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Thomas Stanton
Mrs. Fraser
Honors English IV 3rd Block
29 November 2010
Sexual Liberation in George Orwell’s 1984
The very basic drive of sexual lust and desire has been a powerful force in history, destroying
kingdoms, causing wars such as the Trojan War, and is even one of the principal reasons for Henry the
VIII’s break from the Catholic Church. It is a uncontrollable human instinct that is often depicted as
degenerative and destructive. This view is countered in George Orwell’s 1984 as the act of sex is seen
as a force of individualism and creates a sense of desire and humanity as the Party tries to subvert this
same drive and sublimate it to use for their own purposes. 1984 is a science fiction novel about a main
character Winston Smith who lives in a society completely controlled by an omnipotent individual
called “Big Brother” and the Inner Party. Every move they make, every thing they say is scrutinized by
a covert force called the Thought Police. This force is used to root out political rebels before they can
effectively mount a revolution. Winston is faced with an internal conflict as he feels something must be
better than this and is awakened to desire and happines as he commits sexual rebellion with a co-
worker Julia. It then details his joining of a quasi-underground organization to fight the Party and his
eventual breakdown by the Thought Police and reconstruction into a fully brainwashed member of the
Party. In the end of the novel he meets Julia for the last time and mentions “They could have lain down
on the ground and done that if they had wanted to. His flesh froze with horror at the thought of it”
(Orwell 291). As part of Winston’s rehabilitation his sex drive was destroyed, the same tool that he uses
to discover his individualism and create his desire for life is the same thing the Inner Party oppresses in
order to control the masses.
The Party controls the masses by creating a completely consistent workforce. They destroy all
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forms of the individual and along with it any independent thoughts or ideas; Winston’s sexual encounter
and relationship with Julia is the avoidance of this destruction and his awakening to his own
individualism. Through this act Winston is awakened into a new realm of spirtuality. This bond that he
now shares with Julia is something that the Party can not touch, even after they destroy him and make
him betray Julia he still feels a connection towards her. Upon their last meeting he states “after that you
don’t feel the same toward the other person any longer” (Orwell 292) yet when Julia hears that he
betrayed her gives him a look of dislike as if she was shocked or surprised. This suggests that Julia still
held him as a figure of good incapable of betraying her, which suggests some sort of attraction or love.
In fact one of the few memories the Thought Police were not able to destroy was his love he once had
with Julia as he sheds tears over the memory of betraying her even after being rehabilitated. This love
that he has was unique to him and Julia making the event that he had his and his alone. As stated by
