Love In Oceania

5 Pages 1302 Words

Although Winston and Julia claim to have been in love since the moment they met, can anyone living in Oceania ever really be in love? In Chapter five of Book One, Winston speaks with his comrade, Syme, about how newspeak is making the actual thought of love impossible:
In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it… In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness. (Orwell 46-47)
Syme believes that thoughtcrime in the end will be completely unheard of, because it will be impossible to think of views that oppose the party. Using Newspeak phrases such as “doubleplusungood” limits the train of thought to only what is necessary. There are no Newspeak adverbs or adjectives that are unnecessary to describe the essential thought process. Syme also mentions how Newspeak is the only language in which the word count decreases every year. Words such as “love” are removed from the dictionary, and Party members are made to believe that because the words are not in the dictionary, they do not exist. The “love” between the main characters in 1984 is only a mere physical attraction, for in Oceania, love cannot exist; there are no words to describe love, and the characters have either forgotten or had never known what love was.
With the introduction and inclusion of Newspeak in Oceania’s society, Orwell makes the reader understand that in a short time people will not be able to have emotions, because there will be no words in which they can express it. Winston’s comrade, Syme, describes Newspeak as being the only language in which the amount of words decreases as time progresses. This concept is all in direct relation to reality control. If there are no words to express emotion, technically, the human mind can not comprehend feelings they are having. If humans ca...