Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there were still privacy, love, and friendship, and when the members of a family stood by one another without needing to know the reason. – George Orwell 1984. Part 1, Chapter 3. Winston recalls that his mother’s death was tragic – she is a symbol of the human emotions he is trying to hold onto.
She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it out to her. – George Orwell 1984. Part 1, Chapter 6. Winston thinks about Katharine. She wife hated sex, married him to have a child, left him when they were unable to have one. Little wonder that Winston ends up in the arms of the free-spirited Julia.
Sexual intercourse was to be looked on as a slightly disgusting minor operation, like having an enema. – George Orwell 1984. Part 1, Chapter 6. Winston describes Party bid to kill the sex instinct.
No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 1. Winston, after sleeping with Julia. In the world of 1984 sex is an act of outright rebellion against the Party, which forbids pure love and pure lust.
At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 1. The words are on a note handed to Winston by Julia.
The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all around him. She had become a physical necessity. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 4. Winston’s desire for Julia.
When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 3. Julia to Wilson, on why the Party is so keen on restricting and controlling sex.
What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war fever and leader worship. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 3. The inner meaning of the Party’s sexual puritanism, explained by Julia. Since the Party cannot control love and lust, both are forbidden.
The more men you’ve had, the more I love you. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 2. Winston to Julia.
Not merely the love of one person, but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 2. Winston’s thoughts as he makes love to Julia for the first time. The love of one person and being human would tear down the Party.
It was something in your face. I thought I’d take a chance. I’m good at spotting people who don’t belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against THEM. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 2. Julia to Winston on why she gave him the note saying she loved him.
Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter; only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you – that would be the real betrayal. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 7. Winston to Julia. They are talking about what might happen once the Thought Police have arrested them. He believes the Party cannot change his feelings.
If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 7. Winston is remembering his mother here. To him human love is worth the effort despite the fact the Party is trying to destroy it.
Even the one plan that was practicable, suicide, they had no intention of carrying out. To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one’s lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 5. Winston and Julia know their love affair cannot last and they are doomed to die. But although life in Oceania is unbearable, Winston has no intention of taking his life or giving up.
So long as they were actually in this room, they both felt, no harm could come to them. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 5. Winston and Julia meet in a room over Mr. Charrington’s junk-shop to conduct their love affair.
The room was a world, a pocket of the past where extinct animals could walk. – George Orwell 1984. Part 2, Chapter 5. The room Winston and Julia rent and meet to conduct their secret love affair. What they don’t know is their landlord is a member of the Thought Police, who have them under surveillance.
There was nothing left in them except sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother. It was touching to see how they loved him. They begged to be shot quickly, so that they could die while their minds were still clean. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 2. O’Brien to Winston, describing the breaking down of three ‘traitors’.
Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 2. Winston’s torturer O’Brien articulates Big Brother’s ability to strip Winston of his very humanity.
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 2. After Winston is tortured by O’Brien to the point of lunacy and is injected with a drug to relieve the pain, Winston confesses he loves his torturer because he understands Winston. Stockholm syndrome ?
We shall abolish the orgasm. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 3. O’Brien during Winston’s re-education by the Thought Police. One of the most terrifying lines in the Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy – everything. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 3. O’Brien to Winston.
He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark mustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. – George Orwell 1984. Part 3, Chapter 6. Last lines of novel and some of the most heartbreaking lines in literature. One-time rebel Winston looking the telescreen at last succumbs to the Party’s brainwashing and torture and declares his love for Big Brother.