Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Explain the fatal attraction between Winston and Julia in 1984.

In 1984, there is only a fatal
attraction between Winston and Julia if you believe that Julia is not an agent of the
Inner Party.  If she is, there is obviously no attraction from Julia's end: she is
merely performing a role.  If she is not a double-agent, then these reasons might
explain her siren's lure to
Winston:


  • Julia is all that Winston
    is not.
    Whereas Winston is meek and introverted, afraid of rebellion,
    Julia goes to extremes for the party (her involvement in the Junior Anti-Sex League) and
    against it (by going to the room above the shop and to the Golden Country).  Whereas
    Winston is a rebel above the waist only, Julia is a rebel below the waist.  She uses her
    sex to attract Winston.

  • Julia reminds
    Winston of his mother.
    The psychological torture that the culture places
    on children to love the state instead of their parents causes Winston to be conflicted
    in his feelings for his mother.  He loves her, but feels she somehow abandon him.
     Sleeping with Julia fills this void, causing Winston to begin to remember his mother
    fondly.

  • Winston and Julia are like Adam and
    Eve.
    Both are sinning on purpose to get into the Garden of Eden, or
    establish a private relationship outside the eyes of Big Brother.  The two need each
    other to create a haven from the heartless world.  Their attraction comes in feeling
    like they are the only two people on earth who have this private hideaway.

  • Really, though, Julia is but a placeholder
    for Winston's real fatal attraction: Goldstein's Book.
    Winston is rebel
    above the waist, and he wants to understand rebellion instead of really participating in
    it.  He wants to be a prophet and proselytizer of rebellion, so he must read and
    comprehend that book.  This is how O'Brien catches him so
    easily:

readability="14">

The book fascinated him, or more exactly it
reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the
attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been
possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind
similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less
fear-ridden.



So, we know that
Goldstein's book is a decoy, written by O'Brien in order to lure in intellectual rebels.
 Might Julia have been a decoy as well?  Or, is there some psychological connection
between Winston and Julia that causes them to, even for a few moments, exist outside the
world, knowing full well that they will, in the end, be caught and tortured.  So, does
it matter if Julia is a decoy or not?  Aren't all in 1984 attracted to pain
regardless?

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