1984 Written by George Orwell – Power Tends to Corrupt, Absolute Power Corrupt Absolutely
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“Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupt absolutely”
“A boot stamping on a human face” is O’Brien’s description of power, power is more influence and authority than victory over resistance. In the novel of 1984 written by George Orwell, the idea of ‘Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely’ has been adapted, demonstrated through the character the Big Brother. The author indirectly proposes that power given to the government will ultimately become corrupt and they will attempt to force all to conform to their one set standard. George Orwell portrayed an oppressive totalitarian society through Big Brother’s abuse of power and obliterate the thought of freedom. He abuses his power to keep every individual under surveillance. The whole society is watched and has no privacy in and right to make choice upon themselves. He also uses his power to control and change the language. This destroy any individual thoughts and personal emotions. Big brother also abuses his power by manipulating the past, and controlling historical records. As a result, citizens become willing to believe in whatever the party told them is true. In this essay, I will demonstrate the relation between the concept of “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely” and the novel ‘1984’.
Big brother’s action of keeping every individuals in Oceania under his surveillance demonstrated his absolute of power. The whole society were left with no privacy and no right at all to make decision upon themselves. “It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. …every movement scrutinised.” This quote demonstrate the horror of being watched over by the thought police all the time. There were not even a slightest freedom or privacy exist in this nation. There are no trust build upon, not even their own children. “Child hero” was the term that was generally used-overheard some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the thought police. Throughout the novel, both the tele screen and the thought police were used as a mental torture used to keep society in check with the minimum of effort. The effect of keeping the society under the eye of tele screen is also to limit their movement, language and thoughts. Which ultimately made their minds to believe everything the party told them is true without a second thought. Ultimately, people end up betraying their thoughts through their body language. The author had used this to create the mood of dismal and depressed, everyone has been watched everyday all the time with absolutely no second thought. It feels like everyone in the nation has been working nonstop just like gear wheels in machine, and sending out orders by the Big Brother. Noting was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside you skull. “Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long a he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.” The vivid description of the working conditions of citizens in Oceania clearly suggest the limited freedom, and action that people were allow to take, all the words that people speaks were all closely monitored. Big brother applies extraordinary lengths to denying any notion of individual expression. Citizens cannot express their ides towards the negative side of the party at all, ad even thoughts are controlled because the party can “reeducate” people for an incorrect facial expression. The author described the tele screen as a “metal plaque”, which suggests its dullness and unemotional. Orwell’s descriptions of the society under monitored clearly suggests Big Brother’s corrupt in power, that he is not only aiming on controlling the physically but also mentally.
Big Brother abuses his power by constant manipulating and reshape of language destroys individual thoughts and personal emotions towards others. One quote that demonstrates this is “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.” In this quote, Big brother’s seek to change the language completely that narrows the range of thought although. The author creates a world where language, a word or a sentence, can determine ones life. Its ultimate goal is to wipe out all additional emotions and languages that is not beneficial for the development of the party, however essential for development of human beings. Newspeak force language to become less expressive, the mind is more easily controlled since it promotes a narrowing of thought. If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. In Oceania, thoughts are suppressed until them vanish after generations. The demonstration of oppressive society shown through here is that once language were corrupted, the total physical control as well as psychological manipulation is achieved. “Double think means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and