident Winston’s perspective of Big Brother changed drastically. He no longer sees the world for what it is; the world is painted differently for him almost as if someone decided to remove a livid, bitter picture of Oceania from his mind and replaced it with a beautiful, divine image of a paradisal embodiment of Oceania. He genuinely believes the government is watching over them and providing safety.

A government that can brainwash its people into believing “two and two make five” (Orwell 277), is a government that will gladly destroy its own citizens if there is a self-benefiting purpose at the end of it all. The Oceanian Government remorselessly wiped out all of Winston’s humanity and personality in a selfish act to conserve its power. At the end, he is brainwashed just like every other person in Oceania who dared defy the government. In the year 1984, Edmond van den Bossche, from The New York Times, published an article called, The Message for Today in Orwell’s ‘1984’, stating, “When [Winston] finally is ''converted'' to believe in and to love Big Brother, another slave is born, another cog is placed in the machinery of the State, the last man in Europe is dead.” “The last man in Europe is dead” is a reference in the novel when Winston claims he is a man, and O’Brien then titles him the only man left that dare speak and think against the government. At that point of the book, O’Brien is speaking with Winston and is trying to convince him that every man who has walked into the Ministry of Love, left brainwashed, loving the government. Then when 1984 comes to a close, Winston is just “another slave” that has learned to believe whatever the government wants him to