The nightmare of totalitarianism : the dystopia of Nineteen eighty-four and Brave new world

Abstract

In this dissertation I compare two dystopian novels - Nineteen Eighty-Four (1947) by George Orwell and Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley. I also make frequent references to We (1924) by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin. The thread that runs throughout this dissertation has a single theme, namely power, and how it is maintained by the totalitarian regimes that feature in the three novels. I shall argue that whether the methods of control are benevolent or aggressive, similar or different from each other, the result is the same - total power over individual will and debasement of the human condition. Furthermore I point out, through a continuous close reading of the three novels, that once a totalitarian regime is instated, overthrowing it becomes next to impossible, and society either accepts it, or lives in total oblivion of its situation. The few who try to resist it are inevitably eliminated. Chapter one starts by my placing the three novels in context, and illustrates how contemporary events influenced the writing of these novels. The next chapter compares the different methods of control used to maintain power in the various accounts. In chapter three I draw on certain aspects of this comparison and discuss them in light of the theories of power and ideology by Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser respectively. I tie together the threads of the argument in the conclusion, by further illustrating the effects of totalitarianism, while pointing out how, paradoxically, certain tools of control can be found in our own society today.