Surveillance
Children
O: ‘it was my little daughter she listened at the keyhole’ – Junior Spies, children are made to spy on their
parents.
A03: Hitler Jugend would turn in parents, and anyone deemed not to follow the fascist regime
Secret Police
O: ‘he knew now that for 7 years the Thought Police had watched him’ – Observed for a very long time by a
secret police force, creates a sense of inescapability.
‘Perhaps he is an eye’ – referencing Nick, anyone could be a spy for the state
A03: Similar to OVRA in Italy or the Gestapo in Germany, the former’s name never appeared on any
document to keep its members entirely secretive.
Totalitarianism and Complete Control
O: ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness’ the thought police have complete
totalitarianism, control of the mind, his fate is being foreshadowed in his dreams.
‘She had escaped’ Offred manages to flee from Gilead with the help of Nick, control and surveillance is
certainly flawed.
A03: While Gilead is authoritarian Oceania is totalitarian, Gilead never manages to change Offred’s mind
and force her into submission (example of Moira’s escape too) whereas Oceania causes Winston to love
big brother demonstrating complete mind control. Pipes on Stalinist Russia says totalitarianism attempts
to control the ‘thoughts and actions of its citizens’
Chief Surveillance
O: ‘Big Brother is watching you’ ‘it was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time’ panopticism
‘Under his eye’
The ultimate authority in HMT is God and in 1984 Big Brother has replaced God as the ultimate authority.
A03: Stalin took the title of Vozhd, Hitler the Fuhrer and Mussolini the Duce- trend in dictatorial states
A05 Critics
‘Orwell imagines a totalitarian society which wants to eradicate the concept of the individual’ – Robert
Brown
‘the power of surveillance machines has its limitations’ – Robert Brown
‘the gaze of an all seeing God is similar to surveillance in a totalitarian state’ – Madeleine Davies
‘When you don’t have full vision you don’t have full power’ – Madeline Davies
‘power should be visible and unverifiable’ – Michel Foucault
‘Winston’s rebellion has been predicted and controlled from the very beginning’ – Steven Connor
‘a world of total state surveillance’ -Shriver
, Fear and Love
O’Brien and the Commander (Love)
‘he had loved him so deeply in that moment’
‘Inside room 101 is the worst thing in the world’ – Both love and fear are captured, Winston loves his
captor and is terrified of what he might do to him.
‘I ought to feel hatred for this man. What I feel is more complicated than that. It isn’t love.’ Offred feels
neither fear nor love for the commander, her relationship with this figure is perhaps more complex.
A03: The head of the NKVD, Beria would abuse his position to rape women threatening to have them
executed if they did not have sex with him. Male abuse of positions of power.
Paternalistic Love and Fear
‘Big Brother is watching you’ Paternalistic term of brother coupled with the state surveillance, you are
meant to fear and love the leader at the same time.
‘cattle prods’ the Aunts have a familial name as if they are kind and gentle but in reality they abuse and
fulfill the will of the state
A03: Possibly inspired by Philis Schlaffly and ‘Stop ERA’ conservative women siding with the patriarchal
establishment.
Who is God?
‘faith is only a word, only embroidered’ The protagonist shows no real love towards God, has no real faith
in him because he is being used as a tool for opression by the state.
‘we are the priests of power’ the inner party and priests serving Big Brother who has become like God, by
the end Winston loves the chief antagonist of the story.
A03: 1945 Daily beast letter ‘petty Fuhrers’ cult of personality and idolisation, Oswald Mosely being a
particular example in 1930’s Britain.
A05 Critics
‘fear and anxiety are the staple of life’ Daniel Bell
‘the aunts are the mouthpieces for the patriarchal leaders of this society’ Angela Gulick
‘there is only room for one God in Oceania and his name is Big brother’ – Hill
‘women have no control over their lives’ – Margaret Daniels
‘the configuration of the friendly into the threatening is the perfect piece of doublethink’ – Crick
‘Offred unpicks the fantasy of romantic love’ - McPherson
Children
O: ‘it was my little daughter she listened at the keyhole’ – Junior Spies, children are made to spy on their
parents.
A03: Hitler Jugend would turn in parents, and anyone deemed not to follow the fascist regime
Secret Police
O: ‘he knew now that for 7 years the Thought Police had watched him’ – Observed for a very long time by a
secret police force, creates a sense of inescapability.
‘Perhaps he is an eye’ – referencing Nick, anyone could be a spy for the state
A03: Similar to OVRA in Italy or the Gestapo in Germany, the former’s name never appeared on any
document to keep its members entirely secretive.
Totalitarianism and Complete Control
O: ‘We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness’ the thought police have complete
totalitarianism, control of the mind, his fate is being foreshadowed in his dreams.
‘She had escaped’ Offred manages to flee from Gilead with the help of Nick, control and surveillance is
certainly flawed.
A03: While Gilead is authoritarian Oceania is totalitarian, Gilead never manages to change Offred’s mind
and force her into submission (example of Moira’s escape too) whereas Oceania causes Winston to love
big brother demonstrating complete mind control. Pipes on Stalinist Russia says totalitarianism attempts
to control the ‘thoughts and actions of its citizens’
Chief Surveillance
O: ‘Big Brother is watching you’ ‘it was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time’ panopticism
‘Under his eye’
The ultimate authority in HMT is God and in 1984 Big Brother has replaced God as the ultimate authority.
A03: Stalin took the title of Vozhd, Hitler the Fuhrer and Mussolini the Duce- trend in dictatorial states
A05 Critics
‘Orwell imagines a totalitarian society which wants to eradicate the concept of the individual’ – Robert
Brown
‘the power of surveillance machines has its limitations’ – Robert Brown
‘the gaze of an all seeing God is similar to surveillance in a totalitarian state’ – Madeleine Davies
‘When you don’t have full vision you don’t have full power’ – Madeline Davies
‘power should be visible and unverifiable’ – Michel Foucault
‘Winston’s rebellion has been predicted and controlled from the very beginning’ – Steven Connor
‘a world of total state surveillance’ -Shriver
, Fear and Love
O’Brien and the Commander (Love)
‘he had loved him so deeply in that moment’
‘Inside room 101 is the worst thing in the world’ – Both love and fear are captured, Winston loves his
captor and is terrified of what he might do to him.
‘I ought to feel hatred for this man. What I feel is more complicated than that. It isn’t love.’ Offred feels
neither fear nor love for the commander, her relationship with this figure is perhaps more complex.
A03: The head of the NKVD, Beria would abuse his position to rape women threatening to have them
executed if they did not have sex with him. Male abuse of positions of power.
Paternalistic Love and Fear
‘Big Brother is watching you’ Paternalistic term of brother coupled with the state surveillance, you are
meant to fear and love the leader at the same time.
‘cattle prods’ the Aunts have a familial name as if they are kind and gentle but in reality they abuse and
fulfill the will of the state
A03: Possibly inspired by Philis Schlaffly and ‘Stop ERA’ conservative women siding with the patriarchal
establishment.
Who is God?
‘faith is only a word, only embroidered’ The protagonist shows no real love towards God, has no real faith
in him because he is being used as a tool for opression by the state.
‘we are the priests of power’ the inner party and priests serving Big Brother who has become like God, by
the end Winston loves the chief antagonist of the story.
A03: 1945 Daily beast letter ‘petty Fuhrers’ cult of personality and idolisation, Oswald Mosely being a
particular example in 1930’s Britain.
A05 Critics
‘fear and anxiety are the staple of life’ Daniel Bell
‘the aunts are the mouthpieces for the patriarchal leaders of this society’ Angela Gulick
‘there is only room for one God in Oceania and his name is Big brother’ – Hill
‘women have no control over their lives’ – Margaret Daniels
‘the configuration of the friendly into the threatening is the perfect piece of doublethink’ – Crick
‘Offred unpicks the fantasy of romantic love’ - McPherson
