Examples Of Omnipotism In 1984 By George Orwell

The notion of the government being omnipotent alarms people of all ages, recalling Communist years, and various other occurrences of absolutism. George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, encompasses a futuristic totalitarian state under the control of “Big Brother.” Warnings to the Western world delineating possible despotism, remain prominent throughout characters. The protagonist, Winston Smith, works at a propaganda department for the state, labeled the “Ministry of Truth,” where inopportune reports can be discarded down a “memory hole.” Orwell fixates on the concept that under certain governments, the past can be altered or documents rewritten. In 1984, Orwell implies that when a single source attains complete power in a regime, then all …show more content…
Constant monitoring and imposed fear leaves subordinates, members of society, enduring minimal freedoms for inculcated beliefs to prevail. When the enemy in the war changes in the middle of a Hate Week demonstration, all party members who work for the Ministry of Truth are expected to “repair” documentation. On this revision, "In so far as he had time to remember it, he was not troubled by the fact that every word he murmured into the speakwrite, every stroke of his ink pencil, was a deliberate lie" (Orwell 2.9.184). Prior to Winston being brainwashed in the Ministry of Love, he expresses no remorse for fabrication, suggesting a loss of humanity under the basic oppression all party members encounter. However, dehumanization is to be expected in a society which idealizes a single figure, claiming it to be all-knowing and all-powerful. As previously mentioned, literary critic Laurence Porter compares Freudism to Orwell’s sense of totalitarianism, “The role of the powerful father is filled in the protagonist Winston’s imagination by the projected image of Big Brother, toward whom the fictionals hero feels powerful ambivalence. The dehumanizing engulfment of both id and ego by the superego as the final resolution of this ambivalence is suggested…” (Porter 56). The Freudian term superego can be illustrated as a …show more content…
Betrayal and simplistic dislike share numerous qualities in the opinion of the Party, as they both could end with dramatic consequences. Instilled terror results in a lack of independence and sense of ability, “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within the range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself, anything that carried with it a suggestion of abnormality, or having something to hide (Orwell 1.5.62). The people of Oceania do not defend their rights due to a constant fear of possible outcomes. The population remains fixed in a constant habit of wondering “what if,” while fearing the possible result of any and all actions. Literary critic Erika Gottlieb further analyzes the conformities made by Winston in hope of thriving in a world of no personal opinions or rights, “Paradoxically, it is only when Winston undergoes the ‘journey’ to reintegration in the Ministry of Love that he gains the ‘strength’ to be like the masses, while arguably becoming the most ignorant he has been throughout the novel” (Gottlieb 56). This section of Gottlieb’s essay denotes how Winston is deprived of distinctive qualities in order to resemble the remaining indoctrinated population. The prominent issue of conforming to standards is witnessed