George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 recounts the journey of Winston Smith, a man struggling to survive under the oppressive dictatorship of the Party in a country called Oceania. The Party yearns for absolute power, and they utilize psychological manipulation techniques to successfully control the minds and bodies of its citizens. The goal of the members of the Party is domination of all facets of life, from society in general down to the individual mind. By writing this novel, Orwell is warning the world that the danger of the desire for power lies in the strength of psychological manipulation. Through eliminating all outlets of opposition from the sociological level to the personal level, including memories, language, emotions, and intelligence, the Party can eradicate any possible source of rebellion.
The people of Oceania are conditioned to repress any significant cultural and historical memories from the past. The Party even has a specific institution, the Ministry of Truth, which specializes in changing history. With the constant alteration of past events, it becomes literally impossible to distinguish between what was real and what was not. Then, the public has no choice but to believe whatever the Party tells them is the truth. Winston believes that the proles, the common working class of Oceania, are the key to rebellion; however, even they cannot conjure up any meaningful memory that would be destructive to the Party. Throughout the novel, Orwell emphasizes the significance of historical and cultural memories because they threaten absolute power; if some memory can be used against the Party to prove that the actions of the Party were wrong or misleading, then that could be detrimental to their regime. For example, Winston finds a photograph that proves the innocence of three former Party leaders. The photograph “was enough to blow the Party to atoms, if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known” (81). If the public could have seen this photograph and realized that the Party had explicitly lied to them, then they would have questioned the motives of the Party and lost their allegiance to them. Furthermore, this skepticism could have eventually sparked rebellion. Therefore, because history and culture are seen as such threatening channels of resistance, the Party needs to quell all memories of everyone in society.
Another outlet of opposition, language, is closed off by the Party through the development of Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Newspeak seeks to repress language through shortening phrases, simplifying words, and eliminating synonyms and antonyms. The old language of Oceania is threatening to the absolute power of the Party because it allows for freedom of speech, creativity, and expression of new ideas. Orwell stresses the importance of language in this novel because without it, resistance is hopeless. According to Syme, who is working on developing the latest Newspeak dictionary, “The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect” (54). He tells Winston, “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it” (53). By creating a language in which one is limited in what he or she can say, it will be impossible to defy the Party. Furthermore, the critical period for language development is at a very young age; if children learn Newspeak during this time, then it will be nearly impossible for them to learn any other language later in life. This will assist the Party in creating future generations of acquiescent and loyal subjects that know no other way of expression of thoughts or ideas. It is necessary that the Party create this strict and simplified language so that they can eliminate another major threat to their dictatorship. Overall, manipulating language is another important psychological technique that is essential in reaching absolute power.
While removing the outlets of memory and language pertain to a more sociological level, the Party also reaches down to control the personal emotions and family relationships of the individual. Family bonds and the emotions that result from these bonds are another threat to the Party. If the citizens of Oceania were allowed to have strong familial relationships, then that could serve as a foundation on which to build resistance movements. Also, the Party desires to divide families; they created the Junior Spies League, which encourages children to report any traitorous acts by their parents or relatives. Through organizations like this, the Party creates mistrust amongst families, decreasing any chance of opposition. The Party also condemns any sexual acts, eradicating any sense of intimacy or connection between people. The Party needs to manipulate all relationships so that people cannot bond; otherwise, opposition may form and become stronger through these bonds. Winston represses memories of childhood trauma, which begin to recur in his dreams. He stifles these memories in order to alleviate the suffering he felt towards the disappearance of his family and the shame he felt for having stolen chocolate from his sister. Suppression of these memories is necessary because they would have allowed Winston to feel emotions towards his family; he could have felt upset, angry, and guilty about their sudden and inexplicable disappearance. Possibly, he would have directed these emotions towards the Party, and blamed them for these traumatic events. This situation poses danger to the rule of the Party, and therefore, they must close off this outlet of opposition through repression of emotions and division of families.
The ultimate form of psychological manipulation through the elimination of outlets of resistance is self-repression. By conditioning citizens to repress their own intelligence and minds, the Party can achieve utter control at a completely personal level. Self-repression requires that the individual restrain his or her logic and reason so that he or she does not question the motives or acts of the Party. Like memory, language, and emotion, Orwell shows that intelligence is a major threat to absolute power. Repressing one’s intelligence “needed also a sort of athleticism of mind, an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors. Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain” (289). Even though it seems ironic that one needs a certain level of flexibility of the mind to reach stupidity, it is a crucial part of the Party’s rules. The citizens need to rid their minds of any knowledge that will threaten the dictatorship; they need to learn to be ignorant. Besides that, they need to force themselves to believe things that go against their logic. If people can self-repress common sense and believe in absurdities, then they can more easily accept the principles of the Party, transforming them into obedient citizens. Through the ideas of self-repression and escalation of stupidity, Orwell proves that psychological manipulation of one’s mind and intellect contributes to absolute power.
Psychological manipulation is a main theme of 1984 that recurs throughout the book. By cutting off all outlets of resistance on all levels, any person or group can attain total power. This strategy shows that the desire for power by anyone can be extremely dangerous to humanity in general. This concept is applicable to the world at large; for example, psychological control techniques are used to indoctrinate prisoners of war. During the Korean War, the Chinese in North Korea utilized such methods to eliminate any resistance from the American prisoners. By psychologically conditioning people through fear and pain, anyone is susceptible to losing his or her human nature. Orwell’s novel serves as a warning against totalitarian regimes, and creates awareness about the effects of their desire for power.
Work Cited
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1949.
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