1984: Context (OCR A Level English Literature)

Context

Context should inform, but never dominate, your reading of the text. Any comments on context must consider the significance and influence of the contexts in which the text was written and received. When exploring context for 1984, you should consider primarily the literary context, and then include any other relevant contexts as appropriate to the question. Each of the topics below link directly to the key themes and ideas in 1984:

• Literary context

• Social context

• Historical context

Literary context

When considering a novel’s literary context, it is important to explore the form and genre it is written in, as well as anything the novel might do that defies the expectations of a particular genre. 1984 can be thought of as a piece of dystopian fiction, science fiction or satire. The sections below will explore each of these literary contexts in relation to the novel in more detail.

Dystopian fiction

• In order to comment on distinctive features and trends of their own societies, writers can invent utopias (good or perfect societies) or dystopias (otherwise known as anti-utopias):

  • In a dystopian society, the conditions of human life are bleak, through deprivation, oppression or terror (or all three)

• Dystopian fiction tends to contain many of the same narrative features: 

  • Patriarchal, totalitarian rule

  • An imagined near-future setting

  • Oppression, social control and loss of identity or individuality

  • Surveillance and mistrust

  • The use of censorship, propaganda and indoctrination

  • Desensitisation to violence

• They are almost always allegories:

  • These are stories that comment on and criticise contemporary society or situations to serve as a warning about how things will develop if nothing changes

• In writing 1984, Orwell drew upon two other notable examples of dystopian fiction, which were written between the World Wars:

  • We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• Orwell’s novel envisions a future in which society is oppressed and ruled absolutely by a totalitarian, patriarchal entity:

  • It functions as a warning against the dangers of allowing totalitarian governments to seize control and go unchecked

• It features all of the key characteristics of dystopian fiction, as well as control through language:

  • Language is linked with self-expression and identity

  • The reduction and streamlining of language via Newspeak is a way of narrowing range of thought, further reducing the likelihood of original ideas, questions and potential rebellion

• The citizens of Oceania live in a constant state of fear:

  • Fear of external enemies via the continuous state of supposed war with either Eurasia or Eastasia

  • Fear of the Thought Police and of doing or thinking anything that might result in imprisonment, torture or vaporisation

• The Party is an all-powerful force of oppression and control, destroying individual identity and ensuring the population live in poverty, exhaustion and misery:

  • Dystopian fiction often also explores the effects of oppressive societies on the individual mind

  • Winston’s trouble retrieving and trusting his memories, and his struggles to determine reality from imagination, emphasise how the oppressive regime have influenced not only its people’s physical surroundings but also their mental states

  • In this way, the book comments on the importance of memory in creating a sense of self

  • Winston cannot really remember whether or not life was better, or if he was happier, before the Revolution

• Orwell’s novel is powerful because it imagines a future world that is not so different from the world in which we are living:

  • It warns against a government and society that robs its citizens of their capacity for individual, critical thought and self-expression

  • Children in this society are indoctrinated from birth (consider how this links to Huxley’s Brave New World)

  • The idea of betrayal is interwoven throughout the narrative, making it an intrinsic part of the world of Oceania

• But above all, it is the plausibility of the world of the novel that has the most power:

  • Orwell is suggesting that the power of totalitarianism cannot be overthrown once established, and that democracy is ultimately not bulletproof

Science fiction

• Science fiction as a genre often contains speculation about humanity’s future and the impact of science and technology on society, and is set in an alternate time and place

• 1984 depicts a future civilization that is based on as-yet underdeveloped (at the time of writing) technologies and scientific advancements:

  • However, it does not feature the more fantastical elements of science fiction, such as space travel or highly advanced societies set hundreds of years in the future

• Instead, Orwell’s vision of the future was set in something that looks more like wartime London, with technology and science that do not seem to be a huge leap from the technology at the time:

  • Typewriters have been replaced by dictation machines, and Orwell foretells the rise in popularity of televisions via the medium of telescreens, even turning them into wall-mounted flatscreens

  • This is something that would have seemed very futuristic in Orwell’s day

• Many of Orwell’s technological suggestions have become very familiar to modern-day readers, such as the use of surveillance drones and CCTV:

  • However, Orwell did not anticipate how people would go on to use technology and willingly relinquish privacy via things such as social media

• Orwell did, however, explore the role communication plays in society and the impact it can have on the quality of human life:

  • He examines the implications of manipulating the most basic of humanity’s communication technology (language)

  • He speculates on the implications of how technological advancements would alter this further and be used as a force for further oppression

Satire

• 1984 can also be considered a political satire:

  • Political satire can be defined as a piece of fiction in which the inconsistencies and dangers of political issues or figures are exposed, criticised or ridiculed

• Most obviously, it is a satire on totalitarianism, largely modelled on Soviet communism at the time:

  • Orwell takes the typical features of an authoritarian state and imagines them developed to extremes

  • For example, Big Brother is not just a dictator, he is an omnipresent, immortal entity

  • The Party does not merely spy on its citizens and enforce obedience, it brainwashes them into actively betraying each other

• This enables the reader to more clearly see the effects of totalitarianism and its associated absurdities on society:

  • Even the names of supplies and housing are satirical, as they represent the opposite of what they really are, such as “Victory Gin” and “Victory Mansions”

  • Orwell employs irony in the naming of the Ministry of Truth, which manipulates history; the Ministry of Love, which concerns itself with re-education via torture;  the Ministry of Peace, which presides over war; and the Ministry of Plenty, which governs economic affairs

• However, the novel does most notably lack the humour typically associated with this genre:

  • Instead, Orwell’s fictional world is constructed in order to offer a contrast to, or an exaggeration of, the present society, with the aim of critiquing political and social trends

• Orwell himself considered the book to be a warning in the form of satire:

  • He did not believe that this kind of society would arrive, but that something resembling it could arrive

• To do this, he drew on things that had already happened:

  • For example, “2+2=5” was a real political slogan from the Soviet Union, as a promise to complete the industrialising Five Year Plan in four years

  • Orwell satirised this as an example of how totalitarian regimes suspend reality and create their own realities

Social context

A novel’s social context can be thought of as the social and political environment in which it was written, and the social and political environment in which it is understood. Orwell’s main influences were political and rooted in the time between 1914 to 1945, a period between two world wars linked by a major economic recession.

Social and political influences

• 1984 is a product of an era that encompassed an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism

• Orwell drew on Stalin’s authoritarian rule of the Soviet Union, as well as Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews, to imagine a society that extended already horrific regimes to an exaggerated degree:

  • Big Brother is interpreted to have been modelled on Stalin, and the choice of a Jewish name for Emmanuel Goldstein reflects the Nazi party’s anti-semitic rhetoric and ethnic cleansing policies

  • The rise of Hitler and the scapegoating of the Jews and other “undesirables” had a profound effect on Orwell

  • He realised that mass media was a key factor in Hitler’s rise to power

  • The use of propaganda, parades and telescreens are drawn from Nazi Party public propaganda and its marches and large-scale rallies

• Goldstein is also modelled on the exiled Soviet Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky:

  • Trotsky was an influential politician during the beginning of the Soviet Union, but was expelled from the Communist Party after a power struggle with Stalin

  • This mirrors Goldstein’s character in the book, as he is rumoured to be one of the founders of Oceania, along with Big Brother, but left to found the Brotherhood

• Orwell positioned himself firmly against communism and considered himself to be a “democratic socialist:

  • He wished to see ordinary people in control, and was not comfortable with the communist idea of an intellectual elite taking power on the workers’ behalf

  • The dangers of this are reflected in the fact that the members of the Inner Party have more freedoms than the average citizen, such as being able to turn off their telescreens and live in wealth rather than poverty

• The pessimistic view of the society in 1984 leads the reader to question whether there is potential for opposition to the totalitarian state, or if the book offers only despair:

  • Winston believes that “if there is hope, it lies in the Proles”

  • However, there is little to suggest that any form of organised resistance actually exists

  • Even the Appendix, although written in the past tense, is ambiguous

  • This suggests that Orwell’s novel is positioned firmly as a warning, rather than offering any form of solution

• The Proles make up 85% of the population of this so-called perfect totalitarian state of Oceania:

  • They are not controlled through propaganda, surveillance, fear and threats

  • Instead, they are controlled by deliberate corruption and the turning of a blind eye to vice

  • They are allowed to commit crimes, use drugs, read pornography and tabloid newspapers, gamble, drink and engage in prostitution

  • This seems to suggest a bleakly caricatured view of the working classes and their inability to rise up and take charge

• Today’s reader may view the social context of 1984 as a prophetic exploration of the rise of social media and the internet to collect every gesture, purchase or comment we make online:

  • Media plays a vital role in the way we respond to modern issues in society

Historical context

While background knowledge of the historical context in which a text was written and received is useful, any reference to historical context should be made judiciously and linked carefully to the themes in the novel and the focus of the exam question. Below you will find some comments about historical context relevant to the key themes and ideas in the novel.

• 1984 was published in 1949, and Airstrip One resembles a mixture of post-war London and a communist state:

  • Examples of post-war austerity in Britain are evident throughout the novel, such as the poor quality Victory products and the rationing of chocolate

• Orwell himself was born in 1903, and was heavily influenced by the science fiction writing of H.G. Wells, as well as Aldous Huxley and Yevgeny Zamyatin

• 1984, along with Animal Farm, are political statements presented as dystopian fiction

• He wrote 1984 to serve as a unequivocal warning to his readers that the kind of future presented in the novel should never become reality:

  • He used his writing to express his powerful political feelings, including the principles of democratic socialism

  • He deliberately created a society that resembled societies that existed or had existed during his lifetime

• Orwell’s fiction contained elements of the world around him, such as the wars and struggles he witnessed and the nature of politics

• Orwell was also influenced by his experience in Spain during the Spanish Civil War:

  • During his time there writing articles, he joined the struggle against the Fascist party

• In 1941, Orwell took a position with the BBC as the person in charge of broadcasting to India and Southeast Asia:

  • However, he disliked this as he was essentially in charge of disseminating propaganda to these British colonies

• Many of the ideas in 1984 are based on historic precedent:

  • For example, the idea of thoughtcrime was similar to the USSR’s attempts to quieten and discredit political dissidents by committing them to psychiatric hospitals and “treating” them with psychoactive drugs

  • Stalin also encouraged a secret police to spy on citizens, and for citizens to spy on each other

  • “The Great Purge” was a major period of assassinations of anyone who disagreed with Stalin and the Communist party, similar to 1984’s “vaporisation”

  • The novel’s perpetually warring superstates are reminiscent of the constant threat of nuclear conflict following the Second World War