Women In 1984 By George Orwell

George Orwell is known for his societal commentary and, perhaps ahead of their time, opinions on morality through his writing. 1984 is clearly no exception to Orwell’s creativity and almost prophetic style. His cautionary novel portrays notions of women’s roles in society throughout history, and displays their ridiculousness and the contradictions that they pose. First and foremost, there are only two major female characters mentioned by name in this novel, compared to the majorly male-dominated remainder of the character set. Julia, although seemingly a love interest and partner in crime to Winston, is quite literally just the object of his desires. In addition to this, Mrs. Parsons’ responsibilities over and lack of attention from not

(Orwell, 15). Initially, he is so frustrated with not being able to have her that he wishes to be violent towards her, eventually revealing that he “wanted to rape [her] and then murder [her] afterwards.” (Orwell, 152). Although their relationship seems to become sweet and true overall, that notion quickly dissolves when you realize that once rebellion was not a thought anymore, neither was loving Julia. He liked the idea of what her companionship, as a younger woman, and rebelling with her represented, more than he actually liked her as a person. In essence, he enjoyed the journey, the conquest or chase, of trying to win her over, rather than the destination, actually having her. This is still very relevant in the world today, with figures like Andrew Tate, who have ideals about owning and controlling women, are popping up left, right and center. Seeing the large amounts of support and idolization they get online, it can only be concluded that even in the twenty-first century, misogyny thrives, and women are not truly seen as humans, but objects and

Parsons’ very submissive role in her own family is another example of how Orwell’s commentary on female gender roles and expectation, even from nearly a century ago, still holds truth. Even though she is their mother, Mrs. Parsons seems to be almost fearful of her children, finding no companionship in the man-child that is Mr. Parsons, whom she is forced to essentially look after like a third child. She even talks about him as if he were a child, saying “He loves anything like that. He’s ever so good with his hands, Tom is” about him enjoying fixing things around the house. (Orwell, 28). The following is a quote from Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence: “Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not as bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.” It brings about the idea that, although also girls, daughters will be more inclined to respect their father, seeing him as an equal, while they judge their mother for anything and everything, a behavior generally modelled by the husband. Although this comes from a place of internalized misogyny, it is not completely the fault of the daughter. After all, she is just doing whatever she can to survive in a man’s