There’s
no question that every detail of George Orwell’s work has some significance. We
can attest to his intelligence and social commentary in his other famous work, Animal Farm. This especially holds true for
the time that Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place. I believe we briefly touched upon this in
class, but I would like to analyze why he chose this specific date.
All of our other utopian works that involved
the future (which excludes Thomas More’s Utopia,
Unveiling a Parallel by Alice
Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s
Herland) have placed them far into
the future, at least a century. The main narrative in Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward and William Morris’s News from Nowhere both took place over a
century after they were written (1887 and 1890, respectively). Brave New World by Aldous Huxley takes
place over six hundred years in the future (in the year 2540 AD; corresponding
to 632 years after first Model T Ford). They all take place after the current
generation was long dead.
Nineteen
Eighty-Four,
on the other hand, takes place a mere
35 years after it was published. He could have easily placed the novel in the
year 2000, or 2500, or even 3000, and it would still make sense. The idea of
totalitarianism and complete oppression can fit in any period of humanity.
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However, Orwell purposely decided to
place his work less than forty years in the future. Those who read his work
would be alive during the titular time period. To me, that places a sense of
urgency and a sense of imminence.
Whether or not
Orwell was talking about the Soviet Union, he obviously saw an impending fear
in totalitarianism. The horrors of Nazi Germany were unveiling constantly by
this point, since it was only four years after the end of the Second World War.
He had experienced the rise of fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The political
and military rise of the Soviet Union after World War II, matching in strength of
the United States, may have well been a factor in his dating.
So, why did
Orwell place his novel so near in the future? He had experienced the rise of totalitarianism
– is this a reaction, a what-if scenario, if the fascists and Nazis won the
War? Or is it a warning for the present (assuming that his intent was such) about
the future? If so, did this
I would also
like to hear your thoughts on this as well! Of course, there is not a single right answer here. It’s
impossible to truly judge an author’s intent. But let’s see where this discussion
heads…
Someone mention in class that 1984 was a transposition of 1948. Perhaps Orwell was writing about the horrors of his own time. As you pointed out, a tale about totalitarianism fits into any age, so it could be Orwell's own. The uncanny part is that many readers can still see the relevance of the work today.
ReplyDeleteI see your point on making it so close to the time period he wrote it in. Perhaps because information about Nazi Germany was unveiling, he wanted to ensure that the people understood how easy it is to fall prey to corruption by evil, charismatic leaders. Since we as humans are pretty gullible or easily convinced, he wished to bring this flaw to the reader and attempt to make them cautious.
ReplyDeleteI think that Orwell placed his novel so close to the present because he planned to pull exactly zero punches. There's no sense of "this is okay, it's way after your lifetime" in the book. It's more of a "hey, this is coming up, can you stop it?"
ReplyDelete