In 1984, George Orwell
brings a mysterious character to light and informs the reader that her name is
Julia. Before she passes off the note to Winston, I agreed with much of his
anger against her. Although Winston’s feelings were outright villainous, anyone
who turns others in to the Thought Police is by definition a “bad guy.” I was
almost as stunned as Winston when she passed him off the note saying “I love
you.” Winston had not even considered that possibility for what the note could
say. Although Winston and Julia live in an oppressive society, I cannot approve
their behavior. She may be providing a release for Winston’s and her own pent
up psyche, but their licentious behavior is not acceptable. There is also
something horrid about the fact that Julia has had many indiscriminate
relationships with people up to age sixty. She is very selfish as demonstrated
by her reaction to Winston’s failure to push his wife off the cliff. Anyone who
hinders her freedom of expression, not just the Party, deserves to be destroyed.
For the first part of their
relationship, she struck me as a cunning mastermind who worked tirelessly to
appear supportive of the government while at the same time plotted against it. Even
though nothing has been mentioned about an actual attempt to overthrow the
government, Julia is an ardent rebel. Yet her rebellion is a personal one. Her
rebellion is shown through her carefree attitude in her treasured places of
escape and her willingness to trash talk the Party and its ways. She finds an
acute joy in being exactly the sort of person the party does not want people to
be. Unlike Winston, she has no belief in the possibility of actually
overthrowing the government, but at the same time is far more bold than Winston
in private insurrection. She cares primarily about freedom of emotion and does
not even understand political freedom. After seeing her careful instructions
for directions and her well orchestrated plans of meeting, her apolitical
mindset seems contrary to her carefully planned behavior. I wonder if Winston’s
interaction with Julia will give him the exposure to the true public mindset
and the opportunity to express his views that he needs in order to begin a large
scale rebellion.
I predicted that Julia was on Winston's side against the Party, but I did not expect her to say she loves him. I also disapprove of their relationship, but they have few other options to form a relationship because of the restrictions under the strict control of the Party. Although Julia desire to incite rebellion, I think her relationship will be beneficial to Winston's plans because of her connections in the Inner Party and appearance as an actively loyal Party member.
ReplyDeleteI think your characterization of Julia is very accurate. While I don't share your views on the immorality of their relationship (look at their atmosphere; what else could they do?), Julia is a very different kind of rebellious than Winston, and while she seems to actually get more done, it has no effect on anyone but herself. That, to me, is the biggest difference between her and Winston: he seems to want to make the world a better place by removing the Party, but she seems to be largely in it for herself.
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