In 1996, I was studying English and Film at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University). For an English module titled H.G. Wells and Science Fiction, I wrote an essay analysing the psychological impacts of electronic surveillance in George Orwell's 1984. Having recently watched Northern Ballet/Jonathan Watkins' dance adaptation of the novel, I decided to revisit that old essay. I dug it out from a dusty, long-abandoned computer and am sharing it here exactly as I wrote it nearly 30 years ago!
George Orwell wrote a number of documentaries, essays and novels during the 1930s and 1940s, which established him as one of the most important and influential voices of the century. In the late 1940s he wrote two novels attacking totalitarianism, Animal Farm and 1984. These two novels reflect Orwell's lifelong distrust of an autocratic government, regardless of political persuasion. 1984 (1949) is a dystopian novel which sets forth Orwell's fears of an intrusively bureaucratised state of the future.
The novel is set in the state of Oceania, where freedom of thought and action have disappeared. People are under constant surveillance by the Government, which is symbolised as Big Brother, whose posters everywhere warn that "Big Brother is Watching You." The story centres around Winston Smith's attempt to escape the Party's controls and his ultimate defeat at the hands of the police. The importance of Big Brother and the Party's attempts at controlling through surveillance, spying and education is highlighted in the novel's second paragraph - "On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran."
Through the narration which follows and reports on Winston's actions, we are given clues to how Winston functions in relation to those around him and how he differs. Unlike the other characters we encounter, Winston knows that he is unique - in as much as he recalls the past - he has not been successfully "educated" with the new information and is aware of the power and influence the various forms of electronic surveillance and control hold. O’Brien refers to Winston Smith as mentally defective precisely because he can remember.
In general, the purpose of surveillance systems is to monitor events from a remote or secret location for security or crime-control purposes which would not otherwise be possible. However, taken to the extreme as in 1984, it can be seen to pose a threat to individual freedom and privacy, creating what is now generally known as a 'Big Brother' state.
The key psychological effect of surveillance (electronic and otherwise) in 1984 is paranoia which is manifested through the use of telescreens, hidden microphones, the thought police, and dwelling on topics such as conspiracies and spying. Another psychological effect in 1984 brought about by surveillance, but not electronic, is the manifestation of schizophrenia, seen through the notions of reality control and double think. These key messages, methods of surveillance and control are reinforced through repetition. The most important method of surveillance is the telescreen and its importance is confirmed by the word "telescreen" or "screen" being repeated 119 times in the novel. (See appendix for word counts on other key words)
Paranoia can be described as a state of mind characterised by delusions of grandeur or by an unfounded belief that one is being persecuted by others. Those with chronic cases often form rigid belief systems, misinterpret the behaviour of others as confirming their delusional views, and exhibit a great deal of anger and hatred. The notion of paranoia in 1984 is evident in the feeling of imprisonment and persecution. The notion that the self is under constant surveillance externally by the Government and internally by means of self-control and self-denial is summarised by Michael Carter in George Orwell and the Problem of Authentic Existence - "Winston is locked in with his enemy. And it is the assumption that the Other is never absent and always threatening that is fundamental to Smith’s experience of his situation. There is no longer any inside. All places are public places. There is no disguise. The most basic fact about man’s being in the world in 1984 is his feeling of constant exposure."
The telescreen is the piece of electronic surveillance that allows the Government to have control over the Party members. It hurls out propaganda 24 hours a day - from production statistics to military music, loud whistles for wakening people to compulsory morning exercise. The information, in the main, is received subconsciously and can be seen as a method of brainwashing. The telescreen is not just a television, it is two-way - the telescreen also watches and listens to you. It causes change in a person’s behaviour, lifestyle, facial expressions, body language and the way they move. Consequently it effects the state of mind of those being watched. Winston Smith's attitude towards the telescreen is described thus: "He had set his features into an expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen." Winston Smith is both aware of the telescreen's power and how it controls him, but how he attempts to deceive those watching.
The notion of being watched constantly is compounded by the locations of the telescreen - they are located in homes and offices, in bedrooms, kitchens and even the lavatory, as well as outdoors in public squares, shops and cafés. Peter Huber in Orwell’s Revenge sums up this notion of watching thus: "All we know is that Big Brother has the screens, which convey everything. Big Brother is watching, always watching, watching everyone, watching you." It is an ever-present threat - this notion of watching is one of the key methods of control - there does not necessarily have to be anyone there watching you at a particular moment the threat of or possibility of someone watching is enough, as a consequence Winston Smith and other Party members attempt to police their own thoughts and actions.
One of Winston Smith's fears is that they will succeed in making him become like the others - brainwashed to accept the Government’s "truth" and "facts". When Winston Smith is tortured at the Ministry of Love, O'Brien says "You shall be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves." It is this fear that he will succumb to the Government that makes him strive for a simpler life, one without telescreens, microphones, where he does not have to be constantly on the look-out for spies who'll report him to the Thought Police. What he is looking for is the past which he thinks he has found when renting the room above the antique shop. This room, he believes, is one without a telescreen - when he first sees the room he murmurs "There's no telescreen!". In this room he and Julia can be themselves, there is no pretence - they make love, drink black-market coffee and eat black-market food. Julia wears make-up and a dress to make herself feel like a woman. It is this room that Winston brings the Goldstein book from which he reads out loud to Julia. However, we later discover that like everywhere else this room has a telescreen, which although cannot see them, as it was behind a picture, was able to hear them. In addition, the Thought Police arrest them in this room.
The notion of eavesdropping is linked with another form of electronic surveillance, the Government's use of the hidden microphones. This effects Winston and Julia's relationship - when they meet they live in fear of being heard not only by spies but by the hidden microphones. When they meet in public, they talk quietly and quickly in short bursts, never making eye contact or touching. Winston even searches for them when he and Julia meet in the country and is bewildered when he discovers they can talk without being overheard. However, even with their absence they cannot fully escape into the idyll of the country as they are always wary of hidden microphones. Winston Smith, even though enjoying the birds singing, makes note that the hidden microphones could be intruding by picking-up the sound of the bird song: "Perhaps at the other end of the instrument some small beetle-like man was listening intently - listening to that [bird-song]." This constant worry of being observed and/or heard can be seen in the narrator's description of the lives of those in Oceania - "You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except, in darkness, every movement scrutinized."
As every action is being observed through the telescreen, it brings about with it a lack of freedom - its presence tells us that privacy and secrecy are unacceptable. However, Winston has found a corner which is out of range of the telescreen in which he can secretly write his diary. He is deprived of openly expressing his individual thoughts and feelings, and is forced to control them. This, coupled with the Governments attempts to control and monitor language by way of Newspeak, to habituate the mind to the ideology of the State and to make it impossible to find words to express heretical thought, combine to create a people that are unable to think or feel for/as themselves and ensuring that there is no individual thought and that all conform to the Government's ideals. One reason that Winston Smith is "treated" at the Ministry of Love is because he tries to deviate from the required behaviour, and express emotions different from those expected by the Government and his attempts to bring down the Government.
The sinister intrusion of power brought about by the telescreen, the enormous face of Big Brother on posters all over Oceania, the omniscient and omnipotent Thought Police, the requirement to carry out the act of doublethink combine to create an environment where truth and lies are indistinguishable, this all links in with not only the notion of paranoia but also of a schizophrenic - whose symptoms often include delusions, hallucinations, thought disorders, loss of boundaries between the self and non-self, blunted or inappropriate emotional expression, loss of social interests, and deterioration in areas of functioning such as social relations, work, and self‑care. Many of these characteristics can be found in Winston Smith: his violent feelings towards others; his disinterest in participating in club activities; his inability to recall whether memories are real or imagined. Michael Carter in George Orwell and the Problem of Authentic Existence says that "Schizophrenic insanity, then, is a category for those who, like Winston Smith have a version of reality which does not coincide with the orthodox view of it."
The role of Big Brother is to command a passionate emotional commitment from the Party members. It is the Government who controls the way members dress, speak and use their leisure time. It is the combination of psychological and social techniques that causes Winston Smith's desire to bring down Big Brother and all he stands for. The uses of E.S.T., torture and most importantly, sinister mysterious surveillance techniques are more effective than the conventional fear of violent physical actions. Margaret Thaler Singer in an essay entitled Myth: Orwell and the Mind said that "Orwell reasoned that if a government could control all media and communication, meanwhile forcing citizens to speak in a politically‑controlled jargon, this would blunt independent thinking. If thought could be controlled, then rebellious actions against a regime could be prevented."
Smith has unerring trust in what he knows and believes, one which differs greatly from that of the Government, which is why the scenes where he is being tortured to see is he sees four or five fingers are so dreadful to read - it is his commitment to what he believes in that compounds the situation. He is unable to lie, even though his life and sanity depend on it.
Regardless of the strong links between the descriptions of a paranoic and/or schizophrenic and Winston Smith, he has become effected psychologically through external forces. For example the presence and use of the telescreen is real - it is a constant threat. Winston Smith is being persecuted, he is a victim of authority and he is therefore insecure for legitimate reasons. However, the way in which the electronic surveillance affects the way he lives his life, the changes in his mood and character are real and do form part of his psyche, therefore he can be seen to be psychologically effected by the electronic surveillance prevalent in 1984.
Appendix
Word count of key words and phrases regarding surveillance and control in 1984, reprinted from Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest by Peter Huber
Telescreen (or screen) - 119 times
Big Brother - 74 times
Newspeak - 46 times in the main body and 33 in the Appendix
The Thought Police - 39 times
Doublethink - 31 times
Betray - 24 times
Slogan - 19 times
The Spies youth group - 14 times
Thought Crime or Crime Think - 14 times
Spy - 9 times
Watching in the context of snooping - 8 times
Propaganda - 4 times
The three slogans of the Party - War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength - occur 6, 7, and 6 times respectively.
Memory holes - 6 times
Mutability of the past - 3 times
Informers - Twice
Thought Police Helicopters - Once
Ear Trumpets - Once
Snoop - Once
Eavesdropping - Once
Bibliography
Carter, Michael, George Orwell and the Problem of Authentic Existence, Crook Helm Ltd, 1985
Cookman, Linda (ed.), Longman Study Texts - Nineteen Eighty-Four, Longman, 1983
Huber, Peter, Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest, The Free Press 1994
Singer, Margaret Thaler, essay ‘Myth: Orwell and the Mind’, 1996 (on Internet)
Watch the trailer for Jonathan Watkin's production of 1984 for Northern Ballet, available to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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