DYSTOPIAN CRITICS AND CONTEXT
Offred’s first person narration and Orwell’s third person limited narration allow the reader to
feel the impact of the misuse of power more clearly…
● The UK is one of the most surveilled countries in the world
○ Links to surveillance in both 1984 and THT but more to 1984 as it’s set in
England
● Critic Kika: “children are essentially used to break up the family unit”
● ‘1984’ was written post WW2, so it’s likely that Orwell is commenting on the misuse
of power in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia
● Modern day: North Korea
○ Mass surveillance
○ North Korean media is the most strictly controlled media in the world
○ All media outlets are owned and controlled by the government
● Surveillance happens in Western liberal democracies
○ CCTV used by police and security services
○ Corporations and governmental have capacity to track online activity and
physical whereabouts
● The Cold War (both Orwell and Atwood)
○ Fear of Soviet expansion and totalitarian control
● Goldstein
○ Jewish name reflects Nazi party’s antisemitic rhetoric and ethnic cleansing
policies
○ Modelled on Leon Trotsky - expelled from Communist Party after power
struggle with Stalin
○ “Common enemy” - Goldstein’s existence is used to strengthen unity,
focussing the citizens’ hatred away from the government.
■ Hitler blaming Jews for the failure of WW1 and directing mass anger
towards them
● Isaac Asimov: “the way of maintaining eternal tyranny is through the immortality of
BB and the presence of someone or something to hate”
○ 2 mins hate and Particicution
● Language
○ Critic Jem Berkes: “language becomes a method of mind control with the
ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination” (Newspeak)
○ Carl Sagan remarks how “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path
from slavery to freedom”
○ Constraining knowledge through language
● Russian purges of 1936 and 1938
○ Political prisoners were tortured until they confessed to crimes they did not
commit (Ministry of Love, book 3)
○ It eliminated any threats to Stalin and consolidated his power
● McCarthysm, early 1950s
○ Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to root out alleged communists and
Soviet sympathisers
○ people were encouraged to report suspected communists →
surveillance
, ○ THT: ‘The Eyes’ and between handmaids: “she is my spy, as I am hers”
○ 1984: telescreens etc.
● Telescreens - widespread use of TV was part of Orwell’s inspiration for the
telescreen
● Nazi concentration camps
○ Regular beatings and humiliation
● Salem Witch Trials
○ Atwood dedicated her novel to Mary Webster, one of her ancestors who was
hanged as a witch but survived
○ She is an example of a woman wrongly accused
○ Many people were tortured and murdered after being accused of witchcraft
○ Anyone who didn’t conform to societal normal or was thought to be a
dissenter was accused
● Puritanism
○ Puritans aspired to create a Utopian society but did so through fear,
intimidation, patriarchal rule and harsh living conditions
○ Women classed as the inferior sex and forced into a passive and domestic life
○ Women made to wear plain and functional clothing, covering themselves up
from everyone but their husband
○ Women’s names often reflect their religious beliefs/ values
● Stasi
○ Secret police for East Germany
○ One of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist
movement
○ Responsible for both domestic political surveillance and foreign espionage
○ Later became known for kidnapping former East German officials who had
fled the country; many of those who returned were executed
○ Had a vast network of informants and unofficial collaborators who spied on
and denounced colleagues, friends, neighbours and family members
○ Maintained files on approx. 6 million East German citizens - more than a third
of the population
● Jeremy Benthan’s panopticon
○ 18th century social philosopher
○ His prison design featuring a central watchtower from which guards could
observe all inmates without the inmates knowing if they were being watched
○ The fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means
that they are motivated to act as though they are being watched at all times.
Thus, the inmates are effectively compelled to regulate their own behaviour
● NKVD
○ Soviet secret police and security agency from 1930s - 1946; predecessor to
the KGB
○ Oversaw the Great Purge (1936-1938), executing or imprisoning millions
accused of being ‘enemies of the state’
○ Operated the Gulag system - forced labour camps for political prisoners,
criminals and other detainees
○ Recruited millions of ordinary citizens as informants to report on neighbours,
coworkers and even family
○ Surveillance
Offred’s first person narration and Orwell’s third person limited narration allow the reader to
feel the impact of the misuse of power more clearly…
● The UK is one of the most surveilled countries in the world
○ Links to surveillance in both 1984 and THT but more to 1984 as it’s set in
England
● Critic Kika: “children are essentially used to break up the family unit”
● ‘1984’ was written post WW2, so it’s likely that Orwell is commenting on the misuse
of power in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia
● Modern day: North Korea
○ Mass surveillance
○ North Korean media is the most strictly controlled media in the world
○ All media outlets are owned and controlled by the government
● Surveillance happens in Western liberal democracies
○ CCTV used by police and security services
○ Corporations and governmental have capacity to track online activity and
physical whereabouts
● The Cold War (both Orwell and Atwood)
○ Fear of Soviet expansion and totalitarian control
● Goldstein
○ Jewish name reflects Nazi party’s antisemitic rhetoric and ethnic cleansing
policies
○ Modelled on Leon Trotsky - expelled from Communist Party after power
struggle with Stalin
○ “Common enemy” - Goldstein’s existence is used to strengthen unity,
focussing the citizens’ hatred away from the government.
■ Hitler blaming Jews for the failure of WW1 and directing mass anger
towards them
● Isaac Asimov: “the way of maintaining eternal tyranny is through the immortality of
BB and the presence of someone or something to hate”
○ 2 mins hate and Particicution
● Language
○ Critic Jem Berkes: “language becomes a method of mind control with the
ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination” (Newspeak)
○ Carl Sagan remarks how “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path
from slavery to freedom”
○ Constraining knowledge through language
● Russian purges of 1936 and 1938
○ Political prisoners were tortured until they confessed to crimes they did not
commit (Ministry of Love, book 3)
○ It eliminated any threats to Stalin and consolidated his power
● McCarthysm, early 1950s
○ Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to root out alleged communists and
Soviet sympathisers
○ people were encouraged to report suspected communists →
surveillance
, ○ THT: ‘The Eyes’ and between handmaids: “she is my spy, as I am hers”
○ 1984: telescreens etc.
● Telescreens - widespread use of TV was part of Orwell’s inspiration for the
telescreen
● Nazi concentration camps
○ Regular beatings and humiliation
● Salem Witch Trials
○ Atwood dedicated her novel to Mary Webster, one of her ancestors who was
hanged as a witch but survived
○ She is an example of a woman wrongly accused
○ Many people were tortured and murdered after being accused of witchcraft
○ Anyone who didn’t conform to societal normal or was thought to be a
dissenter was accused
● Puritanism
○ Puritans aspired to create a Utopian society but did so through fear,
intimidation, patriarchal rule and harsh living conditions
○ Women classed as the inferior sex and forced into a passive and domestic life
○ Women made to wear plain and functional clothing, covering themselves up
from everyone but their husband
○ Women’s names often reflect their religious beliefs/ values
● Stasi
○ Secret police for East Germany
○ One of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist
movement
○ Responsible for both domestic political surveillance and foreign espionage
○ Later became known for kidnapping former East German officials who had
fled the country; many of those who returned were executed
○ Had a vast network of informants and unofficial collaborators who spied on
and denounced colleagues, friends, neighbours and family members
○ Maintained files on approx. 6 million East German citizens - more than a third
of the population
● Jeremy Benthan’s panopticon
○ 18th century social philosopher
○ His prison design featuring a central watchtower from which guards could
observe all inmates without the inmates knowing if they were being watched
○ The fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means
that they are motivated to act as though they are being watched at all times.
Thus, the inmates are effectively compelled to regulate their own behaviour
● NKVD
○ Soviet secret police and security agency from 1930s - 1946; predecessor to
the KGB
○ Oversaw the Great Purge (1936-1938), executing or imprisoning millions
accused of being ‘enemies of the state’
○ Operated the Gulag system - forced labour camps for political prisoners,
criminals and other detainees
○ Recruited millions of ordinary citizens as informants to report on neighbours,
coworkers and even family
○ Surveillance
