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This chapter is set in a dark room, without windows that probably is in the ministry of love.

Characters

Winston, O’ Brien, Parson and other prisoners.

Summary - Chapter one

The chapter opens with the description of a room without windows, in the centre a toilet bowl. Around the wall there is a bench. In this room there is Winston. He didn’t know how much time he had passed since he was imprisoned, since he had not eaten and he didn’t know if it was day or night. He also had a big stomachache. He tried to take a piece of bread in his pocket but a voice from the telescreen shouted to pull out his hands. He was among the prisoners, those belonging to the party and the other ones. The first were scared and unknown by the others. In prison there was corruption, favoritism, smuggling and prostitution. There was an endless arrival of prisoners, among these there were some acquaintances of Winston ; like Parson, his neighbour because he had committed a psycho crime. While he was sleeping he said: “Down with the Big Brother” and he said it over and over again, and his little daughter denounced him. Parson would admit that in the court of justice, he thanked the party for saving him before it was too late.

Between the prisoners (an old woman fat and bad-smelling and a man that was starving) there was also O’ Brien, a member of the party. Winston was astonished to see him in prison, but then O’ Brien reminded Winston that he knew that. Little by little all the prisoners went into the mysterious room 101. He remained alone.   

Summary - Chapter two

Winston was lying on a bed near O’ Brien and a man with a white coat and a syringe in a hand. Winston didn’t remember how long he had been there. He was put through torture for making him confess something. The problem was to understand what they wanted him to confess and so he told that he had killed some members of the party, and that he was an enemy of the party. He was questioned and he remembered only that he could not move by himself onto the bed. O’ Brien always knew what Winston thought. O’ Brien said that he wanted to help Winston. He made him many questions and when Winston didn’t answer what the party wanted to know he had a violent pain that finished only when O’ Brien lowered the lever. The pain was more when the lever was up. O’ Brien told Winston that anything the party said was true was really true. O’ Brien, Julia and the “doctors” wanted to help Winston to become intelligent again. When Winston finally answered correctly a needle was inserted in his arm and he felt a nice feeling. He had a sensation as if someone had taken away a piece of his brain.  O’ Brien asked him many questions that Winston answered correctly. O’ Brien got up satisfied. Another needle jerked into Winston’s arm. Winston was granted he could make some other questions to O’ Brien but he didn’t answer all of them. The session ended. The man with the white coat put another needle in Winston’s arm and he fell into a sound sleep.

Personal Comments

These chapters, particularly the second, are very interesting. They talk about the history of the totalitarian form of government, of the inquisition in the Middle Ages, of German Nazism and Russian Communism. In these chapters we arrive at a fundamental point in the social framework of 1984 world: the Doublethink. This way of interpreting the world and its history consisted in spreading information, being aware at the same time that each piece of information can be changed and become exactly opposite to the former one.

These two chapters of the third part show us the most cruel part of the Big Brother. Winston is in prison, here he can express his valour, but the physical pain and the psychological tortures have defeated him, and after resisting for a little, he confesses.

I think that the tortures that are described in these chapters are not a novelty in the history of Europe. In fact also the Inquisition (the court of law of the Christian church), in the Middle Ages and in the following centuries, tried to change the ideals of the condemned people. Like in 1984 world, the Inquisition did not kill the persons who abjured,  and this is what happened in the life of Galileo Galilei in 17^th century and in the life of Winston Smith in  world created by Orwell.

Quotations

In my opinion the sentences that are more meaningful to understand the sense of the chapters are the following:

   The confession was a formality, though the torture was real.

   His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly before the bulling started anew.

   He did not remember any ending to his interrogation. There was a period of blackness and then the cell, or room, in which he now was had gradually materialized round him.
”Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,” repeated Winston obediently.

   We, the party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?

   Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes:  only in the mind of the party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality by looking through the eyes of the party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.

   A needle slid into Winston’s arm. Almost in the same instant a blissful healing warmth spread all through his body. The pain already half-forgotten. He opened his eyes and looked up gratefully at Or Brien.

   The thought is all we care about.

By Michela and Mirko