1984 Quotes

war is peace, freedom is slavery...

the triadic structure expresses the paradoxical nature Winston inhabits

the past is controlled by the present, the present is controlled by the future

Orwell employs chiasmus to present the cyclical narrative that limits agency

in order to become conscious, the proles must rebel, but to rebel, you must become conscious

the antimetabole expresses the futility of the human experience where one is unable to escape the confining paradigms that strip one of their values and disallows the human necessity of free thinking,

the whole aim of newspeak is to limit the range of thought

a parody of Ogden's basic English to explore the lack of personal and free thinking leading to the loss of agency

to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer

The tricolon's haunting imagery aligns with psychotherapist Carl Jung' theory that the individual will never operate at a higher rate than one of the collective

no longer pure love or lust, everything is mixed with emotions of fear and hatred

the antithesis amplifies the redundancy of not just grammar and language but the human capacity for pure emotion

a political act

metaphor for resistance

coral... fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal

the metaphor of the coral demonstrates provides an unrealistic transitory space

the woman down there had no mind, only strong arms, a fertile belly, and a warm heart

the synecdoche demonstrates how Winston envies the proles' uninhibited physicality, recognising that while he possesses a critical mind

the proles were not human beings

he lacks the unthinking vitality they embody despite the animalising juxtaposition

tormentor, protector, insquisitor, friend

juxtaposition

all history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as many times as needed

in the metaphor, orwell alludes to the eradication of history through the burning of the books in Nazi Germany

alone - free - the human being is always defeated

didactic aphorism

save, make him perfect

o'brien's god-like status

nothing exists outside of human consciousness

philosophical aphorism

humans are infinitely malleable

hyperbole

Party's slogan, superpowers, etc.

orwell's use of the power of three provide emphasis on a sense of totality and completeness