1984 - Setting

1984 is George Orwell’s grim vision of a dystopian future, based on the world political and economic scenein the first half of XX century and based on Orwell’s vision of human nature.  The author started writing the novel during in 1940 and completed it in 1948. Those were the most turbulent times in the world history, marked by the rise of Hitler and fascism, World War II and the development of the totalitarian regime in Communist Russia.  That was the beginning of the Cold War between Eastern and Western block.

The television was becoming popular and accessible to the population and it was to become a dominant force in the Western culture. Aside from being a tool for spreading news and keeping the public informed, Orwell realized that television was the tool to control the information, limit access to information and manipulate and control the people.

The novel depicts a world divided into three totalitarian superstates, which are conglomerates of nations that are constantly at war with one another: Oceania, dominated by the United States; Eurasia, dominated by Western Europe and Eastasia, dominated by China and Japan. Life in Oceania reflects British life in 1948. London is the setting for the novel. Orwell chose Britain as the setting because he was worried that the totalitarian regime could happen anywhere, at any time. He wanted to warn the people of the dangers of totalitarianism and the need to fight against it. 

London is shown as a gray and decaying urban area. This continuous state of war consumes most of the state’s resources. The city buildings are ruined, they are in the state of disrepair. One can see: “rotting nineteenth-century houses with windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron…the garden walls sagging in all directions.. there are the bombed sites everywhere..”.  People live in constant fear for their existence. All consumer goods, from food to clothing, are rationed, just as they were in England during World War II.

The city horizon is dominated by the towering Government institutions, which rule, monitor and control the population. Those are four ministries, each in charge of specific areas:  the Ministry of Truth is in charge of news, entertainment, education and arts, the Ministry of Peace is in charge of war, the Ministry of Love maintains law and order, while the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for economic People’s minds and actions are controlled by way of posters and television screens, which are seen all over the place, at every corner, every square.  The rulers have their informants who report anyone who dares to think or act contrary to the established order. There is no freedom of speech, freedom of thought, possibility to change things. There is no privacy. The Government controls all aspects of life.  The prevailing feeling is that the Big Brother is watching everyone. People live in a constant fear of breaking the rules and being punished.