Transcript Book 2 Chapter 6 and 7

George Orwell
Victoriya Petrovych
Character Analysis

Winston Smith –

As is typical of the entire novel, Winston is the protagonist in these two chapters. There
were many examples of indirect characterization concerning Winston in these two
chapters; some of which being:

“He knew that sooner or later he would obey O’Brien’s summons. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps after a
long delay – he was not certain.”
This is the author’s way of allowing us a glimpse into Winston’s inner thoughts and feelings.
This shows us that Winston has already made his decision, and that he had made the decision to
follow O’Brien’s summons, if they ever came, a long time ago.

“Winston had woken up with his eyes full of tears.”
I think Orwell meant for this to show the reader Winston’s vulnerability to his emotions through
his actions. Also, I believe that he wanted us to see how Winston reacts to some of the more
traumatic events of his past. We see that Winston not only fears and respects the past, but he is
also heavily susceptible to its influences toward his life.
 Winston is a dynamic character in the novel because in the end, after all the
torture he endured after being caught by the Thought Police, he finally learns to
love Big Brother and see everything through the Party’s point of view.
Character Analysis

Julia –

Because of the point of view in which the book is written, all of the information we have
on Julia is indirect characterization. Some examples are:

“I expect you were a beastly little swine in those days,” she said indistinctly. “All children are swine.”
Orwell lets us hear the character speak. Through this phrase Julia reveals some of her
personal opinions and feelings toward a subject, letting the reader understand her a little bit
better.

“From her breathing it was evident that she was going off to sleep again.”
This statement lets us see, from her actions that Julia doesn’t really care about the story
Winston was trying to tell her. This is only reinforcing the idea that she doesn’t care about the
past.
 Julia seems to be a more static character throughout the story than Winston is.
However, we don’t really know for sure since Orwell’s style of writing only gives us
insight into Winston’s mind. We can only gather the things we know about her
through her actions and the things she says.
Character Analysis

O’Brien –

At this point, the reader isn’t quite sure whether O’Brien is a part of the rebellion and
therefore on Winston’s side, or whether he’s a member of the Thought Police and is only
trying to trap him. O’Brien, in this chapter, is also mostly described through indirect
characterization.

“But you write it very elegantly,” said O’Brien. “That is not only my own opinion. I was talking recently
to a friend of yours who is certainly an expert. Has name has slipped my memory for the moment.”
Here O’Brien speaks about Syme, who is an unperson. This, to Winston, is a very clear
sign that O’Brien is on his side. He is rebelling against Big Brother by referencing someone who,
by Party standards, does not exist and has never existed. Because of the way Winston perceives
O’Brien’s signal, the reader is led to lean toward O’Brien being a part of the rebellion.

“Somewhat absent-mindedly O’Brien felt two of his pockets and then produced a small leathercovered notebook and a gold ink pencil. Immediately beneath the telescreen, in such a position that
anyone who was watching at the other end of the instrument could read what he was writing, he
scribbled an address, tore out the page, and handed it to Winston.”
The author of the novel is showing, through his actions that O’Brien is clearly trying to
communicate something to Winston. Orwell is showing something that is completely out of the
norm for Party members. He is showing O’Brien’s deviation from what is socially acceptable at
the time.
Character Analysis

Winston’s Mother
Because of the dream Winston had, his mother plays a big role in this part of the story.
She is described entirely as how Winston perceived her, and so everything we know
about her is, again, through indirect characterization.

“When his father disappeared, his mother did not show any surprise or any violent grief, but a sudden
change came over her. … Her large shapely body seemed to relapse naturally into stillness.”
The reader sees, through Winston’s eyes, how his mother if affected by the leaving of his father.
Through his mother’s actions we see that she is devoid of spirit and hope. It is also stated that
she is waiting for something that is inevitable in coming.

Winston’s Sister
Information about Winston’s sister is scattered throughout his recollection of the dream
he had.
We learn that she is very young, probably two or three, and starving. Winston describes her
to look like a monkey because of how thin she is. We also know that she is very sickly.
Newspeak/Vocabulary

Unperson
A member of the Party who had been vaporized. An unperson is someone who, by Party
standards, did not exist and had never existed as every trace of their existence was erased from
history.


Telescreen
A telescreen is an instrument that was used to keep watch over the people of Oceania. They are
two-way screens that are stationed around the city.


“But Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson.”
“They were standing in front of a telescreen.”
Thoughtcrime
The principle of the government of Oceania that states, “if you have thought about the crime, you
have already committed it.”

“By sharing a small act of thoughtcrime he had turned the two of them into accomplices.”
Newspeak/Vocabulary

Fender
(n.) a low metal guard before an open fireplace, to keep back falling coals.


Sordid
(adj.) meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary


“There was a gas ring in the fender, and a shelf where food was kept, and on the landing outside
there was a brown earthenware sink, common to several rooms.”
“Above all he remembered the continuous hunger, and the fierce sordid battles at mealtimes.”
Pathos –

(n.) the quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature, music, speech, or other forms
of expression, of evoking a feeling of pity or compassion.

“…or he would attempt a sniveling note of pathos in his efforts to get more than his share.”
Newspeak/Vocabulary

Remonstrate
(v.) to say or plead in protest, objection, or disapproval. [remonstrance (n.)]

“There was a long, nagging argument that went round and round, with shouts, whines, tears,
remonstrances, bargainings.
Literary Elements

Point of View


George Orwell writes this novel in a third-person limited point of view. Therefore the
narrator is an outsider who sees into the mind of only one of the characters.
Conflict

Man versus Society

In a man versus society conflict, the customs and values by which everyone is living are
being challenged. Winston is living in a society in which everyone is scared of their own
shadows. The government and Big Brother seem to be all-powerful and practically
omniscient. This is taken so far as to believe in the principle of thoughtcrime. And in the midst
of this, Winston is one the few people who is thinking differently. He is concealing only his
thoughts at first, but then he has an illicit relationship with Julia.
Literary Elements
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Foreshadowing

In this section, there is a great example of foreshadowing. After Winston talk to O’Brien about
the Newspeak Dictionary and O’Brien gives him his address, Winston is thinking about when
he would answer O’Brien’s summons. The passage states:

“But it was frightening; or, more exactly, it was like a foretaste of death, like being a little less
alive. Even while he was speaking to O’Brien, when the meaning of the words had sunk in, a
chilly shuddering feeling had taken possession of his body. He had the sensation of stepping into
the dampness of a grave, and it was not much better because he had always known that the
grave was there waiting for him.”
This is one of the most obvious examples of foreshadowing in the entire novel. The fact that
Winston feels as if he is “stepping into his own grave” foreshadows him literally choosing his
own death right then and there when he agreed to accept O’Brien’s address, and when he
chose to rebel against the Party. And the fact that he had known that “the grave” was there
waiting for him signifies his feelings later in the novel that he always knew what was ahead,
he was only loathe to admit it to himself.
Literary Elements
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Irony

At the end of chapter seven when Winston and Julia are discussing that although the
government may capture them and torture them into confessing everything they did and
some things they didn’t do, both Winston and Julia believe that the government cannot take
away or change their feelings and their love toward one another.

This turns into Irony of a Situation when after Julia and Winston are captured and tortured
they really don’t feel anything for one another any longer. We find out later that they very
obviously underestimated the control of the Party over the human mind.
Tone

The entire novel is saturated with an undertone of pessimism, despair, misery and the
inevitability of getting captured. This is demonstrated when Winston thinks about “stepping
into his own grave”, and later when he and Julia are discussing what’s going to happen and
what they should do to avoid getting caught. The words are nothing but hollow shells,
because they both know that neither one is going to be able to go to a life of mediocre
obedience and looking over their shoulder to make sure that the Thought Police didn’t catch
a random twitch of their faces.
Literary Elements
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Symbolism


The paperweight makes another symbolic reappearance in chapter seven. When Winston
wakes up from his dream, he describes it as having taken place inside the paperweight.
Winston sees the paperweight as a symbol of the past, and that little piece of coral,
something from the past, is preserved forever. He feels the same way about the dream he
had. The dream brings back to him a memory that had been hidden by his subconscious for
years. He feels that his memories are preserved indefinitely and that whatever the Party
does, they won’t be able to take it away from him.
Simile

“She did that was needed – cooked, washed, mended, made the bed, swept the floor, dusted
the mantelpiece – always very slowly and with a curious lack or superfluous motion, like an
artist’s lay-figure moving of its own accord.”

The pace at which Winston’s mother moved is being compared to an artist’s lay-figure.
Discussion Questions
1.
•
What was the significance of O’Brien referencing Syme in his conversation
with Winston?
Winston took it as a sign from O’Brien that he, too, was rebelling against the Party.
O’Brien referencing Syme could have ended in death, since any identifiable reference
to an unperson had fatal consequences. This proved to Winston that O’Brien was like
him in the sense that he was willing to rebel against the party.
Discussion Questions
2.
•
How and why did Winston compare the movement of his mother’s arm to the
movement of the arm of the Jewish woman?
Both women made a sweeping motion as if to protect their children from something that
they couldn’t really be protected from. He compared them because his mother had
sheltered his sister that way when Winston stole her share of the chocolate. She
cradling gesture was not going to help her get the chocolate back, but she did the only
thing she could do, which was to distribute love in the chocolate’s place. The same way
the Jewish woman’s arms wrapped around her child were not going to prevent the child
being killed, but the mother could give off love and a sense of security, if even for a
moment.
Discussion Questions
3.
Why did Winston feel that the proletarians were human while the Party members
weren’t?
•
He believed this because the proles still lived under the same conditions as he
remembers living a long time ago. They weren’t loyal to a party or a country or even an
idea, they were loyal to each other. They still had the primitive emotions that all Party
members had been stripped of since birth. Winston recalls himself kicking a severed
human hand into the gutter, and this really reinforces his newfound idea.
Discussion Questions
4.
Why does Winston make the hollow suggestion that he and Julia should walk out
of the flat and never seen each other again?
•
He believes that Julia could still live out a normal life. He says that she is young and
innocent looking and that she could still live out fifty more years. He realizes that even if
they spend a few months or even a year together, they’re still going to get caught
eventually and when they do, Julia’s life might as well be over. He asks her why she
isn’t leaving because he cares for her, so he wants her to be safe and alive.
Discussion Questions
5.
•
Why did Julia and Winston so naively believe that they could never betray each
other, even if they got caught?
Winston told Julia that there was no way that they could not betray each other under
torture, and Julia presented the idea that the confession of facts wasn’t really betrayal.
They believed that only feelings mattered. They believed that although the Party or the
Thought Police could make you say anything, they could never make you believe it.
Winston, at the very end of the chapter thought to himself, “They could lay bare in the
utmost detail everything that you had done or though; but the inner heart, whose
workings were mysterious even to yourselves, remained impregnable.”
Chapter Six Summary
In this short, yet significant, chapter O’Brien finally makes contact with Winston.
They meet briefly in a hallway in the Ministry of Truth where O’Brien and
Winston engage in a seemingly harmless conversation about the Tenth Edition
of the Newspeak dictionary. However, during their conversation O’Brien
references Syme, an unperson. To make an identifiable reference to an
unperson could have fatal consequences. Winston took this as a
sign that O’Brien was also a part of the rebellion. As if to fortify Winston’s
suspicions, O’Brien gives Winston his address to come pick up the copy of the
dictionary. Winston realizes later that the path he has chosen will ultimately lead
him to his death at the Ministry of Love, but he does not regret making the
decisions that led him down this path.
Chapter Six Analysis

The exchange that happened between O’Brien and Winston is easily the
most important event that has ever happened to Winston. Despite Winston’s
belief that O’Brien is part of the rebellion, I, as the reader, was a little
suspicious of whether he was really against the party of it he was a member
of the Thought Police trying trap Winston into getting caught. The fact that
O’Brien references Syme is a sign to Winston. Immediately he knows that
O’Brien is not just making subtle chatter. Later when he gives his address to
Winston, he thinks he knows that O’Brien is a part of the Brotherhood and
that he is finally getting somewhere near the edges of it.
Chapter Seven Summary

Winston wakes up crying with Julia next to him in the little room above Mr.
Charrington’s shop. He had woken up from a dream that had brought back
memories of his mother, father and sister. Until that moment he had believed that
he killed his mother. He suddenly remembers some of his childhood. He
remembers how his mother had lost all spirit and energy when his father left. He
also remember hiding in air-raid shelters with his family. Something that really
seem sot be important to him was the lack of food at the time. He describes
digging through dumpsters for any scrap of food available. He recalls that he had
single-handedly starved his family. When there was food, he would demand a
larger share. He then remembers one particular instance when they had received
a two ounce ration of chocolate. He stole the chocolate from his sister and ran
away. When he came back his family was gone. He also thinks about the proles
and he starts to think of himself inhuman because of their humane way of life.
Winston and Julia also discuss the fact that sooner or later they are going to be
captured. The topic of betrayal comes up and Julia tells Winston that no matter
what the Party does, or how horribly they will be tortured they can never change
their feelings, even if they revealed facts. They thought they wouldn’t be able to
change the working of their inner hearts even if they wanted to.
Chapter Seven Analysis

Winston’s dream brings about a surge of memory which allows him to see what
his life was like before Big Brother’s reign. It wasn’t good, and he realizes that it
wasn’t easy, but at the same time he remembers the compassion his mother felt
toward him and toward his sister. He also remembers what his mother was like
after his father left. All of this causes him to see that the party has turned people
inhuman. He remembers the severed human hand that he kicked into the gutter
as a symbol of how little human life means to him, especially the proles. He hates
the Party even more for making him and everyone around him so emotionless.
He and Julia then talk about getting captured, and Winston realizes that he’s not
like the rest of the Party members and that although the government can torture
him until he admits to anything, he will never actually have to believe something
he doesn’t. He still thinks that the Thought Police and the Party can’t alter human
feelings and emotions. He will find out otherwise in later chapters…