Nineteen eighty-four´s dystopian vision: power and the individual

Abstract

Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is by many known for, and consequently discussed in terms of, its “predictions” of the future, and its political satire. This thesis does not aim at discussing Orwell’s political ambitions, nor the alleged “prophecy” of the novel. Rather, this thesis focuses on and discusses the dystopian nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is characterised by totalitarianism and its power discourse. The novel’s society is emphasised by O’Brien’s statement of “the boot stamping on a human face.” I have used Foucault’s theory on Pastoral power to explain the power discourse of the Party. Furthermore, I have explained the society of Nineteen Eighty-Four by Lois Althusser’s concepts of Ideological State Apparatuses and Repressive State Apparatuses. Goldstein’s Book serves as a handbook for describing and unveiling the blunt mysteries of the novel, and in this thesis works in tandem with Foucault and Althusser to disclose the dystopian qualities of the novel. A major characteristic of Nineteen Eighty-Four is the Telescreen and the omnipresent surveillance, which is similar to Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon as discussed in Foucault’s Birth of the Prison. In this context, I have discussed Nineteen Eighty-Four as a Panoptic society, a society which functions as a disciplinary institution that gathers knowledge, which works reciprocally with power. The Panopticon, totalitarianism and the power discourse of the Party have great effects on the individual. The final aspect of this thesis consequently focuses on the Party’s negation of the individual, and Winston’s struggle to liberate himself and sustain his autonomy in a society devoid of human contact, and where the great masses of individuals are mere automatons shaped by the Party to serve the demise of humanity. In this horrific image of a loss of autonomy, an all-pervading surveillance, and the abuse of power, the warnings Orwell asserted in Nineteen Eighty-Four are growing increasingly nearer as we are entering a world characterised by its escalating discourse of technology, where individuals are alienated from each other by the use of media and an ever-increasing surveilled world after 9/11