Essay Sample on Love & Obedience in 1984: Winston & Julia's Struggle Against the Party

Introduction

In George Orwell's dystopia, 1984, the aspect of love and obedience is depicted through the interaction of Winston and Julia. To the Party, love is seen as a form of rebellion; an attack on the Party, therefore, love and obedience can never go hand in hand. Winston and Julia demonstrate the extent the government can go in ensuring that physical and emotional aspects of life are conditioned to suit their totalitarian tendencies. The Party made every effort to crush any form of love between people. Also, without love there is no freedom, and with no freedom, the people become emotionless beings that are incapable of rebellion.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In this dystopian society, the Party believes that love and obedience can never go in tandem as it is considered as a threat to their establishment. The regime led by Big Brother enforces authoritarian rules that govern and controls the life of every citizen; any form of disobedience and disloyalty to the party is met with brutal force. Instructively, the Party dislikes emotions and specifically love between people in society as they believe that emotional attachment is a gateway to love which will put the government in jeopardy. The Party believes that love would breed rebellion which was going to destabilize the Party. In this society, the Party considers power as an end goal; something to cling to, much like a trophy. "Power is not a means; it is an end" (14). They do not see power as a "means" as it is disinterested in using it for the good of the people and it is hell-bent on preventing rebellion against the regime. In the totalitarian regime of the Party, love is seen as a form of rebellion in this society, and the Party enforces strict regulations on love relationships as it believes that the bonding brought on by a sexual relationship would attract disloyalty against the Party. The love affair between Winston and Julia could have flourished if not for the strict regulations set out by the regime. Also, the Party greatly discouraged men and women from forming any form of loyalty that result from sexual relationship. "The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act" (9); from this quote, the removal of all pleasure from sexual relationship meant that any emotional attachment between men and women is crushed so that they can be controlled. The conditioning of their emotional attachment illustrates the regime's oppression of the people in expressing their feelings towards each other through a sexual relationship. "And what he wanted, more even than to be loved, was to break down that wall of virtue, [...]. The sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion". (16) This quote depicts Winston's view on the sexual act as the form of rebellion against the party. The Party believe that their stranglehold on the people would sit in the precipice if rebellion was to be allowed love to gain foothold in the society. However, it can be understood that the aspect of love and emotion is natural for human beings, and might be a way for them to see inhumane treatment, thus proving why it haunts the Party and Big Brother.

The Party goes to great extent to ensure that all citizens are consistently obedient by ascertaining that every movement of the people is closely monitored by use of telescreen. Moreover, the regime distorts history to suit their interest as well as integrates the children of their nation into organizations of junior spies where they can be used by the Party to check on their parents to ensure that they stay loyal to the Party. "People disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, and your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word." (39), this quote explains how disloyal people are dealt with; they are removed from all sources that could ever prove that they even existed, the Party wipes them from the face of the earth so that they could protect themselves from rebellion and more importantly, disobedience. Obedience towards the regime appears to be forced down the throat of the citizens as the use of fear is applied to disorient any feelings of love between men and women. An excellent example of the drastic measures the Party goes to ensure obedience in their society is when Winston and Julia rent a room which they feel is secret and safe, and no form of surveillance is seen, only to later realize that their every movement was in fact monitored by a hidden telescreen, meticulously placed there so that the Party could lure them into a false state of safety, only to catch there-handed. Additionally, the Party distorts the history of the society by burning books and more particularly when it is evident that the facts inherent in history are a potential threat to the regime. "O'Brien was a large, burly man with a thick neck and [...] In spite of the formidable appearance, he had a certain charm of manner."(24), the quote illustrates the friendly nature of O'Brien and how he used his demeanor to manipulate and become close to Winston, through long periods of time, only to subject him and Julia to extreme torture with the goal of making Winston drop his hard-line stance towards the Party and develop an undying love towards Big Brother. Furthermore, the party creates a room called room 101, a room in which they make to subject their people to extreme and inhumane treatment till they get what they want; this is where Julia and Winston were taken to be tortured. The fact that they have a room designated for torture purposes infers that they conduct heinous deeds often, showing once again, the great extents they will go to ensure that people stay obedient.

Without love, people will become mindless and emotionless robots who are incapable of rebelling against the Party. It is evident throughout Winston that without love, people become slaves of the Party, believing in every idea propagated by them. The people in this society are enslaved to believe everything said by the Party, even to the extent when they push the idea that two plus two gives five, hence the statement "freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four" (84), which means that they could only enjoy freedom if they believe everything coming from the Party. Winston's demeanor appears to be stable, and even if he did not meet Julia, his hatred and disobedience towards Big Brother appeared not to decline. This, however changed after he was taken to room 101 where his beliefs and views towards Big Brother morphed into love towards the Party, however, this only happens once Winston and Julia both betray each other after being subjected to torture. "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her. [...]. Not me! Julia! Not me!" (24) The government in its crackdown against the perceived opponents breaks the relationship between Winston and Julia. The fact that the Party was able to make Winston, a man with colossal hatred for the Party, love Big Brother by ruining his relationship with Julia stands to prove that without love, people, like Winston, will become mindless slaves to the Party and Big Brother. The regime is aware of the instability of their government, and to compensate for this, they force their principles down on the people to forestall any form of rebellion and disobedience towards the Party. 'Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him". (16) This statement depicts how mentally stunted and withdrawn the people of Oceania are, to the extent that they cannot be aroused by the female body, something that is natural human instinct. The general statement shows how controlled they are by the Party. The statement "aroused no desire in him", shows how men and women had no recollection of what arousal feels like. Ironically, looking at the Big Brother's face overwhelms them with the feeling of affection and trust. This shows how stifled the people are to the extent of developing trust and love towards the Big Brother's faceless government and not an attractive women's stripped body, proving that without love and relationship, people become mindless followers of the Party, to in brainwashed by Big Brother to revolt against him.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the dystopian novel, 1984, explores how love and obedience influence human interaction and the actions of the regime in dealing with disloyal citizens. The love affair between Winston and Julia is viewed negatively, and the regime intervenes on their relationship after it showed signs of flourishing. The Party makes every effort to destroy any emotional attachment that could breed love as allowing that would offer the possibility to destabilize the Party and its ideals. The regime integrates children in the organization of junior spies so that they can check on the disloyalty of their parents towards the Party. Disobedience towards the regime attracts severe punishment as seen when Winston and Julia are subjected to torture after it becomes apparent that they are disloyal to the Party's doctrines. According to the Party, love is viewed as a form of rebellion and this depicts its absolute disdain towards love. The love between Winston and Julia was the reason behind the torture as the Party is hell-bent on crushing emotions and love in the general populace so that what's left will be emotionless people that are blindly tolerant to the regime ideals with little incentive to destabilize the Party by initiating an uprising.

Reference

Orwell, G. (1990). Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1949. The Complete Novels, 7.