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Here's an excellent example of exam-style essay writing by Sarah Garland, GCSE English student in year 11.
How does Orwell present power and control in Oceania here and in other places in the novel?
Just prior to this extract, Winston believed himself to be recovering. In a peaceful respite from his previous torture at the hands of O'Brien, we are told that Winston is "growing fatter and stronger every day," and that "he accepted everything" he has been told by the Party. There seems to be hope that if nothing else, Winston will at least escape the Ministry of Love without more torture; indeed, Winston himself goes so far as to hope that, when they eventually and inevitably shoot him, he will be able to "die hating them." He plans to "keep the inner heart inviolate," despite succumbing to the will of the Party in his mind; he still has hopes, despite everything that has happened, of keeping some small amount of power and control over himself.
Then disaster strikes; "Julia," he calls out, "my love, Julia!" With this, he has practically admitted to the Party that he is not completely one of them yet; he understands, having previously been told by O'Brien that the Party are interested "solely in power... pure power," that they will not allow even the smallest heretical thought to continue to exist in his mind. With that cry, Winston and the reader both know that everything has been revealed, that there is no more hope - all because Winston, for one moment, lost control.
The extract is also placed very close to the end of the novel. This gives us the sense that it is the climax, that this is the point of no return for Winston. The constant whispering between unnamed minor characters about Room 101 - "a reference to something called 'room one-oh-one', which he did not understand," "you can take the whole lot of [my family] and cut their throats in front of my eyes and I'll stand by and watch it! But not Room 101!", "You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101." - add to this impression, creating a strong feeling of foreboding and fear in the reader. We do not know what Room 101 is, only that it is something a man would rather have his family slaughtered than enter.
There are two characters involved in this extract: Winston and O'Brien. Of these two, O'Brien is the one who holds all the power. He has total control over Winston; he is matter-of-fact and businesslike about all the horrors he is about to inflict. "[The rats] will leap onto your face and bore straight into it," he tells Winston, who is terrified of rats and who, by contrast, is "insane, a screaming animal." The way in which Orwell has O'Brien behave in this scene is quite disturbing: while Winston is "blind, helpless, mindless" with fear, O'Brien tells him that what he is about to suffer "was a common punishment in Imperial China," and he says this "as didactically as ever." There is absolutely no acknowledgement of Winston's terror; he does not appear to care at all. He is not afraid of the rats; there is no chance that he will have to endure such a punishment as this; he can afford to be calm. It is also quite frightening that he appears to have thought everything out very carefully. His descriptions are emotionless and scientific and, as with the language Orwell employs to describe Room 101, there is little or no imagery at all. Nothing is left to the imagination. The idea that he has enough information about Winston to sit and prepare the worst possible torture for him is terrifying.
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