1984 Essay

Michaela Grenham Grenham 1

English 10 Honors

March 19, 2009

1984 Essay

Is Winston, a hero, failure, or an average man?

In many novels like Oedipus, A Separate Peace and others, the main characters are shown to have certain qualities. They are heroic, complete failures or an average person. In 1984 Winston has the quality of failure. Winston had all the qualities to stand up against the party but he did not use these to the best of his ability. Winston failed because of his lack of confidence, his loyalty to the party and his mistakes.

Confidence is a great trait to have within a person. In 1984, Winston completely lacks this quality in many ways. Winston is introduced as a 39 year old out of shape man. Winston was always putting himself down because of his size. He shows a perfect example of his lack of confidence when he is with Julia for the first time, “I’m thirty-nine years old. I’ve got a wife that I can’t get rid of. I’ve got varicose veins. I’ve got false teeth” (120). The quote shows how Winston does not have any confidence in himself and how he is so bold with his self consciousness. Another example of Winston’s lack of confidence is when he and Julia are in Mr. Charrington’s shop. Winston says that he is afraid they are going to die: “We are the dead” (134). The small quote shows how Winston is convinced everything he does is bad and he does not know what to believe in. If he just had this quality he would have been a hero.

Grenham 2

Winston says many times that he is going to rebel against the party. It seems very believable at first but he ends up chickening out. The first instance when he says he is going to rebel against the party, “That was above all what he wanted to hear. Not merely the love of one person, but the animal instinct, the simple undiffereniated desire: that was the force that would tear the part apart” (126). The significance of this quote is that Winston actually believes that he is going against the party. The truth is that he lets his loyalty get in the way. Winston’s loyalty comes to show when he is put into 101: “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to her bones. Not me Julia! Not me!” (286). This shows that Winston fell for the Party’s tricks and shows that he falls under what they say. His insecurities made him stay loyal to the Party even after Winston left the Ministry of Love, “He loved Big Brother” (298). Winston said that he wanted to rebel, but he was too much of a coward.

Winston made a lot of mistakes throughout the story. The most known one is telling O’Brien to put the rats on Julia. That was not the only one though. One mistake that Winston and Julia both made is not checking Mr. Charrington’s shop out completely. If they did a careful expecting of the place they would have not gone through the pain and suffering at the Ministry of Love. This happened when they found a telescreen behind the picture: “It was from behind the picture” (221). Another mistake Winston made is going along with all of O’Brien’s demands. If Winston was strong he would have kept his mouth shut and taken the pain as a warrior.

Grenham 3

Winston was not hero. He had so much potential if he set his mind to it. He said he was going to rebel against the party and the only thing he did was go along with it. He betrayed his love, Julia. Winston seemed that he could have an impact of tearing the party apart. The only thing he did was make it stronger. Winston is a wimp. He had the chance to change the party but he let it go and make himself a failure.