Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature

The Age of Reason 857

expunged; however, it is insufficient for him to be
converted back for expediency. He must refute his
criminal past, accept the Party, and love Big Brother.
The Party’s impositions of psychological suffering
and manipulation have failed to produce a Party
loyalist in Winston, so O’Brien has no recourse but
to resort to physical pain and torment. Winston is
therefore imprisoned in a “place where there is no
darkness.” O’Brien oversees the extended torture
sessions where Winston is beaten mercilessly. He
tells Winston that torture is the only way to cure
him of his mistaken independent ideology. Still
defiant, Winston continues to hate Big Brother and
remain true to Julia, held captive in the Ministry of
Love as well.
After a brief respite from the torturous pain,
O’Brien takes Winston into the dreaded Room
101, where “the worst thing in the world awaits”
him. This is the final stop for Winston. He believes
he will be killed in this room, but he hopes he will
die still clutching his hatred of Big Brother and his
love for Julia, thereby securing a modest victory over
the ruling Party. He is strapped to a chair. O’Brien
carries a cage filled with bloodthirsty, flesh-eating
rats, Winston’s greatest fear. O’Brien cradles the
cage just inches from Winston’s face, promising to
unleash them and allow them to satisfy their hun-
ger with his flesh. Unable to do more than squirm,
Winston cracks and pleads with O’Brien to torture
Julia instead. He betrays his love in the interest of
self-preservation, but his betrayal is the key to his
freedom. Broken and despondent, he is no longer
regarded as a threat by the Party.
When Winston meets Julia again after their
release, they confess their mutual betrayals of one
another. Julia says to Winston:

And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards,

that it was only a trick and that you just said

it to make them stop and didn’t really mean

it. But that isn’t true. At the time when it

happens you do mean it. You think there’s no

other way of saving yourself and you’re quite

ready to save yourself that way. You want it to

happen to the other person. You don’t give a

damn what they suffer. All you care about is

yourself.

This is the Party’s ultimate victory over the individ-

ual. Even the bonds of love will be discarded when

the prisoner is subjected to physical pain. The Party

controls not only the mind but the body as well, and

control of one leads to control of the other. Psycho-

logical manipulation is enhanced by the prospect of

suffering, torture, and even death. An individual will

ultimately surrender independence by acting in his

or her own best interest.

Suffering is wielded as a control mechanism

in this novel, the supreme weapon of indoctrina-

tion and subjugation. Winston Smith’s torture in

Room 101 has eliminated any rebellious instinct.

He accepts the Party and unapologetically loves Big

Brother. The suffering inflicted upon him in Room

101 has wrought another casualty in the Party’s con-

tinual war of control and its regime of oppression.

Drew McLaughlin

PaiNE, THomaS The Age of Reason

(1794, 1795, 1807)

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was a prominent writer

during the American Revolution who believed

ardently that “common” men—not monarchs—held

the right to rule their lives. In his essay “The Age of

Reason,” Paine takes his revolutionary ideas regard-

ing politics and applies them to religion. Just as he

does not believe that a single individual should be

able to dictate the masses’ governmental structure,

he also does not believe that one man, such as a pope

or a king, should exercise arbitrary authority over a

specific religion’s followers.

Because of his open criticism of Christianity in

The Age of Reason, Paine was often accused of being

an atheist. In fact, his popularity in America waned

drastically after the pamphlet’s publication. Many

American citizens viewed his criticism of organized

religion as a direct attack on spiritual tenets they

regarded as integral parts of their society, and thus

they were severely offended.

However, for a clear reading of Paine’s essay, it is

important to note that he was a deist, not an atheist.

Deists believe that one supreme God created the

universe and that religious truths can be gleaned

through the use of reason and through a constant

scrutiny of their surrounding natural world. Unlike