1983 Open-Ended Question

From a novel of play of literary merit, select an important character that is a villain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character's villainy and show how it enhances the meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.

George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984 is a warning against totalitarianism. The book warns against the strategy by which a dictator or a totalitarian bureaucracy may be able to take complete control of a society. One of the most important components of the books proposed strategy is completely capturing the minds of every citizen. O’Brien, the books most frequently appearing member of the totalitarian Inner Party, is a seasoned master of Outer Party mind control. As the reader of 1984 follows Outer Party member Winston Smith on his journey from cognitive rebellion against the Party to complete intellectual captivity, O’Brien is instrumental in Winston’s tragic transformation from freedom to miserable slavery. O’Brien’s villainy, which aligns perfectly with the evil of the Party characterized by insidious brainwashing, enhances the message of 1984 by perfectly exemplifying the Party’s system of mind control.

The first time Winston makes eye contact with O’Brien, he suspects that O’Brien may also be a rebel against the Party despite his high rank within the Party structure. O’Brien intends for Winston to suspect so because he wants to lead Winston into a trap. He further gains Winston’s trust when he invites Winston into his large home and appears to switch off his telescreen. Winston believes O’Brien’s deception, and he lets his guard down, unaware that O’Brien is recording Winston’s every word and laying Winston a trap. O’Brien is the only character who appears trustworthy for Winston so far, and yet in reality he is an undercover member of the Thought Police. The seemingly trustworthy O’Brien’s deception is significant to the novel’s meaning because it represents the false sense of security that the Party uses to entrap and brainwash all of its dissentients.

Winston’s experience with O’Brien in the Ministry of Love serves as a continuation of the development of O’Brien’s villainy. After deceiving Winston and leading him into a Thought Police trap, O’Brien tortures Winston brutally as a way to engrain unquestioning devotion to the Party into Winston’s mind. As he tortures Winston, O’Brien has the disposition of a madman, screaming in Winston’s face as he holds up four of his fingers, telling Winston that there are five. However, every move he makes is carefully planned and measured. His attention to detail is evident in the beginning of the scene in Room 101; he explains in detail the process of the torture that will ensue, and he even tells Winston that he knows exactly how far along in the process he will be able to trust the information that he has coerced out of Winston. The disparity between the way he acts and his level of planning is parallel to the disparity of what the Party projects to its subjects and their true level of understanding and control over the population of Oceania.

O’Brien the villain represents the Party as a whole through the way he brainwashes Winston through deception and torture. Orwell postulates that this method of deception and torture could be a key tool in brainwashing any citizens that rebel against a totalitarian government. O’Brien is a villain because he destroys the protagonist’s will and identity at the conclusion of the book, and he is a villain that exemplifies the meaning of the 1984 by using his very plausible strategies of mind control to create a terrifying alternate future.