Utilitarianism In 1984

The government is watching you; there is nothing you can do that they will not notice. This is the reality in 1984 by George Orwell. Winston lives in Oceania in 1984 and works for the government; however, he begins to realize that everything the government has taught him is against all moral laws. Winston joins a secret group of rebels called The Brotherhood, the adversary of the Party, where he meets his love, Julia. Winston and Julia’s love is a crime, and so is belonging to The Brotherhood. Winston and Julia are caught. The punishment for thought crime against the government is death. In this novel we can see Winston search for truth and love, and also evaluate the government. In the first two books of the novel, Winston searches for

The new information becomes fact because the Party destroys all evidence of anything that says otherwise, so how is anyone to prove that the facts are false? For example, every year in the Times magazine in Oceania, the Party predicts how much of a certain item will be produced in the coming year. When the numbers finally come back, it is Winston’s job to change the numbers that the Party used as predictions to make the Party look good. When something is replaced, it always has been as it is, because there’s no evidence of it being any different in the past. Oceania is at war with Eurasia and always has been. Eurasia is the enemy and forever has been and forever will be; however, Winston remembers that only a few years before, Oceania was surely at war with Eastasia. Winston cannot prove this however, because the only evidence of the previous war exists in his head; therefore, Eurasia is the enemy and Eastasia is the ally, and that is how it has been forever, since the birth of the three superstates. Since these things show Winston that the government is telling lies, he begins searching for the truth. Winston talks to an old man who

At work, he discovers that a co-worker, Julia, also is against the Ingsoc. It is hard for them to talk, since Big Brother is always watching, but they work out a meeting place outside the city of London to talk, without being heard. Winston and Julia’s relationship is illegal. Relationships of that type cannot happen in the society, the government arranges marriages and sex is strictly for reproduction. Despite this, Winston and Julia develop a very intimate relationship. They see it as an act of rebellion against the Party, which poses the question: are Winston and Julia truly in love? Or is their affair simply lust to be used against the government. After their first meeting, Winston thinks, “Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory… a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act” (Orwell 126). If one looks closer at the etymology of the word “love”, one can see that it comes from the Germanic word “lubhyati”, meaning “desires” (Etymonline.com). This shows that lust and love are more similar than people may be willing to admit. Yet, even if their relationship is purely love at first, it seems to develop into love later on. Winston even thinks at one point that he would want to be married to her. While Winston and Julia were talking once, he muses, “He wished that they were a married couple,” (Orwell 139). Overall, has Winston then succeeded in his search for love? Yes, he began