Orwell’s 1984

Purpose and Form

 AO3
 Show detailed understanding of the ways in
which writers' choices of form, structure and
language shape meanings
 A Grade:
 AO3 exploration and analysis of key aspects
of form, structure and language with perceptive
evaluation of how they shape meanings
 AO2i: respond with knowledge &
understanding to literary texts of different
types and periods.
 AO5i: Show understanding of the contexts
in which the texts are written and
understood.
 AO5ii: Evaluate the significance of
cultural, historical and other contextual
influences upon literary texts and study.
 ‘Why I Write’
 Aim as a writer has been to make political
writing into an art

‘I write because there is some lie that I

want to expose, some face to which I want
to draw attention, and my initial concern is
to get a hearing’
 Aim to tell the truth, as he saw it, to show up the
lies and contradictions in public attitudes

 Writer’s role as moral conscience

 Sense of the way political systems can suppress

individual thought and emotion and of man’s
inhumanity to man

 Obsessed with the lie- ‘there is no such thing as

objective truth’
 He wishes to expose the inhumanity of
political oppression and the kind of lie on
which that inhumanity can rest

 Choseto set ideas out in literary form-

more convincing

 Exploring these ideas in living form-

testing them against character
 Form
 What type of novel is
1984?

 Why do you think this?

 Form
Combining political purpose with artistic
instinct-
Animal Farm - Animal Fable

1984 - Dystopian Novel /

Scientific Romance
 Definitions
 Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally
perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and
conditions.

 Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in

which oppressive societal control and the illusion
of a perfect society are maintained through
corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or
totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an
exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a
criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or
political system.
 Genre : Dystopia

Dystopia = a perfect society gone wrong

Orwell warns against what could happen

in the future based on the atrocities and
dictators that gained power in WWII

 The rise of totalitarian governments

 The use of science and technology to

regulate or brainwash society

 The distortion off truth through rhetoric

 What Orwell Saw .. .. ..
 Economic depression in the 1930s
 High unemployment
 Shortages of money, housing, and food
 Restrictions on daily life and rations
 The beginning of the Cold War
 Countries east of “iron curtain” were
 communist
 Countries west of it were protected by US
 Types of Dystopian Controls
 Most dystopian works present a world in which oppressive societal control
and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through one or more of
the following types of controls:

 • Corporate control: One or more large corporations control society through

products, advertising, and/or the media. Examples include Minority Report
and Running Man.
 • Bureaucratic control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy
through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent
government officials. Examples in film include Brazil.
 • Technological control: Society is controlled by technology—through
computers, robots, and/or scientific means. Examples include The Matrix,
The Terminator, and I, Robot.
 • Philosophical/religious control: Society is controlled by philosophical or
religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic
government.
 The Dystopian Protagonist

 oftenfeels trapped and is struggling to escape.

questions the existing social and political systems.

 believes or feels that something is terribly wrong

with the society in which he or she lives.

 helpsthe audience recognize the negative

aspects of the dystopian world through his or her
perspective.
 How does this novel connect with our own
society?

What is Orwell’s ultimate message about

 Societal apathy?
 The use of fear?
 Mass manipulation?
 Isolation and individualism?
 Scientific Romance
 Has within it a set of conventions which
allow him to put forward his political
convictions and explore the psychological
developments of a central character

 Political
ideas are humanised
Therefore in 1984 : Form and structure
depend upon one another
 Tables- Homework
Work in pairs- compare/explain the ways in
which the novel fits into each genre
 Comparing the Texts
 Howdoes the purpose, structure
and form of Nineteen Eighty Four’
compare to that of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale?’
 E.g. Novel-dystopian Novel-written
transcript.
 Choices within the novel form/genre present in
the narrative include:

 1. diary entry
 2. dialogue/conversation
 3. reported speech
 4. letter
 5. description
 6. interior monologue