Winston Smith In George Orwell's 1984

Other than Winston’s weak characteristic and his lack of planning, the main cause that contributes to Winston’s downfall is his indulgence. Winston lacks the ability to control himself from anything addictive in life. This personal flaw makes Winston lost in his cause to the destruction of “Big Brother”. In the novel, Winston constantly drinks and smokes to distract himself instead of focusing on a plan to take down “Big Brother”. Winston’s dream is to have a love affair: “Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated” (Book 2, Chapter 1). His illegal love affair with Julia does no good to his objective of bringing down “Big Brother”. The only result that the love affair accomplishes is Winston’s

Winston Smith, from the novel 1984, is a low status member of the Party who rules over the nation of Oceania. Winston is never alone, even in his

The main character in George Orwell’s 1948 novel, 1984, Winston Smith can be seen as many things. To some, he may be a hero, but to others he is a coward and a fool. Throughout the novel, Winston’s characteristics are explored, and readers are shown the reasoning behind Winston’s twisted mind. It is evident that although Winston thinks he had control over his own mind and body, this is an imagined factor. The world of 1984 is one of a totalitarian society, where no one can be trusted, and no one is safe, Winston being the primary example of one who trusted thoughtlessly.

Winston goes through emotional change throughout 1984 that changes his perspective and personality. At the beginning of the book, Winston is filled with hatred towards the Party. “They’ll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother-” (Orwell, 19). Winston’s fury towards the Party and Big Brother is evident. Through his diary entries, you can definitely tell that he harbors an intense anger towards them. So, it may seem that this trait will never change and make him always fight for it. The reader may at first think that he will never change views. But then, Winston completely changes perspective at the end of the book when he states, “He loved Big Brother.” (Orwell, 298). This keeps Winston from becoming another boring character who refuses to change his opinion which makes for an interesting book and a more complex character.

In the novel, Winston is a character who lacks "hero" traits as he has more traits of an everyman than a hero. Winston is an out of shape, average man with a "varicose ulcer above his right ankle" (3). Considering the typical hero, not only does Winston lack the physical strength, he lacks the mentality as well. Throughout the novel, he consistently talks about "overthrowing the Party," but he never actually does it. Instead of overthrowing the Party, he rebels by purchasing a diary and writing sentences such as "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER" (20) and " I don’t care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck" (21). Winston chooses to write these into his diary as he is too cowardly to say this in public. As time passes, his

Winston also shows determination throughout the novel. For example, when he was caught for having an affair with Julia, he did not give up his beliefs. O’Brien tortured Winston severely for thought crime and for the fact that he was willing to join brotherhood. However, until the very end of his pain Winston still said he hated Big Brother and that he did not like what they were doing. No matter how much pain he went through, Winston stood up for what he believed and he expressed his beliefs. When O’Brien asked

He panics on what to do thinking big brother found out he even puts a little trap as small as a hair just to to find out if someone is spying at him. Something winston wrote in his journal is” to the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free. When men are different from one another and do not live alone- to a time when truth exist and what is done cannot be undone from the ages of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of big brother from the age of doublethink greetings”. He is writing of how things used to be before it all changed with big

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” (part 1, pg 74) this not only foreshadows Winston, how he knew the truth about the party, rebelled, then chose to be ‘unconscious’ again, but also shows how one cannot be enlightened if they choose to be blind. In the first half of the book, Winston, in a way, was ‘free’, free in terms of understanding that the party was wrong. Once the party found out, they didn’t have a choice but to torture Winston into submission, instilling fear in him. This left him with the choice of having knowledge and death, or a twisted form of ‘happiness’ while being ignorant; “The choice of mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better.” (pg.

Even though Winston contributed to committing acts against the government that are quite courageous, it was all in a discrete manner. Instead of engaging in an open revolt, Winston’s sexual escapades with Julia and journal entries were in secrecy and remote locations that were never repeated twice, also in the room provided by Mr.Charrington. I interpreted Winston’s approach to act in confidence from everyone around him out of the fear of the reactions of people during the two minute hate, telescreens, hidden microphones, and brainwashed, spying neighbours outing you at the first open moment to save themselves very cowardice rather than make an open revolt. The open revolt would have spoken actions of a hero, “ordinary people doing whatever they can to change social systems that do not respect human decency, even with the knowledge that they can’t possibly succeed”. Basically even if Winston’s public revolt to get others to go against rather than conform to the Party’s laws and live in fear didn’t succeed, it would have been the effort that counts for what a hero would do to better a country, people, or even the world. The fear Winston felt and had thought of in the back of his mind that he mentioned all kept him regretting the actions he took part in.

The protagonist in Orwell’s 1984 is Winston Smith. In the novel the reader experiences the dangers of a totalitarian world through the eyes of Winston Smith. He, unlike the other citizens of Oceania, is aware of the illusions that the Party, Big Brother, and the Thought Police institute. Winston’s personality is extremely pensive and curious; he is desperate to understand the reasons why the Party exercises absolute power in Oceania. Winston tests the limits of the Party’s power through his secret journal, committing an illegal affair, and being indicted into an Anti-Party Brotherhood. He does all his in hopes to achieve freedom and independence, yet in the end it only leads to physical and psychological torture, transforming him into a loyal subject of Big Brother.

In the novel 1984 by george Orwell, Winston Smith is an anti-hero because he openly challenges society, realizes the corruption of the party, and is ultimately brainwashed at the end to conform to formenity. As the novel began to progress

Despite Winston's passionate hatred for the Party and his desire to test the limits of the Party's power, his capacity to carry out action against the Party is burdened (i.e. lacking positive freedom) by his intense paranoia and overriding belief that he will ultimately suffer scrutiny and brutal torture for the crimes he

The threats and pressures from the totalitarian government he lives under drive Winston to deceive those around him as an act of self-preservation. Early in the novel, Winston pretends to wholeheartedly agree with everyone around him during the Ten Minutes Hate. He yells and screams to give the appearance that he is compliant with the Party’s guidelines and principles, but inwardly he questions the existence of Goldstein and the rebels and wonders if they are truly as evil as the Party claims. Winston can sense that he is different from the others and he does not want to fall into robotic submission, so he uses his contradictory thoughts as a sort of quiet rebellion. He values his individuality and personal

In the beginning of the movie we see a self-doubting and nervous man that does not enjoy living his life. However, he tries to think by himself and writes down his thoughts in a notebook. He writes down thoughts about the society and the government, the things he thinks is wrong or unfair. In the beginning Winston is also suspicious of people. One example of that

     Winston is a miserable member of a society he hates, and is controlled and watched in every area of his life. He has no desire to go on