854 Orwell, George
HeroISm in Nineteen Eighty-Four
Literature abounds with heroic archetypes. There
are the mythological heroes of the Greeks and
Romans, manipulative and domineering, and the
heroes of American folklore such as Davy Crockett,
pure in intent and devoid of self-interest. There are
heroes crippled by their own humanity who must
overcome their deepest failings to succeed. One of
the most common heroic archetypes of literature is
the reluctant hero, a person thrust into a situation
not of his own choosing whose heroism arises when
he is called upon to act, but who would much prefer
to remain a spectator. Winston Smith, the protago-
nist of George Orwell’s cautionary novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four, is one such hero.
Winston Smith tries to be a loyal member of
the Party, the ruling regime that controls Oceania
in Nineteen Eighty-Four, but he is dogged by suspi-
cions of corruption, lies, and rumors of torture. In
his job at the Ministry of Truth, Winston’s job is to
correct the historical record to ensure that the Party
has never been wrong about anything in the past.
The Party says that Oceania is allied with Easta-
sia against Eurasia, but Winston seems to recall a
time when that was not true. He peddles lies from
within the halls of the Ministry of Truth. Under the
omnipotent eye of Big Brother and the omnipresent
telescreens, his actions are constantly monitored,
and his individuality extinguished. Free thought
and romantic relationships have been banned. The
Party has not only criminalized vocal dissension, but
even thoughts against the government have been
outlawed. These laws are enforced by the Thought
Police. The Party has striven to eliminate any words
of rebellion from the language itself and institutes a
new language, Newspeak, which will make it impos-
sible to voice opposition to the Party because those
words will not exist.
Winston begins to covertly rebel against these
Party edicts and societal constraints. He discovers a
diary in the prole district where he can record and
catalogue his illegal political thoughts and his true
feelings about the Party’s oppression. He repeat-
edly writes, “Down with Big Brother,” in his first
entry. Calling for the downfall of the acknowledged
symbol of the Party is the ultimate act of treason
and an unpardonable offense in the eyes of the Party.
Winston fully expects the Thought Police to come
to his door and arrest him at any minute.
Winston’s hatred of the Party continues to fuel
his rebellious actions, but with every heroic act, his
fatalistic nature convinces him that capture, interro-
gation, and torture are inevitable. Winston’s crimes
against the Party escalate in intention and scope.
He starts an illicit affair with Julia, a dark-haired
woman who works in the Fiction Department at the
Ministry of Truth. These two heroes bring different
motivations to their rebellious sexual relationship.
Julia is a person committed to living in the present
and concerned more with her own personal grati-
fication than any large-scale revolution against the
Party. Winston sees his actions as part of a larger
scheme. He yearns to join the anti-Party movement
led by the secret Brotherhood and to read Brother-
hood founder Emmanuel Goldstein’s manifesto. He
wants his rebellion to progress, despite the fact that
he believes the pursuit to be hopeless.
Winston’s rebellion culminates when he is
indoctrinated into the Brotherhood by O’Brien, a
powerful member of the Inner Party who represents
himself to Winston as a leader of the revolutionary
group to trap Winston in an undeniable disloyal
action against the Party. Winston is arrested by
the Thought Police in the room above Mr. Char-
rington’s shop when it is revealed that Charrington
was a member of the Thought Police himself. His
heroic stand against the Party does not stop with his
arrest. He is subjected to brutal torture and isolation
in the “room without darkness.” He clings to his
love for Julia and is determined to codify his hatred
of Big Brother until his death. Winston hopes that
he can die a martyr with dignity, his loathing of the
Party intact. He believes that to be a personal, albeit
small, victory against the oppression of the Party in
Oceania.
Winston carries his pride and his reluctant
heroism into Room 101, but he does not leave
with it. O’Brien straps him into a chair and assures
Winston that “the worst thing in the world” is in
the room. He carries a cage teeming with filthy,
ravenous rats over to Winston and dangles the cage
inches from his face. O’Brien promises to release the
rats and allow them to claw and eat Winston’s face
unless he recants. Faced with his greatest primal fear,