Love in Oceania

Winston Smith lives in Oceania. Oceania is the utopian vision of Big Brother and the Inner Party. The year is 1984 and Winston’s world is made up of telescreens and thought police. At any given moment in time he is being watched. Despite all of this he is lonely. He desires someone to talk to and someone to love. Winston’s love interests in 1984 vary from Julia, O'Brien, to Big Brother. The concept of love …

…be happy and follow their human instinct to love, making their lives relatively gratifying. When a Big Brother tries to take away the will to love, George Orwell shows us to be wary. Controlling something so vital and intense as love gives the power of the individual away. Winston’s desire to eliminate his solitude was met with obstacles and eventually destroyed his existence, and his idea of existence. Love should be freewill and unpunished.