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M.A. Sem – 2
Paper no. :107 Twentieth Century Literature : From World War ll to the End of the
Century
Roll number :02
Enrollment no. : 4069206420210034
Email Id : bhavnasosa211@gmail.com
Submitted by : S.B. Gardi Department of English, MKBU

 Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name George Orwell.
 Born in India but moved back to England when he was four years old.
 He was an English novelist, journalist and critic.
 Served in ww ll as a Home gaurd in England.
 His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to
totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
 Also worked for the BBC Eastern service from 1940-1943.
 Wrote Nineteen Eighty Four in 1949.

Totalitarianism is a form of government that attempts to assert total control over
the lives of its citizens. It is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to
control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. It
does not permit individual freedom. Traditional social institutions and
organizations are discouraged and suppressed, making people more willing to be
merged into a single unified movement. Totalitarian states typically pursue a
special goal to the exclusion of all others, with all resources directed toward its
attainment, regardless of the cost.

Totalitarianism in George Orwell's 1984

 Totalitarianism is the “form of government that theoretically permits no
individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of the individual’s life
to the authority of the government.”
 ‘Totalitarianism’ denoted a society in which political power was in the hands of a
dictator or ‘leader’ and a nontraditional ruling elite; the mass of the population
was not only politically powerless but deprived of all intellectual and cultural
resources”
 In Nazi Germany, the citizens were overcoming a huge depression resulting from
the loss in World War I.

 In the Soviet Union, the people overthrew an unproductive, uncaring Tsarist
government.
 “In 1948, when Orwell’s 1984 was first published, World War II had just ended.”
 During World War II, mass murders were ordered by totalitarian leaders like
Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin.
 A totalitarian government works to control the mind of the people. One way to
induce subservience is to control pleasure.
 The Party controls people by limiting and suppressing pleasure.

 To remove the pleasure from society diminishes the morale of the people, allowing
the government to enforce its will. Sex is a social activity looked down upon by the
Party through organizations like the Junior Anti-Sex League.
 Totalitarianism is a tempting option for countries overcome with poverty.
 Orwell advises to the citizens of those countries to not select that path.
 Countries like Germany, Italy, and Russia have instilled totalitarian government
into their countries, causing many deaths, and many to lose freedoms.

 Both forms of government discourage individual freedom of thought and action.
 Totalitarianism attempts to do this by asserting total control over the lives of its
citizens, whereas authoritarianism prefers the blind submission of its citizens to
authority.
 While totalitarian states tend to have a highly developed guiding ideology,
authoritarian states usually do not.
 Totalitarian states suppress traditional social organizations, whereas
authoritarian states will tolerate some social organizations based on traditional or
special interests.
 Unlike totalitarian states, authoritarian states lack the power to mobilize the
entire population in pursuit of national goals, and any actions undertaken by the
state are usually within relatively predictable limits.

UKEssays. (November 2018). Totalitarianism in Orwell’s 1984. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/politics/totalitarianism-in-orwells-1984-politics-
essay.php?vref=1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
https://www.britannica.com/topic/totalitarianism

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Totalitarianism in George Orwell's 1984

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