George Orwell and 1984

• The real name: Eric Arthur Blair

• Born in Motihari, Bengal in 1903 to British colonial figures

• Sent to preparatory school in Eastbourne in 1911 where he felt like an outcast

George Orwell (1903-1950)

Education• Humiliating punishments

and rigid adherence to discipline

• Such, such were the joys (1953): pressure to conform to the traditional values of society

• Scolarship and opportunity to go to Eton where he developed his personality

Life abroad• Member of the Indian Imperial Police 1922-1927

• Burmese days (1934): he recorded his experiences

• He returns to England in 1927 and feels sympathy for the oppressed by living among the urban poor

• Down and out in Paris and London (1933): about the institutions for the poor like hostels, prisons, and hospitals

• Keep the aspidistra flying (1936): studies about English values and life

• marriage with Eileen O’Shaughnessy in 1936

• The road to Wigan Pier (1937): about the miners’ life

Wars

• Spanish civil war in 1937: he fought in the ranksof the supporters of the left-wing Loyalists against Fascism

• Homage to Catalonia and Inside the Whale: he stresses the similarity of communists and Fascists

• He joined the BBC in 1941 broadcastingcultural and political programmes to India

• He died of tubercolosis in 1950

Orwell’s interests

• His experiences contributed to his abilityto see his country from the outside and to judge its weakness and strenghts

• Conflict between his middle-class background and his emotional identification with the working class

• Desire to reveal real facts and inform the people about political matters

• Writing has a positive social function

1984

• Written in 1948: a possible ghastly dictatorship set in a hypotethical 1984

• Oceania: a vast totalitarian system including North America, Australia and South Africa

• Big brother: a mysterious leader who controls all the popolation through “telescreens”. He is a combination of Stalin and Hitler

• “Thoughtcrime”and “doublethink”:analogy with Russia and Germany

1984 and Big Brother

• Sense of loss, feeling that beauty and truth and all emotions and values belong to the past

• sex is forbidden and it is only a means for reproduction

• Smith: the commonest English surname;Winston: evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals for sacrifice during the Second World War

• Alienation from society and desire for spiritual and moral integrity: he writes a diary

Winston Smith

“War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength”

• The tone of the book becomes increasinglypessimistic and violent

• Orwell presents a frightening picture of the future

• The party has absolute control of the press, communication and propaganda

• The language and history are controlledin the interests of the state

• Any form of rebellion against the rules is punished with prison and torture

“Power is not a means but an end”

The Endby Andrea Davì