An Analysis of George Orwell’s Anti—Utopian Elements in 1984

【Abstract】1984 is a typical work of dystopian novels in which it portrays a dark and terrible world ruled by totalitarianism， deeply expressing the anti-utopian and anti-totalitarian thoughts of George Orwell. This thesis focuses on studying one typical dystopian element in 1984， that is， the use of language under totalitarianism so as to reveal how it reflects the authors anti-utopian thoughts.

【Key words】George Orwell； 1984； dystopian element

【作者簡介】王娜，東北財經大學碩士研究生。

1. Introduction

The word utopia comes from Greek meaning “no-place”. It was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book Utopia in 1516， describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean which can be regarded as the beginning of Utopian novels. The heyday of the dystopia is in the 20th century， especially the dystopian literature， having a prominent development during this period. Brave New World， written by the British writer Huxley， We， written by the Russian writer Zamyatin and George Orwells 1984 are considered to be “the dystopian trilogy of the 20th century”.

George Orwell is a famous novelist， critic and essayist in the 20th century. His typical work is 1984 in which he makes up a fictional world where the Big Brother and the Party have taken complete control of the society by monitoring the language， the thoughts and the action of all people， which is a great reflection of his anti-utopian thoughts.

2. Language use under totalitarianism

In the novel 1984， in order to deeply disclose Big brothers policy of keeping the people in ignorance and control of peoples thoughts and actions， the author Orwell creates a series of fresh and ironic new words by adaptation and recombination of English words， which is called Newspeak”. It is the official language of Oceania and has been invented to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc. As Orwell said， “the purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc， but to make all other modes of thought impossible （Orwell， 590） .

In the novel， Orwell divides the Newspeak into three classes including the A Vocabulary， the B Vocabulary and the C Vocabulary. First， the A Vocabulary consists of words used in everyday life such as eating， drinking and so on. However， compared with present-day English vocabulary， this kind of word is limited and their meaning is far more defined. All ambiguities and shades of their meaning have been cleared out. They are only used to express simple， purposive thoughts. Next， the B Vocabulary is also called compound words， including the words specially created to meet the political purposes， such as thoughtpolice. If possible， any word with political significance could be classified into the B Vocabulary. And every organization， group， state， etc. are cut down into the familiar shapes and these are usually words with the smallest number of syllables. Like the Records Department in which Winston works is called redep； the Fiction Department is called ficdep. Orwell mentioned in the novel that even in the early decades of the twentieth century， telescoped words and phrases had been one of the characteristic features of political language； and it had been noticed that the tendency to use abbreviations of this kind was most marked in totalitarian countries and totalitarian organizations. Examples were such words as NAZI （納粹）， GESTAPO （蓋世太保）， COMINTERN （共產國際）， AGITPROP （鼓動宣傳） （Orwell， 598）. The C Vocabulary is the complement to the other two types of vocabulary which are totally scientific words.

All in all， the words that can be used in Newspeak are insufficient and on the constant decrease as time goes by since the fewer the words there are， the less thought people would have. By doing this the ruler could achieve their purpose of controlling the thought of the ruled by language. The unification of language promotes the unification of peoples thought which strengthens the rulers totalitarian governance.

3. Conclusion

The emerging dystopian literature in the 20th century occupies an important place in the history of western utopian literature. Therefore， it is of great importance to explore the anti-utopian element in the classic work of dystopian novel 1984. The analysis of the use of language under totalitarianism is an attempt to offer a new perspective for the study of 1984， in the hope that the authors dystopian thoughts can be revealed and interpreted based on the novel. That is， the condemnation of exploitation and oppression from the ruling class and hope for an equal society.

References：

[1]Orwell， George.[M].Shanghai： Shanghai Translation Publishing House，1984，2010，590.