1984 Chapter 7
1984
Chapter 7
Our Leader, Emmanuel Goldstein
They vaporized Syme. One morning he was not at work; a few careless people talked about his absence. On the next day nobody talked about him. His name disappeared from lists and newspapers. He did not exist. He had never existed.
Parsons is helping to organize Hate Week. He is completely happy, running around painting posters, singing the new Hate Song, smelling even more strongly of sweat in the hot weather.
Daily life no longer causes Winston pain: He has stopped drinking gin at all hours and his knee feels better. He does not want to shout angry words at the telescreen all the time.
He meets Julia four, five, six - seven times during the month of June. It is so hot at the end of the month that they lay on the bed in the room over Mr Charrington's shop without clothes on. The rat has never come back.
Sometimes they talk about a more open war against the Party, but they do not know how to begin. Winston tells her about the strange understanding that seems to exist between himself and O'Brien. He sometimes feels like going to see him, telling him he is the enemy of the Party, demanding O'Brien's help. Strangely, Julia does not think this is a wild idea. She judges people by their faces and it seems natural to her that the look in O'Brien's eyes makes Winston believe in him. Also, she thinks that everybody secretly hates the Party, although she does not believe in Goldstein and the Brotherhood; she thinks the Party has invented them.
And then at last it happens. All his life, it seems to him, he has been waiting for this: there is a message from O'Brien.
•
Winston was outside his office at the Ministry when he heard a small cough behind him and turned. It was O'Brien.
"I was reading your Newspeak article the other day. You know a lot about Newspeak, I believe."
“Oh, not really. I've never invented any of the words…"
"But you write it very well," said O'Brien. "That is not only my own opinion. I was talking recently to a friend of yours who knows a lot about Newspeak. I can't remember his name at the moment."
Winston's heart jumped. This could only mean Syme. But Syme was not only dead, he was vaporized, an unperson. It was dangerous to talk about an unperson; they could kill you for it. O'Brien was sharing a thoughtcrime with him.
"In your Newspeak article you used two words which we have recently taken out of the language," said O'Brien. "Have you seen the new tenth edition?"
"No," said Winston. "We still have the ninth in the office."
"The tenth will not be sent to offices for some months, but I have one. Would you like to see it, perhaps?"
"Yes, very much," said Winston, who could see where this was leading.
"You will be interested, I'm sure. You will like the smaller number of verbs. Shall I send someone to you with the Dictionary? But I always forget that kind of thing. Perhaps you could collect it from my flat at a convenient time? Wait. Let me give you my address."
They were standing in front of a telescreen which could see what he was writing. He wrote an address in a notebook, pulled out the page and gave it to Winston.
"I am usually at home in the evenings," he said. "If not, my servant will give you the Dictionary."
And then he was gone.
They have done it, they have done it at last! The room is long, there is a thick carpet and a soft light; the sound from the telescreen is low. At the far end of the room O'Brien is sitting under a lamp with papers on either side of him. He does not look up when the servant shows Winston and Julia in.
Winston's heart is beating fast. It is dangerous to arrive with Julia, although they met only outside O'Brien's flat. And although O'Brien invited him, he is still afraid of the guards with black uniforms in this enormous building with its strange smells of good food and tobacco. But the guards did not order him out.
O'Brien continues to work and does not look pleased at the visit. It seems quite possible to Winston that he just made a stupid mistake. He cannot even pretend that he came only to borrow the Dictionary - if he did, why is Julia here?
O'Brien gets up slowly from his chair and comes towards them across the thick carpet. He presses a switch on the wall and the voice from the telescreen stops.
Julia gives a small cry of surprise and without thinking Winston says, "You can turn it off!"
"Yes," says O'Brien. "We can turn it off. We in the Inner Party are allowed to do that."
Nobody speaks. Without the voice from the telescreen the room is completely silent. Then O'Brien smiles.
"Do you want me to say it or do you?" he says.
"I will say it," says Winston immediately. "That thing is really turned off?"
"Yes. We are alone."
Winston pauses. He does not know exactly what he expects from O'Brien. Then he continues, "We believe that there is a secret organization working against the Party and that you are part of it. We want to join it and work for it. We are enemies of the Party. We are lovers, and we are thoughtcriminals. And now we are in your power."
O'Brien takes a bottle and fills three glasses with dark red liquid. It reminds Winston of something he saw a long time ago. Julia picks up her glass and smells the liquid with great interest.
"It is called wine," says O'Brien with a small smile. "Not much of it gets to ordinary Party members, I'm afraid." His face becomes serious again, and he lifts his glass: "To our Leader," he says. "To Emmanuel Goldstein."
Winston lifts his glass, his eyes are open wide. Wine is a thing he has read and dreamed about. For some reason he always thought it tasted sweet. But it tastes of nothing. The truth is that after years of drinking gin he can taste almost nothing.
"So Goldstein is a real person?" he says.
"Yes he is, and he is alive. Where, I do not know."
"And the Brotherhood is real, too? It was not invented by the Thought Police?"
"No, it is real. But you will never learn much more about the Brotherhood than that." He looks at his watch. "It is unwise even for me to turn the telescreen off for more than half an hour. It was a mistake for both of you to arrive here together, and you, Comrade," he looks at Julia, "will have to leave first. We have about twenty minutes. Now, what are you prepared to do?"
"Anything that we can," says Winston.
O'Brien has turned himself a little in his chair so that he is looking at Winston. He seems to think that Winston can answer for Julia.
"You are willing to give your lives?"
"Yes."
"You are willing to murder another person?"
"Yes."
"You are willing to cause the death of hundreds of innocent people?"
"Yes."
"If, for example, it would help us to blind a child and destroy its face - would you do that?"
"Yes."
"Are you willing to kill yourselves, if we order you to do so?"
"Yes."
"You are willing, the two of you, to separate and never see each other again?"
"No!" shouts Julia.
It seems to Winston that a long time passes before he answers. "No," he says finally.
"You did well to tell me," says O'Brien. "It is necessary for us to know everything."
O'Brien starts walking up and down, one hand in the pocket of his black overalls, the other holding a cigarette.
"You understand," he says, "that secrets will always be kept from you. You will receive orders and you will obey them without knowing why. Later I shall send you a book by Emmanuel Goldstein. When you have read the book you will be full members of the Brotherhood. When you are finally caught you will get no help. Sometimes we are able to get a razor blade into the prison to silence someone, but you are more likely to tell them all you know - although you will not know very much. We are the dead. We are fighting for a better life for people in the future." He stops and looks at his watch. "It is almost time for you to leave, Comrade," he says to Julia. "Wait. There is still some wine." He fills the glasses and holds up his own glass. "What shall we drink to? To the death of Big Brother? To the future?"
"To the past," says Winston.
"Yes, the past is more important," says O'Brien seriously.
They finish the wine and a moment later Julia stands up to go. When she has left, Winston stands up and he and O'Brien shake hands. At the door he looks back, but O'Brien is already at his desk, doing his important work for the Party.
