1984 Chapter 10
1984
Chapter 10
Two and Two Make Five
He is lying on a bed and he cannot move. There is a strong light in his face. The damage to his elbow was only the start of it. Five or six men in black uniforms hit him with sticks or iron bars, kicked him with their boots…
He cannot remember how many times they hit him or how long this punishment lasted. Sometimes he tells them what they want to know before they even touch him. Other times they hit him again and again before he says a word. And all this was just the start - the first stage of questioning that everyone in the cells of the Ministry of Love has to suffer.
Later the questioners are not guards but Party men in suits who ask him questions for ten to twelve hours before they let him sleep. They make sure he is not comfortable and is in slight pain. They make a fool of him, make him cry.
Sometimes they say they will call the guards and their sticks again. Other times they call him "Comrade" and ask him in the name of Big Brother to say he is sorry.
He tells them he is responsible for every imaginable crime. He says he is an Eastasian spy. He says he murdered his wife, although they know very well she is still alive. He says he knows Goldstein…
He does not remember when the questions stopped. There is a time when everything is black and then he is in this room, lying on this bed, unable to move. O'Brien is looking down at him. His hand is on a machine."I told you," says O'Brien, "that if we met again it would be here."
“Yes," says Winston.
O'Brien's hand touches a lever on the machine and a wave of pain passes through Winston's body.
"That was forty," says O'Brien. "The numbers on the dial of this machine go up to a hundred. Please remember that I can make you feel a lot of pain at any time. If you lie, if you don't answer the question or even if you answer with less than your usual intelligence, you will feel pain. Do you understand that?"
"Yes," says Winston.
"Do you remember," O'Brien continues, "writing in your diary, ‘Freedom is the freedom to say that two and two make four’?"
"Yes," says Winston.
O'Brien holds up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and four fingers pointing forward.
"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"
"Four."
"And if the Party says that it is not four but five - then how many?"
“Four."
The word ends in a shout of pain. The dial on the machine shows fifty-five. Winston cannot stop himself from crying. O'Brien touches the lever, moving it just a little, and the pain grows slightly less.
"How many fingers, Winston?"
"Four."
O'Brien moves the lever and the dial shows sixty. "How many fingers, Winston?"
"Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!"
The fingers swim in front of his eyes, unclear, but still four, four of them.
"How many fingers, Winston?"
"Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you continue? Four! Four!"
"How many fingers, Winston?"
"Five! Five! Five!"
"No, Winston. That's no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?"
"Four! Five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!"
Suddenly he is sitting up with O'Brien's arm around his shoulders. He feels very cold and shakes uncontrollably. O'Brien holds him like a baby and he feels much better. He feels that the pain is something that comes from outside, and that O'Brien will save him from it.
"You are a slow learner, Winston," says O'Brien gently.
"How can I help it?" cries Winston, through his tears. "How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them. You must try harder."
He puts Winston back down on the bed. "Again," he says.
The pain flames through Winston's body. The dial is at seventy, then seventy-five. He has shut his eyes this time. He knows that the fingers are still there, and still four. He has to stay alive until the pain is over. He does not notice whether he is crying out or not. The pain grows less again. He opens his eyes.
"How many fingers, Winston?"
"Four. I would see five if I could. I am trying to see five."
"Which do you wish: to make me believe that you see five, or really to see them?"
"Really to see them."
"Again," says O'Brien.
Perhaps the machine is at eighty - ninety. Winston can only remember now and again why the pain is happening. In front of his eyes a forest of fingers seem to be moving in a kind of dance. He is trying to count them, he cannot remember why. He knows only that it is impossible to count them and this is because four is in some strange way the same as five. He shuts his eyes again.
"How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"
"I don't know. I don't know. You will kill me if you do that again. Four, five, six - I honestly don't know."
"Better," says O'Brien.
Winston wants to reach out his hand and touch O'Brien's arm, but he cannot move. The old feeling about him comes back. It does not matter if O'Brien is a friend or an enemy. O'Brien is a person he can talk to. Perhaps people do not want to be loved as much as understood. O'Brien has caused him unbelievable pain and soon will probably kill him. It makes no difference. They share the same experiences; there is a place where they can meet and talk. O'Brien is looking down at him with a look that suggests he feels the same thing. When he speaks, it is like talking to a friend.
"Do you know where you are, Winston?" he says.
"I don't know. I can guess. In the Ministry of Love."
"Do you know how long you have been here?"
"I don't know. Days, weeks, months - I think it is months."
"And why do you think we bring people to this place?"
"To make them tell you about their crimes."
"No, that is not the reason."
"To punish them."
"No!" shouts O'Brien. His face and voice are angry. "No! Not just to hear about your crimes. Not just to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To make you better. Your crimes do not interest us. Your actions do not interest us. We are interested in your thoughts. We do not destroy our enemies, we change them. We change their thoughts. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Yes," says Winston.
A man in a white coat comes into the room and puts a heavy machine behind his head. O'Brien has sat down beside the bed so he can look into Winston's eyes.
"This time it will not hurt," says O'Brien. "Keep looking at me." Then he turns to the man in the white coat. "Three thousand," he says.
Winston feels the machine against his head. He hears a lever pulled. Then it is like an explosion inside his head, though he is not certain if there is any noise. There is blinding light and the feeling that he has been thrown back on the bed where he already is. Something has happened inside his head. As he opens his eyes he remembers who he is, and where he is, and he recognizes the face that is looking down into his own; but something is empty inside his head. It feels like a piece has been taken out of his brain.
"Look me in the eyes," says O'Brien. He holds up the four fingers of his left hand with the thumb behind the hand. "There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?"
"Yes." And he does see them, just for a second. O'Brien's words fill the hole in his mind with the complete truth.
"You see now," says O'Brien, "that it is possible."
"Yes," says Winston.
O'Brien smiles. "I enjoy talking to you," he says. "Your mind is like mine, except that you are mad. Before we finish you can ask me a few questions, if you want to."
"Any question I like?"
"Anything." He sees that Winston's eyes are on the machine. "It is switched off. What is your first question?"
"What have you done with Julia?" asks Winston.
O'Brien smiles again. "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately, completely. I have never seen anybody obey us so quickly. All her feelings against the Party have been burned out of her. She has changed herself completely."
"Did you use this machine?"
O'Brien does not answer. "Next question," he says.
"Does Big Brother exist?""Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the face of the Party."
"Does he exist in the same way that I exist?"
"You do not exist," says O'Brien.
How can he not exist? But what use is it to say so? O'Brien will argue with him and win - again. "I think I exist," he says carefully. "I was born and I will die. I have arms and legs. In that sense, does Big Brother exist?"
"It is not important. But, yes, Big Brother exists."
"Will he ever die?"
"Of course not. How could he die? Next question."
"Does the Brotherhood exist?"
"That, Winston, you will never know. If we choose to free you and if you live to be ninety years old, you will never learn whether the answer to that question is ‘Yes’ or ‘No’."
Winston lays silent. His chest moves up and down as he breathes. He still has not asked the first question that came into his mind. He wants to ask it but he cannot move his tongue. O'Brien is smiling. He knows, thinks Winston suddenly, he knows what I am going to ask. As he thinks that, the words fall out of his mouth: "What is in Room 101?"
O'Brien is still smiling. "You know what is in Room 101, Winston. Everyone knows what is in Room 101."
