Nineteen Eighty-Four

Excerpts From the 1984 Film Adaptation of 1984

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.Quick-Jump

Two Minutes Hate  (.mp3)

Narrator:

This is our land—a land of peace, and of plenty; a land of harmony and hope.  This is our land: Oceania.

These are our people: the workers, the strivers, the builders.  These are our people—the builders of our world, struggling, fighting, bleeding, dying—on the streets of our cities, and on the far-flung battlefields, fighting against the mutilation of our hopes and dreams.

Who are they?  [A crowd chants “Eurasia, Eurasia.”]  They are the dark armies—the dark, murdering armies of Eurasia.  In the barren deserts of Africa and India, in the oceans of Australasia, courage, strength, and youth are sacrificed—sacrificed to barbarians whose only honour is atrocity.

But even as we grasp ay victory, there is a cancer—an evil tumour—growing, spreading in our midst.  Shout, shout, shout out his name!

[The audience screams “Goldstein!”  Emmanuel Goldstein is seen on the large telecreen speaking, but his statements are inaudible due to the continued screaming of the audience.  Some scream “No!” while others scream “Death!” and still others scream “Traitor!”  According to the script, Goldstein is telling the people that the Party lies, that neither Big Brother nor the war are real, that they are being made slaves of the Party, and that they should rise up and throw off the yoke of oppression.]

Government propaganda

Thoughtcrime is death.Thoughtcrime is Death  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

Thoughtcrime is death.  Thoughtcrime does not entail death, thoughtcrime is death.

I have committed, even before setting pen to paper, the essential crime that contains all others in itself.

Smith writes in his forbidden diarySmith’s First Diary Entry  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

April the fourth, 1984—I think.

To the past, or to the future—to an age when thought is free, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of the Thought Police, from a dead man:  Greetings.

Troop worshipTroop Worship  (.mp3)

Exercise instructor:

We don’t all have the privilege of fighting in the front line.  Remember our boys on the Malabar front.  Just think what they have to put up with.

Syme displays the elitism inherent in oligarchical collectivismThe Destruction of Words  (.mp3)

Comrade Syme:

It’s a beautiful thing—the destruction of words.  …  It’s an encouraging thought that by 2050, not a single person will be able to have a conversation like this.

Winston Smith:

Except the proles…

Comrade Syme:

The proletariat doesn’t count—they’re animals.

Smith reflects upon mass nonviolent civil disobedienceÉtienne de La Boétie’s Discourse of Voluntary Servitude

Winston Smith:

If there is hope, it lies in the proles.  If they could become conscious of their own strength, they would have no need to conspire.  History does not matter to them.

More government propagandaVictory on the Malabar Front  (.mp3)

Announcer:

Your attention, please!

A newsflash has at this moment arrived from the Malabar front.  The forces of Oceania in South India have won a glorious victory!  I am authorised to say that the war against Eurasia is within measurable distance of its end.  Forty-thousand Eurasian soldiers have been killed or captured.

The Youth League sings its AnthemYouth League Anthem  (.mp3)

The Youth League:

Sing to the bravest on the sturdy fortress

Sing to the soldiers on the battlefields

Sing to the airmen in the burning azure

Sing to the farmers’ rising yields

We are the children, builders of the future

And we the children swear to thee

Loyal devotion, fearless devotion

And to die with dignity

Sing to the faithful…

Winston and Julia reject sexual PuritanismSexcrime  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

Have you done this before?

Julia:

Of course.  Hundreds of times.

Winston Smith:

With Party members?

Julia:

Yes.

Winston Smith:

Inner Party members?

Julia:

Not with those bastards.  ’Though there’s plenty who would.

Winston Smith:

Look, I hate purity.  I hate goodness.  I don’t want virtue to exist anywhere.  I want everyone corrupt.

Julia:

Well I ought to suit you, then.  I’m corrupt to the core.

Winston Smith:

Do you like doing this?  I don’t mean just me.

Julia:

I adore it.

The lecturer discusses artificial inseminationArtsem  (.mp3)

Lecturer:

I just want to finish by saying a few words about the impact of the imminent neurological breakthrough.

When the orgasm has been finally eradicated, the last remaining obstacle to the psychological acceptance of the principles of Ingsoc, as applied to artsem, will be overcome.  In other words, the unorthodox tendencies towards ownlife, which constantly threaten the natural erosion of the family unit, will no longer have the biological support of the organism.  As we all know, the biological and social stimulation of the family leads to private reflection, outside Party needs, and to the establishment of unorthodox loyalties which can only lead to thoughtcrime.  The introduction of artsem, combined with the neutralization of the orgasm, will effectively render obsolete the family until it becomes impossible to conceptualise.

Thank you.

Julia has illegally acquired some of the Inner Party’s foodFood Rationing  (.mp3)

Julia:

Let me show you what I’ve brought.

Look.

Winston Smith:

What is it?

Julia:

Real sugar.  Not saccharin.

And I’ve got a loaf of bread—proper white bread.

And jam.

A real tin of milk.

And look.

Winston Smith:

Coffee.  Real coffee.

Julia:

Inner Party, half a kilo.

Winston Smith:

How did you manage to get ahold of all this?

Julia:

There’s nothing those bastards don’t have.

Aren’t you pleased?

Winston Smith:

Yes.  Yes, of course.

Real tea.

Julia:

Mmm, there’s been a lot of tea about lately.  They’ve captured India or something.

Winston Smith:

I want you.

Julia:

I want you, too.

Freedom is the freedom to say, “Two plus two equals four.”There is Truth, and There is Untruth  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

There is truth, and there is untruth.

Freedom is the freedom to say, “Two plus two equals four.”  If that is granted, all else follows.

Minrec “fixes” the pastWho Controls the Past Controls the Future  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

“Oceania is at war with Eastasia.  Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.  Eurasia is our ally.  Eurasia has always been our ally.”

Everything fades into mist.  The past is erased, the eraser forgotten.  The lie becomes truth, and then becomes a lie again.

Winston and Julia discuss betrayalOn Staying Human  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

So it’s not so much staying alive; it’s staying human that’s important.  What counts is that we don’t betray each other.

Julia:

If you mean confessing, we’re bound to do that.  Everybody does.  You can’t help it.

Winston Smith:

I don’t mean confessing—confessing isn’t betrayal.  I mean feelings.  If they can make me change my feelings, they can stop me from loving you.  That would be real betrayal.

Julia:

They can’t do that.  That’s the one thing they can’t do.  They can torture you, and make you say anything.  But they can’t make you believe it.  They can’t get inside you.  They can’t get to your heart.

More government propagandaDeath to Eastasia!  (.mp3)

Reporter:

They have attacked an unarmed village with rocket bombs and murdered four-thousand defenceless, innocent, and peaceful citizens of Oceania.  This is no longer war; this is cold-blooded murder.  Until now, the war has been conducted with honour, and bravery—with the ideals of truth and justice, in the best traditions of mankind…until this moment.  Brothers and sisters, the endless catalogue of bestial atrocities, which will inevitably ensue from this appalling act, must, can, and will be terminated.  The forces of darkness—and treasonable maggots who collaborate with them—must, can, and will be wiped from the face of the earth!  We must crush them!  We must smash them!  We must stamp them out!  We, the people of Oceania,—and our traditional allies, the people of Eurasia—will not rest until a final victory has been achieved.  Death to the eternal enemy of Oceania.  Death!  Death!!  Death!!

The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel GoldsteinChapter 3: War is Peace  (.mp3)

Goldstein’s book:

In accordance with the principles of doublethink, it does not matter if the war is not real, or, when it is, that victory is not possible.  The war is not meant to be won.  It is meant to be continuous.

The essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour.  A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance.  In principle, the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation.  The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects.  And its object is not victory over Eurasia or Eastasia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.

Winston speaks softly to Julia about truthA Minority of One  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

There is truth and there is untruth.  To be in a minority of one doesn’t make you mad.

We are the dead.We Are The Dead  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

We are the dead.

Parsons’s idiocy is palpableParsons  (.mp3)

Comrade Parsons:

Keep away from me, Smith.  I’m an agent of Goldstein.

I didn’t know it myself.  Thoughtcrime is so insidious.  It just creeps up on you.

My daughter found it out.  Very proud of her.  Very grateful I’ve been discovered before it’s too late.

They won’t shoot me, will they, Smith?  I know I could be very useful in a labour camp.

O’Brien employs doublethinkA Defective Memory?  (.mp3)

Comrade O’Brien:

You know perfectly well what is the matter with you, Winston.  You’ve known it for years, though you’ve fought against the knowledge.  You are mentally deranged.  You suffer from a defective memory.

You never tried to cure yourself of it, because you did not choose to.  It was a small effort of will, which you were not ready to make.

…

Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston.  It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will.

How many fingers am I holding up?The Collective Mind of the Party  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

How can I help what I see in front of my eyes?

Two and two makes four.

Comrade O’Brien:

Sometimes, Winston.  Sometimes they’re five, sometimes they’re three.  Sometimes they’re all of them at once.

Neither the past, nor the present, nor the future, exists in its own right, Winston.  Reality is in the human mind—not in the individual mind, which makes mistakes and soon perishes, but in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.

O’Brien continues to employ doublethinkDoes Big Brother Exist?  (.mp3)

Winston Smith:

Does Big Brother exist?

Comrade O’Brien:

Of course.

Winston Smith:

The same way as me?

Comrade O’Brien:

You do not exist.

O’Brien explains powerThe Motivation of the State is to Maintain Power  (.mp3)

Comrade O’Brien:

A question:  How does one man assert power over another?

Winston Smith:

By making him suffer.

Comrade O’Brien:

Exactly.

Obedience is not enough.  Power is inflicting pain and humiliation; otherwise, you cannot be sure.  Power is tearing human minds apart, and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

Power is not a means, it is an end.

In our world, there will only be triumph and self-abasement.  Everything else, we shall destroy.  The past is forbidden.  Why?  Because when we can cut man from his own past, then we can cut him from his family, his children, other men.  There is no loyalty, except loyalty to the Party.  There is no love, except love of Big Brother.  All competing pleasures, we will destroy.

If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.

O’Brien rejects the view that the individual is an ends within her- or himselfCollectivism and the Rejection of Individual Self-Worth  (.mp3)

Comrade O’Brien:

You are thinking that my face is old, and tired; that while I talk of power, I’m unable to prevent the decay of my own body.

But the individual is only a cell, Winston.  And the weariness of the cell is the vigor of the organism.

O’Brien calls Winston the last manThe Last Man  (.mp3)

Comrade O’Brien:

If you’re a man, you’re the last man.

Smith “confesses”Smith’s “Confession”  (.mp3)

Comrade Smith:

I accuse myself of the following crimes:

I seduced Party members of both sexes.  I’ve been to the Proletarian areas.  I deliberately contracted syphilis in order to spread the disease to my wife and other Party members.  Together with other agents, I have counterfeited banknotes, wrecked industrial machinery, polluted the water supply, guided Eurasian rocket bombs to targets on Airstrip One by means of coded radio signals.

I stand here, a victim of the influence of Emmanuel Goldstein, guilty on all counts.

I’m glad I was caught.  I was mentally deranged.  Now I am cured.

I ask only for you to accept my love of our leader.  I ask only to be shot while my mind is still clean.