Whilst riding a train down to London to attend an event hosted by and for lovers of liberty, I found myself pondering the meaning of ‘love’ and ‘liberty’. Only once I cast my mind back to the great dystopian writer, George Orwell, did I come to realise the two are very much the same. Love cannot exist where liberty is tarnished, and liberty dies when we forget how to love.
Orwell’s magnum opus, Nineteen Eighty-Four, takes place in a dark, authoritarian future where everything exists under the watchful eye and tight control of the mysterious Big Brother. The novel explores the idea of societal control of language, thought, and action. Yet whilst 1984 may include details of the corrupt, authoritarian bureaucracy of Oceania, it is not the main component of the work. Instead, the story is driven by the relationship between the protagonist Winston Smith and his love interest Julia. These unlikely lovers risk torture and even death to preserve their relationship. In society, they are oppressed, but in love, they find liberty. I see the book less as a political manifesto and more as a treatise on love.
Early in the novel, Orwell establishes that Winston has married. Although in our society, a wedding day is the ‘happiest day of your life’, Winston is often said to forget he was ever married. “Winston was married – had been married, at any rate: probably he still was married, so far as he knew his wife was not dead.” Yet his marriage was deemed unsuccessful in the eyes of the state, and his wife, as they had been unable to produce a child. Marriage in the world of 1984 is loveless and sexless, existing only for reproduction and typically ending in cold separation. Sex is not an expression of love in Orwell’s Oceania, but a “duty to the Party”, a party which fears the power of love between spouses as it distracts from the ‘duty’ to love Big Brother.
For Winston, this simply won’t do. So in the absence of real human connection in his marriage, he finds Julia. Though Winston is a quiet, pessimistic critic of the Party, Julia is his free-spirited, free-loving counterpart with whom he begins an illicit affair, away from the prying eyes of an all-seeing government. Julia claims to have had similar affairs with a number of party members and has thus far managed to remain free in her pursuit of pleasure. For Winston, however, this is his first taste of freedom. Too used to silently resenting Big Brother during his monotonous job at the Ministry of Truth, his romance with Julia drives him to rebel despite the knowledge that being caught will inevitably result in torture, or even death. When his dissident views and behaviours are revealed, he is detained in the ominous Room 101, where he is tormented by the perversely named ‘Ministry of Love’. This ministry’s function is to enforce obedience to the Party; in Room 101 they torture dissenters by exposing them to their worst nightmare. The all-seeing state of Oceania knows each citizen’s worst nightmare and therefore subjects Winston to an attack by rats during his torture and re-education.
Winston escapes death by renouncing love. Winston begs his torturer, O’Brien, to torture Julia instead, abandoning the promise he made to never betray her. Such betrayal is convincing enough to O’Brien to let Winston walk free, content that no matter how strong his love for Julia may be, his ‘love’ or rather fear for Big Brother is stronger. Julia is similarly tortured at the hands of the Ministry of Love and when meeting Winston towards the end of the novel reveals that she too had betrayed him and pledged her allegiance to the state. In the case of Julia and Winston, the absolute power of the state overcomes the power of their love.
A less pessimistic perspective on love and liberty can be found in Ayn Rand’s 1938 novella, Anthem. Rand’s story takes place in a wholly collectivist world in which personal pronouns are eliminated, people are named after concepts and numbers and children are raised not in loving homes, but by the state. The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, is different from the start, born with the ability to think forbidden thoughts, an ability he describes as a “curse”.
One such forbidden thought in the world of ‘Anthem’ is that of love. “Men are forbidden to take notice of women, and women are forbidden to take notice of men”. Equality, ever prone to forbidden thoughts, falls instantly in love with the fittingly named Liberty 5-3000 the moment he lays eyes on her. Much like Winston and Julia, Equality and Liberty begin a secret affair. They choose new names for each other and explore the world of romance and freedom. Equality calls his love “the Golden One”, in reference to her golden hair, and Liberty calls him “the Unconquered”, in reference to his free-thinking nature. As Equality refers to Liberty as “our dearest one”, he remarks that these words have never been said by any man to any woman. Through love, both characters are able to discover new ways of communicating and relating to others in society.
Encouraged by their love, Equality embraces his inventive mind and soon rediscovers electricity, a crime for which he is cast out of society. Unlike the betrayal of 1984, Liberty follows Equality into exile where they discover a book containing a new word, a personal pronoun, a single letter: ‘I’. With this word, they restore their individual identity, no longer a part of a collective, but two free individuals. Liberty’s first use of the word is to say: “I love you”.
Both Anthem and 1984 show that where power oppresses, love is resistance. We should remember to love our individuality, our friends, our family and our partners. In the face of tyranny, do not bend like Winston, be Equality 7-2521 and dare to love Liberty.
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