Julia (1984)
Encyclopedia
Julia is a fictional character
in George Orwell
's dystopian novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four
. Her last name is never given in the novel but she is called Dixon in the 1954 BBC TV production
.
Julia was born in 1958 in Oceania, the super-state combining North America
, South America
, Southern Africa
, Australia
, New Zealand
and the United Kingdom
(renamed Airstrip One). Her knowledge of events before the revolution is inaccurate as her grandfather, the only close source to her with that knowledge, disappeared when she was eight. Julia integrated herself into the daily life of Oceania early, becoming an especially zealous propagandist for the Junior Anti-Sex League, the Two Minutes Hate
, and Community Centres. However, this behaviour served as cover for Julia to become a sexually promiscuous rebel. She had her first affair with a Party member at the age of sixteen.
, a Party co-founder who claims the Revolution was betrayed. Winston Smith
, a fellow worker in the Ministry of Truth, is both aroused by Julia's beauty and disgusted by her fervor, and fantasizes about raping
and murder
ing her. Winston also fears that Julia is a member of the Thought Police
prepared to denounce him.
Months later, Winston bumps into Julia on her way from the Fiction Department and receives a small paper from her. After ensuring his privacy in his cubicle at work (no easy feat due to the omnipresent two-way telescreens), he unfolds the note and reads what Julia wrote: "I love you." Winston makes arrangements with Julia to meet in the crowd at Victory Square
; over the next several months, they arrange to meet and engage in sexual acts in a variety of places outside London
.
Winston finds in Julia a fellow thoughtcriminal
(as well as a sex criminal); they decide to live life to the fullest while dodging the Party whenever possible.
This is mortally dangerous, for sexual love between Party members is strictly forbidden: even within marriage, sex is to be viewed as something disgusting, a duty performed only to beget children for the service of the Party. Julia believes the Party tries to bottle up the sex drive and transform it into hysteria and leader-worship: very desirable qualities in the ultimate totalitarian state that is Oceania.
The lovers know fully well that they will soon be detected and arrested, and Julia observes that "everybody always confesses. You can't help it. They torture
you." Winston argues that "confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you — that would be the real betrayal." Julia believes this is "the one thing they can't do...they can't get inside you". The lovers are able to derive some comfort from this, believing that their love will remain intact even when they are arrested and tortured: "If the object was not to stay alive but to stay human," Winston reflects, "what difference [would] it ultimately make? They could not alter your feelings."
When Inner Party member O'Brien drops a hint that he is a member of the mysterious anti-Party Brotherhood, Winston and Julia come to meet him. When O'Brien tests their willingness to do whatever the Brotherhood asks, Julia shouts "No!" when he asks whether she and Winston are prepared to separate and never see each other again. Winston agrees with a heavy heart. Days later, when Winston and Julia are staying in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop and have read parts of Goldstein's book
, they are arrested by the Thought Police.
O'Brien is really a faithful Party member, a torturer who brainwashes those who have gone astray (in order to "make them perfect" before they are executed). He claims that Winston had been under surveillance for seven years. The reader never knows if the Thought Police had previously detected Julia's thoughtcriminal tendencies as well. If not, it was her love for Winston that doomed her.
While interrogating Winston, O'Brien claims that Julia caved in immediately to the Party's pressure: "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately — unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness — everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case." Winston (and the reader) obviously cannot know if O'Brien is telling the truth.
During months of torture and brainwashing, Winston surrenders intellectually, but strives to keep his innermost heart inviolate: He knows he will eventually be killed, but secretly he intends to continue hating Big Brother (the embodiment of the Party) — and loving Julia. One tiny victory he reserves for his moment of death: The Party could not change his feelings and make him betray Julia in his heart.
However, Winston's resolve to continue loving Julia is burned away when he finally enters Room 101
. Winston has a particular horror of rats. Knowing this, O'Brien threatens to let rats devour Winston's face, and in utter desperation he finally begs his torturers that they do this to Julia instead.
Julia is seen one last time in the novel, when she meets Winston after they have both been processed by the Party and restored to orthodox thought. They agree nothing — not even sex — matters any more, because what they felt for each other is gone. Julia explains to Winston that "sometimes...they threaten you with something — something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, 'Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.' ... And after that, you don't feel the same towards the other person any longer". It seems, then, that her experience exactly mirrors Winston's own: she was taken to Room 101 and betrayed him there (it is not revealed what she was threatened with; she did not share Winston's particular horror of rats). It is also suggested that she was given a lobotomy
("...and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple..."). This would have resulted in her personality change as they would have had to remove the prefrontal cortex
, the brain region implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviours, personality expression, moderating correct social behaviour and considered to be in charge of the orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. Yet Winston notes that whatever caused the scar "was not the change". Perhaps the passage is just noting that Julia took longer to betray Winston than Winston did to Julia, as shown by the scar on her face — possibly showing that Julia had greater feelings of love for Winston, or that Winston was weaker in character.
Shortly before O'Brien sends Winston to Room 101, Winston suddenly feels as if Julia were inside himself; he somehow knows that "somewhere or other she was still alive and needed his help". If this is meant to be real mental contact, this could suggest that Winston perceived the moment when Julia was threatened with her own worst nightmare in Room 101. If so, O'Brien was lying when he claimed (much earlier) that Julia had instantly surrendered to the will of the Party: Julia would actually have held out almost as long as Winston himself. Both lovers could have been told, separately, of their supposed betrayal by the other in order to break their spirits.
As the novel closes, Winston discovers that his love for Julia has been replaced by love for Big Brother — the only form of love that is approved in Oceania. Tragically, Julia was ultimately wrong: "they" could indeed "get inside you" and alter even "your" feelings.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's dystopian novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
. Her last name is never given in the novel but she is called Dixon in the 1954 BBC TV production
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
.
Julia was born in 1958 in Oceania, the super-state combining North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(renamed Airstrip One). Her knowledge of events before the revolution is inaccurate as her grandfather, the only close source to her with that knowledge, disappeared when she was eight. Julia integrated herself into the daily life of Oceania early, becoming an especially zealous propagandist for the Junior Anti-Sex League, the Two Minutes Hate
Two Minutes Hate
In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Two Minutes Hate is a daily period in which Party members of the society of Oceania must watch a film depicting the Party's enemies and express their hatred for them.-Details in Nineteen Eighty-Four:The film and its accompanying auditory and...
, and Community Centres. However, this behaviour served as cover for Julia to become a sexually promiscuous rebel. She had her first affair with a Party member at the age of sixteen.
Fictional character history
Julia first appears in Nineteen Eighty-Four at the age of 26, an enthusiastic participant in the Two Minutes Hate directed against Emmanuel GoldsteinEmmanuel Goldstein
Emmanuel Goldstein is a character in George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is the number one enemy of the people according to Big Brother and the Party, who heads a mysterious and possibly fictitious anti-party organization called The Brotherhood...
, a Party co-founder who claims the Revolution was betrayed. Winston Smith
Winston Smith
Winston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with"...
, a fellow worker in the Ministry of Truth, is both aroused by Julia's beauty and disgusted by her fervor, and fantasizes about raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ing her. Winston also fears that Julia is a member of the Thought Police
Thought Police
The Thought Police is the secret police of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.It is the job of the Thought Police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime and thought-criminals, using psychology and omnipresent surveillance from telescreens to monitor, search, find and kill...
prepared to denounce him.
Months later, Winston bumps into Julia on her way from the Fiction Department and receives a small paper from her. After ensuring his privacy in his cubicle at work (no easy feat due to the omnipresent two-way telescreens), he unfolds the note and reads what Julia wrote: "I love you." Winston makes arrangements with Julia to meet in the crowd at Victory Square
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly...
; over the next several months, they arrange to meet and engage in sexual acts in a variety of places outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Winston finds in Julia a fellow thoughtcriminal
Thoughtcrime
In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, a thoughtcrime is an illegal type of thought.In the book, the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labelling disapproved thought as thoughtcrime or, in Newspeak,...
(as well as a sex criminal); they decide to live life to the fullest while dodging the Party whenever possible.
This is mortally dangerous, for sexual love between Party members is strictly forbidden: even within marriage, sex is to be viewed as something disgusting, a duty performed only to beget children for the service of the Party. Julia believes the Party tries to bottle up the sex drive and transform it into hysteria and leader-worship: very desirable qualities in the ultimate totalitarian state that is Oceania.
The lovers know fully well that they will soon be detected and arrested, and Julia observes that "everybody always confesses. You can't help it. They torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
you." Winston argues that "confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you — that would be the real betrayal." Julia believes this is "the one thing they can't do...they can't get inside you". The lovers are able to derive some comfort from this, believing that their love will remain intact even when they are arrested and tortured: "If the object was not to stay alive but to stay human," Winston reflects, "what difference [would] it ultimately make? They could not alter your feelings."
When Inner Party member O'Brien drops a hint that he is a member of the mysterious anti-Party Brotherhood, Winston and Julia come to meet him. When O'Brien tests their willingness to do whatever the Brotherhood asks, Julia shouts "No!" when he asks whether she and Winston are prepared to separate and never see each other again. Winston agrees with a heavy heart. Days later, when Winston and Julia are staying in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop and have read parts of Goldstein's book
Goldstein's book
The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, by Emmanuel Goldstein, is the fictional book that is a thematic and plot element integral to the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , by George Orwell...
, they are arrested by the Thought Police.
O'Brien is really a faithful Party member, a torturer who brainwashes those who have gone astray (in order to "make them perfect" before they are executed). He claims that Winston had been under surveillance for seven years. The reader never knows if the Thought Police had previously detected Julia's thoughtcriminal tendencies as well. If not, it was her love for Winston that doomed her.
While interrogating Winston, O'Brien claims that Julia caved in immediately to the Party's pressure: "She betrayed you, Winston. Immediately — unreservedly. I have seldom seen anyone come over to us so promptly. You would hardly recognize her if you saw her. All her rebelliousness, her deceit, her folly, her dirty-mindedness — everything has been burned out of her. It was a perfect conversion, a textbook case." Winston (and the reader) obviously cannot know if O'Brien is telling the truth.
During months of torture and brainwashing, Winston surrenders intellectually, but strives to keep his innermost heart inviolate: He knows he will eventually be killed, but secretly he intends to continue hating Big Brother (the embodiment of the Party) — and loving Julia. One tiny victory he reserves for his moment of death: The Party could not change his feelings and make him betray Julia in his heart.
However, Winston's resolve to continue loving Julia is burned away when he finally enters Room 101
Room 101
Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia....
. Winston has a particular horror of rats. Knowing this, O'Brien threatens to let rats devour Winston's face, and in utter desperation he finally begs his torturers that they do this to Julia instead.
Julia is seen one last time in the novel, when she meets Winston after they have both been processed by the Party and restored to orthodox thought. They agree nothing — not even sex — matters any more, because what they felt for each other is gone. Julia explains to Winston that "sometimes...they threaten you with something — something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, 'Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.' ... And after that, you don't feel the same towards the other person any longer". It seems, then, that her experience exactly mirrors Winston's own: she was taken to Room 101 and betrayed him there (it is not revealed what she was threatened with; she did not share Winston's particular horror of rats). It is also suggested that she was given a lobotomy
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
("...and there was a long scar, partly hidden by the hair, across her forehead and temple..."). This would have resulted in her personality change as they would have had to remove the prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior...
, the brain region implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviours, personality expression, moderating correct social behaviour and considered to be in charge of the orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals. Yet Winston notes that whatever caused the scar "was not the change". Perhaps the passage is just noting that Julia took longer to betray Winston than Winston did to Julia, as shown by the scar on her face — possibly showing that Julia had greater feelings of love for Winston, or that Winston was weaker in character.
Shortly before O'Brien sends Winston to Room 101, Winston suddenly feels as if Julia were inside himself; he somehow knows that "somewhere or other she was still alive and needed his help". If this is meant to be real mental contact, this could suggest that Winston perceived the moment when Julia was threatened with her own worst nightmare in Room 101. If so, O'Brien was lying when he claimed (much earlier) that Julia had instantly surrendered to the will of the Party: Julia would actually have held out almost as long as Winston himself. Both lovers could have been told, separately, of their supposed betrayal by the other in order to break their spirits.
As the novel closes, Winston discovers that his love for Julia has been replaced by love for Big Brother — the only form of love that is approved in Oceania. Tragically, Julia was ultimately wrong: "they" could indeed "get inside you" and alter even "your" feelings.
Variations
- Studio OneStudio One (TV series)Studio One is a long-running American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by the 26-year-old Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC.-Radio:...
: "1984", television adaptation from 19531953 in televisionThe year 1953 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1953.-Events:*January 19 – 68% of all US television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth to little Ricky....
: Norma CraneNorma CraneNorma Crane was an actress of stage, film and television. Among her best known roles was that of Golde in the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. She also starred in They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and Penelope... - Nineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
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, film adaptation directed by Michael AndersonMichael Anderson (director)Michael Joseph Anderson, Sr. is an English film director, best known for directing The Dam Busters , Around the World in 80 Days and Logan's Run .-Early life:...
in 19561956 in filmThe year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
: Jan SterlingJan SterlingJan Sterling was an American actress.Most active in films during the 1950s, Sterling received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The High and the Mighty , and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the same performance... - Theatre 625Theatre 625Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line...
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: Jane MerrowJane MerrowJane Merrow is a British actress, born in London to an English mother and German refugee, who was active in the 1960s and 1970s in England and the US. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art... - Nineteen Eighty-FourNineteen Eighty-Four (film)Nineteen Eighty-Four is a 1984 British science fiction film, based upon George Orwell's novel of the same name, following the life of Winston Smith in Oceania, a country run by a totalitarian government...
, film adaptation directed by Michael RadfordMichael RadfordMichael Radford is an English film director and screenwriter.-Early life and career:Radford was born on 24 February 1946, in New Delhi, India, to a British father and an Austrian Jewish mother. He was educated at Bedford School before attending Worcester College, Oxford...
in 19841984 in film-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
: Suzanna HamiltonSuzanna HamiltonSuzanna Hamilton is an English actress. She is most famous for her performance as Julia in the modern film adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.-Early career:...