The dystopian novel ”1984”, written by George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) and published in 1949 by Secker & Warburg ends with the defeat of the protagonist Winston against The Party. Therefore, the following text shall characterize him to answer whether Winston can be seen as a hero or an anti-hero.
To begin, Winston has several heroic traits. Firstly, he is selfless and devoted. He has come to terms with death, using the metaphor ”We are the dead” (pp. 97, 124, 150) multiple times. The metaphor describes how Winston acknowledges he is a Thought Criminal and believes that the consequence of this will be his own death. This is because he sees the power of The Party as absolute, using absolute statements to highlight this thought: ”The consequences of every act are included in the act itself. He wrote: Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death“ (p. 28, ll. 12-14).
Due to this, Winston is also willing to give his own life in order to harm The Party. During the supposed initiation into the Brotherhood with O’Brien he is asked whether he is ”prepared to commit suicide, if and when we order you to do so”, to which he simply answers ”Yes” (p. 122, ll. 6-7).
Secondly, Winston can be described as a hopeful individual. Starting on page 64, he thinks about how the party functions and concludes that the only part of the population able to overthrow the party would be the proles. In his diary, Winston writes: ”If there was hope, […], it lies in the proles“ (p. 64, l. 10). This is a belief Winston continues to hold until the Thought Police incarcerate him.
Additionally, he hopes that O’Brien could be an enemy of The Party: ”Much more it was because of a secretly-held belief – or perhaps not even a belief, merely a hope – that O’Brien’s political orthodoxy was not perfect“ (p. 13, ll. 20-23).
Thirdly, Winston can be seen righteous. He recognizes that the party must be defeated. He actively rebels against the party, owning and writing a diary, which alone is a crime punishable by death: ”His pen had slid voluptuously over the smooth paper, printing in large neat capitals—
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
over and over again, filling half a page” (pp. 19-20, ll. 35-6). The slogan ”DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER” written in capital letters can also be seen as an imitation of the slogan ”BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING”, which the party uses on posters everywhere and uses a similar style.
However, Winston also suffers from unheroic traits. Winston can be seen as a coward, because after writing the aforementioned paragraphs, in his diary, the narrator says: ”He could not help feeling a twinge of panic. It was absurd […]; but for a moment he was tempted to tear out the spoiled pages and abandon the enterprise altogether“ (p. 20, ll. 7-11). This thought is supported by emotive language, using words like ”panic”, ”absurd” and ”spoiled”. Winston may be selfless and devoted at times, but he still fears The Party.
Additionally, Winston may have come to terms with death, but that does not mean that he is unafraid of it. After saying ”We are the dead” for the first time (p. 124, l. 7), he continues with the following explanation: ”Not physically. Six months, a year—five years, conceivably. I am afraid of death. […] But it makes very little difference. So long as human beings stay human, death and life are the same thing” (p. 124, l. 9-13). The metaphor of ”staying human” is not a superficial statement, but rather a denouncement against the mass brainwashing as used by The Party. It supports Winston’s belief in the absolutism of The Party, but also shows his ideological denouncement against it.
- selfishness over selflessness
conclusion:
- antihero ⇒ unheroic traits weigh more
- belief in the parties power
- defeat