Stylistic Analysis

of "1984" George Orwell

Stavrova Anastasiya
 Novelist, George Orwell, in his novel,
1984, depicts a dystopian society where
the protagonist wrestles with
oppression and totalitarianism. Orwell
was influenced by totalitarian regimes
of the time, including Hitler’s Nazi
Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Both glorified their perspective leaders
as demi-gods and saviors, which
required destruction of all individuality.
The tone of 1984 is described as
gloomy with a matter-of-fact style.
 The characters negative response to their way of
Winston has committed thought crimes, wrote
living challenges their sense of identity and shapes
unfavorable opinions of Big Brother in a journal,
the meaning of the whole novel by explaining
but he also hid his thoughts from other
how their society is like. Orwell begins his novel by
characters. Earlier on in chapter 5, Winston and
illustrating what’s in the society. One object in the
his comrade, Syme, had a discussion about the
novel is a Big Brother poster with the words
next edition of a Newspeak dictionary.
“BIG…show more content…

How in the future people won’t be able to

understand a conversation like Winston and Syme
are having. Winston has a different opinion from
Symes and says, “ ‘Except--’ began Winston
doubtfully, and he stopped. It had been on the tip
of his tongue to say ‘Except the proles,’ but he
checked himself, not feeling fully certain that this
remark was not in some way unorthodox.”
 This shows Winston holds back what he
actually wants to say because he is scared for
them to find out about his hidden hate for
Big Brother. In the end, Winston does get
caught and the consequences of his lack of
desire to change was to be tortured and
brainwashed. In the last chapter of the novel,
chapter 6, Orwell writes, “Two gin-scented
tears trickled down the sides of his nose.
But it was all right, everything was all right,
the struggle was finished. He had won the
victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.”
Winstons eagerness to rebel, to hate Big
Brother, have been brainwashed. Taken from
him. Showing the theme of totalitarianism,
how not even the thoughts and feelings are
safe within the individual. The government
will have utter control…show more content…
◦ In 1984, literary elements include metaphors, allusion, irony,
foreshadowing, personification, and similes (comparisons that use ''as''
and ''like''). The elements create multiple layers to the narrative and help
the story be more engaging.
◦ A metaphor is a comparison between two dissimilar things where one thing is stated to be the other. This allows a
writer to highlight some similarities between the two.
◦ Quote: "He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear." Explanation: Winston writes in his journal
to get his thoughts out about the party. It's an act of rebellion that could get him arrested by the Thought Police, yet
he must do it in secret and no one can know about it. Thus, the narration says Winston is a ghost, directly comparing
him to something dead and spectral which can be invisiblke to many people.
 ◦ An allusion is a reference to another work
or a real-life subject in order to make a
thematic connection. 1984 is generally
seen as an allegory warning about
communist regimes like the Soviet Union
and the control of media and public
Allusion perception. Just like the Soviets could
make people disappear if they were
believed to be a threat to political
interests, 1984 shows how erasing history
and manipulating perception can create a
population that is willing to do whatever
the government says.
 ◦ Irony is when different elements in a story contradict each
other. For example, the audience might expect one
outcome from an event, but the opposite happens. Another
example of irony would be someone saying one thing and
another character misunderstanding its meaning.
◦ In the novel, one of the biggest ironies in society is the
Party's official slogan: ''WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS
SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.'' The slogan pushes
for the population to hold contradictory thoughts,
something the novel calls "doublethink." In a later chapter,
the narration says the following:
Irony ◦ ''This—although the vast majority of Party members
understand it only in a shallower sense—is the inner
meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE. Winston
stopped reading for a moment. Somewhere in remote
distance a rocket bomb thundered. ''
◦ Winston, the protagonist, reads the slogan as the city is
undergoing rocket attacks. The population, however, reacts
to this situation as though it was a normal part of existence,
as though peace involved the periodic destruction of
sections of the city and the deaths of hundreds.
 ◦ Foreshadowing is when an event that will occur later in a
story is hinted at earlier in the narrative. This can help create
tension as a reader begins to expect a major event but does
not know when it will occur.
◦ One of the major pieces of foreshadowing occurs in Book 2,
Chapter 4 when Winston and Julia are meeting in secret and
Winston spots a rat. He cries out, ''Of all the horrors in the

Foreshadowing world—a rat!'' Winston spends several lines expressing his

extreme distaste of rats. Towards the end of the novel, when
he is being tortured and interrogated in Room 101, his
captors reveal that Room 101 uses every subject's worse
fears against them, and the Party knows that Winston's
worst fear is rats. They place a device on his head which will
release rats to eat his face and, faced with his worst fear
made manifest, Winston betrays Julia and is psychologically
broken. This foreshadowing also reveals that the Party has
been keeping tabs on Winston for years since they knew
such an intimate detail about him.
 ◦ Personification is when a writer gives
human characteristics to a non-human
subject. In 1984, the Party is an
overarching antagonist who has a public
face with the image of Big Brother, but
Personification the Party is also everywhere through the
hidden agents of the Thought Police. At
one point, the narrative states, "If the
Party could thrust its hand into the past
and say this or that event, it never
happened—that, surely, was more
terrifying than mere torture and death."