A Collection of Concordances

1984 by George Orwell

2009-03-28T23:13:00.001-04:00

George Orwell’s novel, 1984, is a novel about a man, Winston Smith, living life in a dystopian society. Winston slowly realizes that he disagrees with much of how his life is governed. 1984 follows Winston as he navigates the tricky dystopian society. 16 concordance on 1984 follow.

Varicose Pain

2009-03-28T17:11:00.001-04:00

“The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine, and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way.” (1)

A varicose ulcer is the lack of skin at the drainage point of a varicose vein. Varicose veins are enlarged veins caused by high blood pressure in the veins. They are most common in the legs and feet because standing and walking increases the blood pressure to the lower extremities. Orwell uses Winston’s varicose ulcer to show when Winston is worried or anxious; during these moments, Winston’s ulcer begins to itch. Winston’s job is mostly sedentary, so for him to have acquired a varicose ulcer means that he must do a lot of walking and standing outside of his job. There is no mention of motorized transport, so Winston must have to walk a long distance between his job and his home in order to have acquired a varicose ulcer.

Works Cited: "varicose ulcer." The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary. 2007. Houghton Mifflin Company 28 Mar. 2009 http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/varicose+ulcer

"Varicose veins." Mayo Clinic. 16 Jan. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/varicose-veins/DS00256>.

Pig Iron

2009-03-28T17:09:00.000-04:00

“Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig iron.” (2)

Pig iron is crude, raw iron in its ingot form. It is the product of smelting iron ore with coke, a fuel produced from coal, in a blast furnace. Orwell uses the production of pig iron to show the state of society in 1984. Concern over how much pig iron is being produced should not be high when there are other more valuable and more important metals to produce. This shows that the Party has its priorities in mass, low quality productions rather than fewer, high quality productions.

Works Cited: "pig iron." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 29 Mar. 2009. http://www.answers.com/topic/pig-iron

Image Credit: http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50226337/Pig_Iron_Ore.jpg

Blue Uniform

2009-03-28T17:07:00.000-04:00

“He moved over to the window: a smallish, frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party.” (2)

Orwell uses the uniform to symbolize the control that the Party has over its people. By forcing its members to wear uniforms, the Party is removing freedom from the people, which is one of its main purposes. Blue overalls are the typical dress of a laborer, so the Party sees its members as nothing more than laborers, skilled workers following the Party’s orders.

A Lack of Color

2009-03-28T17:05:00.000-04:00

“Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black-mustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner.” (2)

Orwell uses imagery to show how the Party, with Big Brother at its head, has taken life out of the world. Color is used to represent life, which society has lost due to Big Brother’s control. The man on the poster that Winston describes is Big Brother, the leading figure of the Party. Winston sees color in the poster, but in nothing else because Big Brother has removed all of the pleasures, interests, and benefits of life. When Winston looks out into the street, he sees despair and drear because of a lack of color.

Tower of Truth

2009-03-28T17:03:00.000-04:00

“A kilometer away the Ministry of Truth, his place of work, towered vast and white above the grimy landscape.” (3)

Orwell has created an alternate London for the setting of 1984, in which he places buildings like the Ministry of Truth, that belong to the Party. The buildings belonging to the Party are taller, and more expansive than the buildings surrounding them, the ones that belong to the people of the city are smaller, and dingy, showing the differences in statures between the Party and the citizens. The Ministry of Truth is symbolic of the control that the Party has over its people. The Ministry towers over the other buildings like the Party towers over its people.

Questioning

2009-03-28T17:01:00.000-04:00

“Were there always these vistas of rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with balks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard an their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions? And the bombed sites where the plaster dust swirled in the air and the willow herb straggled over the heaps of rubble; and the places where the bombs had cleared a larger path and there had sprung up sordid colonies of wooden dwellings like chicken houses?” (3)

This is one of the first times that Winston starts questioning the motives of the Party. Doubt and suspicion fill Winston’s mind as he looks out at the city. He finds it hard to believe that everything the Party tells him about the history of the Party and the city is true. The imagery that Orwell uses not only shows Winston’s suspicion, but it also shows the state of living at this point.

Journal of a Rebel

2009-03-28T16:59:00.000-04:00

“He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little junk shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire to possess it.” (6)

Winston uses the journal that he is drawn to as a way of expressing his thoughts, ideas, and feelings. It is what first makes Winston start committing thoughtcrimes, or thinking against the Party. Journals symbolize the transfer of thoughts from one entity to another, which in the society that Winston lives in is considered a crime. Orwell uses Winston’s writing in the journal to show how Winston rebels against the society in which he lives.

Time Crime

2009-03-28T16:58:00.000-04:00

“He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984. It must be round about that date, since he was fairly sure that his age was thirty-nine, and he believed that he had been born in 1944 or 1945; but it was never possible nowadays to pin down any date within a year or two.” (7)

Orwell shows the uncertainty that the Party has created for society. The Party has changed history so many times, that they’ve affected the public’s perception of time. The days, weeks, months, and years have all blended together, making it nearly impossible to distinguish between each of them. The Party has removed all unnecessary pieces of information from the public’s greater knowledge, including their concept of time, as yet another method for controlling their thought.

Saint Sebastian

2009-03-28T16:57:00.000-04:00

“He would tie her naked to a stake and shoot her full of arrows like Saint Sebastian.” (15)

Saint Sebastian was a Roman soldier who remained firm in his faith despite being threatened with death. According to records and legends, Saint Sebastian was ordered to be executed for being a Christian. He was shot full of arrows and left to die, but a widow known as Saint Irene found his body and nursed him back to health. Religion and its important figures are rarely mentioned in 1984. Orwell uses allusions to religion to show that Winston is detached from his society. While others around him either know nothing or very little about religion and ignore whatever knowledge they might have, Winston uses his knowledge of religion to express his feelings; in this case, he uses Saint Sebastian’s attack to represent his hatred for the dark-haired woman sitting behind him.

Works Cited: "St. Sebastian." Catholic Online. 31 Mar. 2009 http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103.

Image Credit: http://www.saintsebastian.us/

Oxymoron

2009-03-28T16:55:00.000-04:00

“Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” (16)

Orwell uses oxymorons to show that the Party has reversed life and made it backwards in comparison to what it once was. An oxymoron is a statement that contradicts itself, like the three slogans of the the Party. Before the Party came into power, war would not have meant peace, freedom would not have meant slavery, and ignorance would not have meant strength. After the Party took control, it twisted life around until war did mean peace; it convinced its people that war is a good, beneficial, necessary thing and therefore equivalent with peace. The Party used the same idea with freedom and slavery, saying that the two were equal, and also with ignorance and strength.

Public Hanging

2009-03-28T16:53:00.000-04:00

“‘Why can’t we go and see the hanging?’ roared the boy in his huge voice.

‘Want to see the hanging! Want to see the hanging!’ chanted the little girl, still capering round.” (23)

A public hanging is an event that is not suitable for children, yet in this society of 1984, it is acceptable. Attending a public hanging was also popular during Queen Elizabeth’s Elizabethan England. At this time, England was in a similar state of dysfunction. However, Elizabethan England was not prospering because of the bubonic plague that destroyed a large percentage of the population. the children’s interest in seeing the public hanging is Orwell’s method for showing how society has transgressed to one of its previous states, in this case a dysfunctional Elizabeth England.

Shakespeare

2009-03-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

“Winston woke up with the word ‘Shakespeare’ on his lips.” (31)

It is unusual for Winston to be thinking about Shakespeare in a time when literature is nearly obsolete. The Party has taken control and censored much of the literature that had been published previously, including Shakespeare. Anything that does not agree with the Party is illegal because of the controversies it creates. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were about controversial topics. Orwell sees Winston as a character similar to Shakespeare, using writing as a way of creating controversy.

Doublethink

2009-03-28T16:49:00.001-04:00

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancel out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink.” (35)

The language complexity that Orwell uses here shows how difficult the world of doublethink is and lends to the theme of control that is present in 1984. It has become nearly impossible for people like Winston, who enjoy thinking freely, to do so. The Party controls everything, and can see everything. When someone commits a thoughtcrime, the Party is instantly aware, exerts its control, and punishes the person in one way or another.

**Note: This is the longest sentence I have ever seen.

Erasable History

2009-03-28T16:47:00.000-04:00

“All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.” (40)

A palimpsest is a type of manuscript, usually made out of papyrus, that has been used many times to write on. Often times, the previous writings are still legible though meaningless. Orwell has found the perfect way to describe the history that the Party has created for itself. The palimpsest is a metaphor for the erasable style of history that the Party has created. Whenever two pieces of information contradict each other, they are immediately corrected to ensure uniformity, which is important in 1984.

Forging Life

2009-03-28T16:45:00.000-04:00

“Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.” (48)

Charlemagne and Julius Caesar are both prominent military and political figures from history. Charlemagne was known for being emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and Julius Caesar was emperor of Rome. Orwell compares Comrade Ogilvy to Charlemagne and Julius Caesar, two people who actually exist, to show how valid Ogilvy’s existence will become once Winston forges his past. This type of forgery, creating a past for something that never existed, is common in 1984. It shows the power that the Party has.

Literature’s Demise

2009-03-28T16:43:00.000-04:00

“By 2050—earlier, probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron—they’ll exist only in Newspeak version, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.” (53)

Orwell shows how simple the Party is trying to make life, and how they are trying to control everything, from knowledge and thought, to language and literature, so that it fits with their system of ideas. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Byron are all known for the literature they wrote, which have been considered works of art by many. The Party’s destruction of Oldspeak and literature as it once was known shows that it does not care for the arts and only wants power and control, at whatever the cost, even if it means rewriting some of the best pieces of literature.

Lady Susan by Jane Austen

2009-03-08T14:40:00.000-04:00

One of her less popular pieces of literature, Jane Austen’s Lady Susan remains true to the Austen style. A short but dense read of letters between characters, Lady Susan follows widow Lady Susan Vernon through her triumphs and tribulations of trying to find a husband for herself and one for her daughter as well.

An Accomplished Coquette

2009-03-08T14:38:00.001-04:00

“My dear Sister,—I congratulate you and Mr. Vernon on being about to receive into your family the most accomplished coquette in England.” (IV).

Coquette is the French word for a flirtatious woman. Reginald De Courcy uses the word when he sarcastically congratulates his sister for housing England’s most accomplished flirt. His use of the word shows his sophistication, while his use of sarcasm shows his distaste for Lady Susan. Austen uses sarcasm to characterize Lady Susan as a woman who attempts to acquire the attentions of men without any personal affection. Lady Susan teases men for her benefit and enjoyment. By using another character’s sarcasm to characterize Lady Susan, Austen emphasizes how other character’s view Lady Susan, not how the author alone views Lady Susan.

Works Cited: "coquette." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 8 March 2009 <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coquette>

Satirizing Wealth

2009-03-08T14:37:00.000-04:00

“Charles is very rich I am sure; when a man has once got his name in a banking-house he rolls in money; but they do not know what to do with it, keep very little company, and never go to London but on business.” (V).

Austen’s satirical writing style shows through at this moment, when Lady Susan is discussing her attitude toward her brother-in-law, Charles’ wealth. Austen uses Lady Susan’s lust for wealth to show how money is the most important thing in many people’s lives. Austen has captured a timeless truth with Lady Susan’s desire for money. Lady Susan believes that men are capable of earning money, but not capable of properly spending it, which is the job of a woman.

Deceitful Characterization

2009-03-08T14:36:00.000-04:00

“I passed off the letter as his wife's, to the Vernons, and when I write to him it must be under cover to you.” (V).

The structure of Lady Susan makes it challenging for Austen to properly depict her characters. For that reason, Austen must craft innovative ways to show her character’s defining features. Without blatantly saying it, Austen shows that Lady Susan is a selfish and deceitful woman. Lady Susan does not care that she is ruining another woman’s life for her own enjoyment, or that she is deceiving her family in order to do so. Austen uses Lady Susan’s selfish, flirtatious nature to demonstrate Austen’s disapproval for the state of women’s behavior at the time.

A Stupid Girl

2009-03-08T14:34:00.000-04:00

“She is a stupid girl, and has nothing to recommend her.” (VII).

Austen shows how cold-hearted Lady Susan is toward her friends and family, including her own daughter with this simple line. In a letter between Lady Susan and her friend Alicia, Lady Susan describes her daughter’s lack of opportunity. Lady Susan doesn’t see anything promising in her daughter, and desires to dispose of her by placing her in a boarding school. Austen disapproves of the attitudes and natures of women who belittle others, and always place themselves before others. Lady Susan is Austen’s vehicle for commenting on the behavior of society, specifically women like Lady Susan, who are selfish and care little for others.

High Class Boarding

2009-03-08T14:33:00.000-04:00

“I would not, therefore, on my account, have you encumber one moment of your precious time by sending for her to Edward Street, especially as every visit is so much deducted from the grand affair of education, which I really wish to have attended to while she remains at Miss Summers's.” (VII).

Miss Summer’s is a type of boarding reform school that Lady Susan sends her daughter to in an attempt to tame the wild child. The boarding school represents Lady Susan’s social standing, as most boarding schools are geared toward the upper class. Austen uses the boarding school to show that Lady Susan is part of the higher branch of society and to show how little she cares for her daughter. If Lady Susan truly cared for her daughter, she would not send her to a boarding school; she would keep her at home and instruct her herself.

Grace and Manner

2009-03-08T14:32:00.000-04:00

“It is throwing time away to be mistress of French, Italian, and German: music, singing, and drawing, &c., will gain a woman some applause, but will not add one lover to her list—grace and manner, after all, are of the greatest importance” (VII).

Lady Susan describes the qualities that she deems necessary for her daughter to have to be a proper wife. Instead of having intellectual qualities and solid education, Lady Susan wants her daughter to have grace and manner, neither of which are wrong to possess, but neither are necessary qualities for a woman to have to be a wife. Austen uses Lady Susan’s unnecessary request to characterize her as a woman with expectations that are not favorable. Austen also uses it to build on the theme of selfishness in the novel.

Arranging a Marriage

2009-03-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

“Ask him to your house occasionally, and talk to him of Frederica, that he may not forget her” (VII).

Lady Susan is intent on arranging a marriage between her daughter, Frederica, and Sir James, the man she deems suitable for her daughter. Lady Susan does not care about any affections between the two; she only wants a marriage for benefits that it will bring her. Lady Susan will go to whatever lengths necessary to ensure a marriage between her daughter and Sir James. Arranged marriages of this style were not as common during this time period, but they were not unheard of. The tone Austen uses throughout the novel and the absurd actions her characters take show that she disapproves of arranged marriages such as the one between Sir James and Frederica.