Presentation Of Authoritarian Control In George Orwell's 1984 And Brave New World

In the two novels ’Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley and ‘1984’ by George Orwell, authoritarian control is a recurring theme throughout both plots. The two authors, who were influenced by their experiences of war on a large scale during the twentieth century were saddened and alarmed by what they saw in society. This consequently lead them to produce powerful satire and their own disturbing vision of future possibilities. Although the two books are very dissimilar, they address many of the same issues in contrasting ways. Within Huxley's novel, he presents a world in which society is kept carefully balanced, with the aspect of production and reproduction closely controlled. The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are drawn out of children at a young age. The society presented in 1984 is less comfortably balanced. The totalitarian government and the leading party controls everything in Oceania, even the people’s history and language. All the people are under total surveillance and thoughts against the party are punishable by death.

‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ both represent dystopian worlds where all actions and behaviours are controlled by the ruling state. The State maintains its stability and power through the control of its citizens. Within Huxley’s novel, the world controllers maintain power through the use of technological advances and inventions. Moreover, the new world manages to slyly control the population through ensuring that they are satisfied and happy enough that they forget about all aspects of freedom. The manipulation of the state results in loss of dignity, values, morals and eventually the loss of humanity. In comparison, Orwell’s novel provides a different sense of control through the government and Big Brother and their power to restrict knowledge and the mind of people. This is due to the government rewriting all documents to eliminate any words that could be used to oppose the leading party and Big Brother.

One of the main factors in ‘1984’ that influences the control over the population of Oceania is the constant reminder of Big Brother’s presence. Big Brother controls aspects such as thoughts and knowledge and also controls people physically. All over the Airstrip One, there are constant reminders that ‘Big Brother is watching you’ alongside large posters picturing a massive face and eyes that follow people wherever they go. In addition to that, telescreens are positioned in every house to ensure that there is total surveillance over everyone’s activities. These methods instil fear into everyone who always have to watch out what they say and do as torture and being arrested act as a price for rebelling against the party. Furthermore, the children of families are taught to report their parents to the police if they speak against the government and its values. Citizens need to watch out who they talk to as anyone could be a member of the ‘thought police’ who are a secret organisation employed by the government to monitor people’s thoughts to eliminate any threats who think about rebelling. The substantial use of fear by the party in ‘1984’ acts as a strong method of control as it prevents people stepping out of line and opposing the party and helps to manipulate people’s thoughts and ideologies.

On the other hand, in ‘Brave New World,’ Huxley features his satirical skills and his interest in science within the novel to create a dystopian environment and a world where the government controls society through science and technology. Orwell wrote his novel in 1949, after experiencing the dangers of a totalitarian government and during the great struggle of the Cold War and the arms race which so powerfully underlined the role of technology in the modern world. However, Huxley anticipated all of these developments and ‘Brave New World’ was published a year before Hitler came into power and seven years before World War Two broke out. After the events of the atomic bomb being dropped, the cold war began, thirteen years after the publication of the book. Therefore, his novel reflects many of the experiences he has been through, such as the American stock market crash and the depression which lead him to examine the way technology was taking over the world. He also wrote the novel as a warning against the new implements practices.

Propaganda is in my opinion, the most powerful method of control used by Big Brother and the government in ‘1984’. On the other hand, ‘Brave New World’ uses technology instead. There are various ministries that operate and assist in keeping control of the citizens of the state. The Ministry of Truth comes into play as they are responsible for the creation of propaganda and historical revisionism. Furthermore, Big Brother has control over everything including people’s food, clothing, money and their general health. Due to being under full control, the citizens believe that they cannot live without him. The phrase, ‘Big Brother’ suggests that he is a figure to look up to and someone to depend on which acts as a manipulative method to gain the populations full attention. In addition, it also lures people into a full sense of security and people thinking that they are being protected. The fact that citizens are not permitted to possess personal documents such as diaries, books and photographs prevents them from saving past information. As a result of this, it enables the government to manipulate the present and past and people’s perspective on the party.

A significantly strong method the World State uses in ‘Brave New World’ to control people is through technological advancements. For instance, the state controls the reproduction process through surgically removing ovaries and adapting the Bokanovsky Process (cloning process.) This results in human beings not being able to produce live offspring and instead, the ovaries would be fertilised and artificially modified to become clones of each other. Here, it is evident that the world State is controlling sexual reproduction to the extent that people are unable to have children of their own. The State is also destroying potential families in order to gain full loyalty from the people. Furthermore, the offspring produced would be genetically modified to create the ideal society valued by the world controllers. ‘Conditioning’ is also a key element within society in ‘Brave New World’ and occurs during the delta period of peoples lives. This is a process where young children go through certain experiences in order to be predisposed to the same experiences in the future when they are older. For example, ‘Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked’ suggests that the state are putting the ‘deltas’ through the process to ensure that they will be content in the future with their menial work. Moreover, they will not want to know anymore because of their predisposition to books and nature. It is clear here, that the controllers attempt to control the population from a young age through physical and mental manipulation.

In addition to reproduction, the world state also uses a variety of technology including entertainment machines to keep citizens happy and contempt. The machines provide people with harmless leisure and encourage a substantial level of consumption. The machines focus on maintaining the stability of society through creating a happy, unified and superficial world through the creation of ‘feelies.’ This is motion picture that provides the viewer with sense and touch while watching what is essentially ‘pornography’. The quote, ‘otherwise you won’t get the feelie effects’ suggests that the citizens take pleasure in watching the ‘pornography.’ We can also infer that through watching the feelies, the state is able to control peoples sexual desire and prevent them from participating in actions that would be oppose the states laws. Yet again, the presentation of control shown through the use of scientific and technological advancements as supposed to the methods of authoritarian control presented in ‘1984.’

Surveillance is one of the most important methods of control within in Oceania (1984), the most common form of surveillance is through a telescreen. Situated everywhere around airstrip one is a two-way screen, in every apartment and on every street but their only function is the monitoring of everyone’s actions and implementation of propaganda. The leading party gets a simultaneous image of what its population is up to. Even the smallest details such as a facial expression or gesture can be recognised by the party. Only certain members of a high position within the inner party have the ability to turn them off for a short period. In addition to the telescreens, children are also used to keep track of their parents, for instance ‘The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations’. With highly advanced surveillance, citizens cannot express their negative attitudes and opinions towards the Party at all, and even thoughts are controlled because the Party can ‘re-educate’ people for an incorrect expression.

Finally, the use of drugs in ‘Brave New World’ acts as one of the most effective techniques of control use by the world controllers. The most common drug used by the citizens of the state is called ‘Soma’ which acts as a sedative that doesn’t cause any harm to the body. ‘Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant’ is what Mustapha Mond, one of the world controllers, describes the drug to be. The fact that the drug calms and distracts the user from realising what is wrong with the world and what is actually happening acts as a strong method of control that enslaves the people in a fake version of reality. Furthermore, the drug traps people in a world of happiness and makes it difficult for people to break the chains of the drugs effects. Once again, the World State is able to manipulate people into thinking that everything is fine and normal through the use of scientific and technological break throughs.

A lot of the principal characters in Huxley’s dystopian novel make mindful decisions to rebel against the world state and the controllers that control them. One of the characters that goes by the name of Lenina Crowne who is the only female protagonist in the novel doesn’t realise or acknowledges her individuality whereas Helmholtz Watson, Bernard Marx and John the Savage are aware of their differences and individuality. Despite both characters attempting to rebel against the control of the state, Lenina’s rebellion is not a conscious attempt to differentiate herself from the masses of ‘conditioned’ people but John on the other hand strives and wants individuality. However, the difference in their actions is down to their treatment by the world state. Her subtle individuality goes unnoticed as she still associates and supports the civilisation she has always grown up in, while John’s bold individualism is more threatening and needs to be contained by the world state due to his refusal the confide with societies actions and lifestyle. Here, the characters demonstrate how, despite the world state easily being able to control the citizens, the slightest sign of individuality has the potential the threaten the fragility of the new society.

Similarly, in ‘1984’ two of the protagonists, Winston and Julia share a desire to rebel against Big Brother for different reasons. Winston’s has a passion to bring down the government and dreams about it daily after his secret affair with Julia. However, Julia is a rebel without reasoning and shares the same passion to hate the government and Big Brother but does not care about what the government are doing and does not understand what she is doing. When Winston shares his disbelief on how the party had lied about countless things, she doesn’t seem to bother or show any enthusiasm leading him to refer to her as a ‘only a rebel from the waist down.’ As a result of his rebellious acts, he ends being captured which suggests and reinforces the strength of the governments authority and their ability to disassemble rebellions with the assistance of spies.

To conclude, language is a strong tool of control within Orwell’s novel and he creates a world where language, a word or a sentence, can determine someone’s life. Through language the party is able to create manipulative and indoctrinating propaganda, strict laws and surveillance, creating a sense of total physical and mental control as well as phycological manipulation. Within the society, thoughts are restricted and supressed until they vanish after generations pass. Whereas, in Huxley’s novel, the World State uses science and technology to enslave the population and keep them under control. The use of drugs and scientific experiments keep the citizens happy and content in their superficial world and lacking individuality. The rebellious acts of characters in both novels fail as a result of the intense authoritarian control by the government and state. Both dystopian novels present the key theme differently, ‘Brave New World’ features some hope in the salvation of the world but ‘1984’ is persistently determined to show a world where there is no hope.