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To What Extent Does Winston Have Control Over His Fate In 1984

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Does Winston Have Control Over His Fate? Throughout 1984, Winston Smith commits many rebellious acts against the party, and while this should mean that Winston has control over his fate, in actuality, he does not. At first glance, it appears that Winston finds few hardships in resisting the party; however, as time progresses, it becomes more and more evident that the party is aware of everything that he is doing. Eventually, it becomes blatant that Winston cannot change society, nor what will happen to others, or to himself. As a result, it is evident that Winston has no control over his fate. Winston’s primary goal is to remove the power of the party, and his method of doing so is to maintain the hate for the party and commit acts that …show more content…

This is shown through O’Brien’s guidance throughout Winston’s years. As mentioned earlier, O’Brien reveals that he had been closely watching Winston for several years and this means that the Thought Police had suspected Winston of treason throughout the entire novel (Orwell 249, 259). Knowing this, O’Brien continues to depict himself as a friendly figure when giving Winston his address or making unnaturally intimate eye contact with Winston, only so that he can entrap him whenever he wants (Orwell, 17, 159). This demonstrates that O’Brien is the one who has absolute control over Winston’s fate, as he could have made Winston conform to the party years earlier, but instead chose to toy with him by acting as a comrade instead. While O’Brien’s ability to choose when Winston is arrested demonstrates his control over Winston’s fate, the act of penetrating his mind does as well. Winston says that his subconscious mind embodies his emotions, and so long as his emotions are impregnable, the party does not have full control (Orwell 166-167). However, as Winston believes in multiple concepts contradictory to the party, such as his love for Julia, and hatred of Big Brother, by forcing Winston to wholeheartedly follow the party, it shows that the party has overruled Winston’s subconscious mind, which was supposedly impregnable. As such, when Winston betrays Julia and says “He loved Big Brother”, it becomes clear that the party has obtained complete control of Winston’s mind (Orwell, 292, 298). This thorough dominance of Winston’s mind depicts that Big Brother runs a totalitarian society with absolute control, and that the outer party members are no longer considered humans. With this, it becomes evident that Winston has no control of what happens to

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