Room 101
Encyclopedia
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
.
Such is the purported omniscience
of the state
in the society of Nineteen Eighty-Four that even a citizen's nightmares are known to the Party. The nightmare, and therefore the threatened punishment, of the protagonist Winston Smith
is to be attacked by rat
s. Smith saves himself by begging the authorities to let his lover, Julia
, have her face gnawed by the ferocious rodents instead. The torture, and what Winston does to escape it, breaks his last promise to himself and to Julia: never to betray her emotionally. The book suggests that Julia is likewise subjected to her own worst fear, and when she and Winston later meet in a park, he notices a scar on her forehead. The original intent of threatening Winston with the rats was not necessarily to go through with the act, but to force him into betraying the only person he loved and therefore break his spirit.
Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings.
, many members of the Technocratic Union are mages who have been kidnapped and "processed" (indoctrinated) in the infamous "Room 101", and "deviants" are otherwise sent there for a torturous re-conditioning process.
Room 101 has also become a popular name for a place where unpleasant things are done. On the British TV show Room 101
, celebrities are interviewed and asked to list their pet peeves, which are then condemned to the unseen room, or not, at the discretion of the host.
In the 2005 series of Big Brother (UK)
, a housemate was required to enter a Room 101 to complete tedious and unpleasant tasks, including sorting different colours of maggots.
There is a song by Carcass
named Room 101 on their album Swansong
.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
, the physical location of Room 101 (and the Ministry of Love) is given as the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.
According to Anna Funder
's book Stasiland
, Erich Mielke
, the last Minister of State Security (Stasi
) of the former GDR, had the floors of the Stasi headquarters renumbered so that his second floor office would be number 101.
When one of the possible original room 101s at the BBC was due to be demolished, a plaster cast was made by artist Rachel Whiteread
. The cast was displayed in the cast courts
of the Victoria and Albert Museum
from November 2003 until June 2004.
In the 2011 Doctor Who
episode, The God Complex
, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in a hotel full of their own personal Room 101's, each with their greatest fear in it.
In the Video Game "Fallout 3" the character starts the game in a "Vault 101", under a totalitarian rule from its overseer, likely a reference to Room 101.
In The Matrix
, the number on Neo's apartment room is 101.
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...
by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. It is a torture chamber
Torture chamber
A torture chamber is a room where torture is inflicted.- Methods of coercion :According to Frederick Howard Wines in his book Punishment and Reformation: A Study Of The Penitentiary System there were three main types of coercion employed in the torture chamber: Coercion by the cord, by water and...
in the Ministry of Love
Ministry of Love
The Ministry of Love is one of the four ministries that govern Oceania in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four....
in which the Party attempts to subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
, fear or phobia
Phobia
A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational...
.
Such is the purported omniscience
Omniscience
Omniscience omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing"...
of the state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
in the society of Nineteen Eighty-Four that even a citizen's nightmares are known to the Party. The nightmare, and therefore the threatened punishment, of the protagonist 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"...
is to be attacked by rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s. Smith saves himself by begging the authorities to let his lover, Julia
Julia (1984)
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....
, have her face gnawed by the ferocious rodents instead. The torture, and what Winston does to escape it, breaks his last promise to himself and to Julia: never to betray her emotionally. The book suggests that Julia is likewise subjected to her own worst fear, and when she and Winston later meet in a park, he notices a scar on her forehead. The original intent of threatening Winston with the rats was not necessarily to go through with the act, but to force him into betraying the only person he loved and therefore break his spirit.
Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings.
Cultural impact
The novel's popularity has resulted in the term "Room 101" being referred to in many fictional works. For example, in the tabletop role-playing game Mage: The AscensionMage: The Ascension
Mage: The Ascension is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic...
, many members of the Technocratic Union are mages who have been kidnapped and "processed" (indoctrinated) in the infamous "Room 101", and "deviants" are otherwise sent there for a torturous re-conditioning process.
Room 101 has also become a popular name for a place where unpleasant things are done. On the British TV show Room 101
Room 101 (TV series)
Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities were invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign them to a fate worse than death in Room 101, named after the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is...
, celebrities are interviewed and asked to list their pet peeves, which are then condemned to the unseen room, or not, at the discretion of the host.
In the 2005 series of Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, a housemate was required to enter a Room 101 to complete tedious and unpleasant tasks, including sorting different colours of maggots.
There is a song by Carcass
Carcass
Carcass may refer to:*Cadaver of a human, or carrion of an animal.*Carcass , a death metal/grindcore band*Carcass , a type of incendiary ammunition designed to be fired from a cannon, three ships of the Royal Navy...
named Room 101 on their album Swansong
Swansong
Swansong is the final studio album by the British extreme metal band Carcass. It was released on June 10, 1996 in the UK by Earache Records. It is the only album to feature guitarist Carlo Regadas...
.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
, the physical location of Room 101 (and the Ministry of Love) is given as the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.
According to Anna Funder
Anna Funder
Anna Funder is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She studied creative writing at the University of Melbourne, also later studying at the Free University of Berlin as the recipient in 1994 of a DAAD Scholarship...
's book Stasiland
Stasiland
Stasiland: Oh Wasn't it so Terrible - True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall Stasiland: Oh Wasn't it so Terrible - True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall Stasiland: Oh Wasn't it so Terrible - True Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall (Stasiland: Ach, war es nicht so schrecklich - Wahre...
, Erich Mielke
Erich Mielke
Erich Fritz Emil Mielke was a German communist politician and Minister of State Security—and as such head of the Stasi —of the German Democratic Republic between 1957 and 1989. Mielke spent more than a decade as an operative of the NKVD during the rule of Joseph Stalin...
, the last Minister of State Security (Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
) of the former GDR, had the floors of the Stasi headquarters renumbered so that his second floor office would be number 101.
When one of the possible original room 101s at the BBC was due to be demolished, a plaster cast was made by artist Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread
Rachel Whiteread, CBE is an English artist, best known for her sculptures, which typically take the form of casts. She won the annual Turner Prize in 1993—the first woman to win the prize....
. The cast was displayed in the cast courts
Cast Courts (Victoria and Albert Museum)
The Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, comprise two large halls. Unusually for a museum, the Cast Courts house a collection not of originals, but copies. Here are to be found reproductions of some of the most famous sculptures in the world...
of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
from November 2003 until June 2004.
In the 2011 Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode, The God Complex
The God Complex
"The God Complex" is the eleventh episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One, BBC America and Space on 17 September 2011.-Plot summary:...
, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in a hotel full of their own personal Room 101's, each with their greatest fear in it.
In the Video Game "Fallout 3" the character starts the game in a "Vault 101", under a totalitarian rule from its overseer, likely a reference to Room 101.
In The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
, the number on Neo's apartment room is 101.