1984 Chapter 8
1984
Chapter 8
Doublethink
On the sixth day of Hate Week, just before two thousand Eurasian prisoners were hanged in the park, the people of Oceania were told that they were not at war with Eurasia now. They were at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was a friend. You could hear it on the telescreens — Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
Winston has worked more than ninety hours in the last five days of Hate Week. Now he has finished and he has nothing to do, no Party work until tomorrow morning. Slowly, in the afternoon sunshine, he walks up a narrow street to Mr. Charrington's shop, watching for the Thought Police, but sure - although he has no reason to be sure - that he is safe. In his case, heavy against his legs, he carries the book, Goldstein's book. He has had it for six days but has not looked at it yet.
Tired but not sleepy, he climbs the stairs above Mr. Charrington's shop. He opens the window and puts the water on for coffee. Julia will be here soon. He takes Goldstein's book out of his case and opens it. Then he hears Julia coming up the stairs and jumps out of his chair to meet her. She puts her brown tool bag on the floor and throws herself into his arms. It has been more than a week since they saw each other.
"I've got the book", he says.
"Oh, you’ve got it? Good," she says without much interest, and almost immediately bends down to make the coffee.
They do not talk about the book again until they have been in bed for half an hour. It is evening and just cool enough to have a blanket over them. Julia is falling asleep by his side. Winston picks the book up from the floor and sits up in bed.
"We must read it," he says. "You too. All members of the Brotherhood have to read it."
"You read it," she says with her eyes shut. "Read it to me, that's the best way. Then you can explain it to me."
The clock's hands say six, meaning eighteen. They have three or four hours ahead of them. He puts the book against his knee and begins reading:
‘There have always been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle and the Low. The world has changed but society always contains these three groups.’
"Julia, are you awake?" says Winston.
“Yes, my love, I'm listening."
‘The aims of the three groups are completely different. The High want to stay where they are. The Middle want to change places with the High. Sometimes the Low have no aim at all, because they are too tired from endless boring work to have an aim. If they do have one, they want to live in a new world where all people are equal.
At the beginning of the twentieth century this equality became possible for the first time because machines did so much of the work. A dream that was held for centuries seemed to be coming true. But in the early 1930s the High group saw the danger to them of equality for all and did everything possible to stop it.
The individual suffered in ways that he had not suffered for centuries. Prisoners of war were sent into slavery or hanged. Thousands were sent to prison although they had broken no law. The populations of whole countries were forced to leave their homes. And all this was defended and even supported by people who said they believed in progress.
The people who entered the new High group were from the professions: scientists, teachers, journalists. They used newspapers, radio, film and television to control people's thoughts. When a television that could both send and receive information was invented, private life came to an end. Every individual, or at least every important individual, could be watched twenty-four hours a day. For the first time it was possible to force people to obey the Party and to share the Party’s opinion on all subjects.
After the 1950s and 1960s the danger of equality had been ended and society had re-grouped itself, as always, into High, Middle and Low. But the new High group, for the first time, knew how to stay in that position forever.
First, in the middle years of the twentieth century, the Party made sure that it owned all the property — all the factories, land, houses, everything except really small pieces of personal property. This meant that a few people (the Inner Party) owned almost everything and the Middle and Low groups owned nearly nothing. There was therefore no hope of moving up in society by becoming richer and owning more.
But the problem of staying in power is more complicated than that. In the past, High groups have fallen from power either because they have lost control of the Middle or Low groups or because they have become too weak, or because they have been attacked and beaten by an army from outside.
After the middle of the century there was really no more danger from the Middle or Low groups. The Party had made itself stronger by killing all of its first leaders (people like Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford). By 1970 Big Brother was the only leader and Emmanuel Goldstein was in hiding somewhere.
The Party then kept itself strong. The child of Inner Party parents is not born into the Inner Party; there is an examination, taken at the age of sixteen. Weak Inner Party members are moved down and clever Outer Party members are allowed to move up. Although proles do not usually move up into the Party, the Party always stops itself from becoming stupid or weak.
The Party has also made attack from the outside impossible. There are now only three great countries in the world. They are always at war but none of them can win or even wishes to win these wars. Following the idea of "doublethink" the mind of the Party, which controls us all, both knows and does not know the aim of these wars. The aim is to use everything that a country produces without making its people richer. If people became richer, there would be an end to the world of the High, the Middle and the Low. The Low and the Middle would not wish to stay in their places and would not need to.
The Middle and Low are kept in their places by their belief in the wars that none of the three countries can win. So the Party has to end independent thought and make people believe everything they are told. The Party must know what every person is thinking, so they never want to end the war. War continues, always and forever.
People are given somewhere to live, something to wear and something to eat. That is all they need and they must never want more. They are given work, but only the Thought Police do their work really well.All good things in the world of Oceania today, all knowledge, all happiness, come from Big Brother. Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on posters, a voice on the telescreen. We can be sure that he will never die. Big Brother is the way the Party shows itself to the people.
Below Big Brother comes the Inner Party, which is now six million people, less than 2% of the population of Oceania. Below the Inner Party comes the Outer Party. The Inner Party is like the mind of the Party and the Outer Party is like its hands. Below that come the millions of people we call "the proles", about 85% of the population.
A Party member lives under the eye of the Thought Police from birth to death. Even when he is alone he can never be sure he is alone. He will never make a free choice in his life.
But there is no law and there are no rules. They are not necessary. Most people know what they must do - in Newspeak they are "goodthinkers". And since Party members were children they have been trained in three more Newspeak words: "crimestop", "blackwhite" and "doublethink".
Even young children are taught "crimestop". It means stopping before you think a wrong thought. When you are trained in "crimestop" you cannot think a thought against the Party. You think only what the Party wants you to think.
But the Party wants people to think different thoughts all the time. The important word here is "blackwhite." Like many Newspeak words, this has two meanings. Enemies say that black is white - they tell lies. But Party members say that black is white because the Party tells them to and because they believe it. They must forget that they ever had a different belief.
"Blackwhite" and "crimestop" are both part of "doublethink". "Doublethink" allows people to hold two different ideas in their minds at the same time - and to accept both of them. In this way they can live with a changing reality, including a changing past. The past must be changed all the time because the Party can never make a mistake. That is the most important reason. It is also important that nobody can remember a time better than now and so become unhappy with the present. By using "doublethink" the Party has been able to stop history, keep power and…
"Julia?"
No answer.
"Julia, are you awake?"
No answer.
She is asleep. He shuts the book, puts it carefully on the floor, lays down and puts the blanket over both of them. The book has not told him anything he does not already know, but after reading it he knows he is not mad. He shuts his eyes. He is safe, everything is alright.
When he wakes he thinks he has slept a long time but, looking at the old clock, he sees it is only twenty-thirty. Outside he can hear singing. It is a song written in the Ministry of Truth and a prole woman is singing it. If there is hope, thinks Winston, it is because of the proles. Even without reading the end of Goldstein’s book, he knows that is his message. The future belongs to the proles; Party members are the dead.
"We are the dead," he says.
"We are the dead," agrees Julia.
"You are the dead," says a voice behind them.
They jump away from each other. Winston feels his blood go cold. Julia's face has turned a milky yellow.
"You are the dead," repeats the voice.
"It was behind the picture," breathes Julia.
"It was behind the picture," says the voice. "Stay exactly where you are. Do not move until we order you to."
It is starting, it is starting at last! They can do nothing except look into each other's eyes. They do not even think of running for their lives or getting out of the house before it is too late. It is unthinkable to disobey the voice from the wall.
There is a crash of breaking glass. The picture has fallen to the floor. There is a telescreen behind it.
"Now they can see us," says Julia.
"Now we can see you," says the voice. "Stand in the middle of the room. Stand back to back. Put your hands behind your heads. Do not touch each other."
"I suppose we should say goodbye," says Julia.
"You should say goodbye," says the voice.
There is a crash as a ladder breaks through the window. Soldiers come in; more come crashing in through the door. Winston does not move, not even his eyes. Only one thing matters: don't give them an excuse to hit you.
One of the soldiers hits Julia hard in the stomach. She falls to the floor, fighting to breathe. Then two of them pick her up and carry her out of the room, holding her by the knees and shoulders. Winston sees her face, yellow with pain, with her eyes tightly shut as they take her away from him.
He does not move. No one has hit him yet. He wonders if they have got Mr. Charrington. He wants to go to the toilet. The clock says nine, meaning twenty-one hours, but the light seems too strong for evening. Was it really nine in the morning? Have he and Julia slept all that time?
Mr. Charrington comes into the room and Winston suddenly realizes whose voice he has heard on the telescreen. Mr. Charrington still has his old jacket on, but his hair, which was almost white, is now black. His body is straighter and looks bigger. His face is the clear-thinking, cold face of a man of about thirty-five. Winston realizes that for the first time in his life he is looking at a member of the Thought Police.