DYSTOPIAN THEMES
Freedom and Control
● Control of the body
○ In ‘1984’ bodies are controlled through food: victory gin (that tastes bad),
“pinkish-grey stew”, food had the “appearance of vomit”
○ THT: Handmaids are “two legged wombs”
○ Handmaids wear “wings” - restricted vision - they can’t see what is going on
○ Islamic revolution in 1980s Iran - mandated veilling in 1983 - state controlling
women’s bodies through uniform
● Control of language
○ Newspeak: “narrow the range of thought”
■ keeps citizens from having treacherous thoughts. They won’t be able
to express themselves because there aren’t words to describe how
they’re feeling.
■ Critic Jem Berkes: “language becomes a method of mind control with
the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination”
○ Handmaids speak in a fixed register: “may the lord open” and “praise be”
○ THT: “unwomen” and “offred” - removes individuality
○ Use language to constrain knowledge
○ Ministry of Love, Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Plenty - they are the opposite to
what they actually mean
● Control through surveillance
○ “BB is watching you” posters everywhere
○ The Eyes and Thought Police are like secret police
○ Gestapo - official secret police of Nazi Germany
○ Technology: telescreen, hidden microphones
○ Handmaids spy on each other: “she is my spy as i am hers”
● Manipulation
○ Two Minutes Hate
■ “Rapid polysyllabic speech”, “endless columns” of Eurasian army
marching - hypnotic
■ Contrast between terrifying image of Eurasian soldier and BB’s face at
the end “full of power and mysterious calm” - makes you think BB will
save you/ he is god-like
■ Woman says “my saviour” and people start chanting
○ Particicution - combination of participation and execution
■ “I want to tear, gouge, rend”
● Control through torture
○ Ministry of Love
○ Winston was a “bowed, grey-coloured, skeleton-like thing” and his ulcer was a
“flamed mass with flakes of skin peeling off it”
○ THT: Moira’s feet is beaten by steel cables until they “looked like lungs”
○ Russian purges of 1937 and 1938 where prisoners were tortured until they
confessed to crimes they didn’t commit
○ “Electrodes and the other things” used on Moira after her escape
● Freedom
○ “Freedom to” and “freedom from” - THT
○ Women have no freedom to choose what to do with their bodies
, Technology
● 1984
○ Telescreens
■ Surveillance, in every home
■ “There was no way of shutting them off completely”
○ Speakwrite
■ Allows people to dictate texts
■ Microphones were invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell and
Emile Berliner
● THT
○ Soul Scrolls - mechanisation of prayer/ commodification of religion
■ “Machines” print prayers “endlessly”
■ “Toneless metallic voices repeating the same thing over and over”
■ Not genuine faith
○ Compucards
■ Method of controlling women as their accounts were became frozen
● Other dystopian literature
○ Brave New World
■ Bokanovsky process - genetic engineering - allows for mass
production of people
■ Conditioning - to make sure people develop desired traits for designed
roles
■ Feelies: a movie theatre experience that focuses on the viewer’s
sensory experience
○ Never Let Me Go
■ cloning
○ Fahrenheit 451
■ Mechanical hound - robot dog programmed to track and attack people
who are suspected of reading or hiding books
■ Parlor walls - screens that take up the whole wall and provide constant
entertainment
■ Seashell radio - wireless earphones
Nature and Environmental Collapse
● 1984 - Airstrip One’s war-torn atmosphere
○ “Grimy landscape”, “bombed sites”, “heaps of rubble”
○ 1940s - large part of London were flattened in the blitz
○ Industrial Revolution and rise of capitalism led to overcrowded cities, factory
emissions and polluted waterways
■ Soviet industry polluted large part of Russia and Soviet empire in
particular
● Nature in ‘1984’
○ Symbolises freedom
○ First meet with Julia in ‘the Golden Country” - with “dappled light” and
“bluebells” - complete contrast to London
○ Contrasts with the end where they meet on a “vile, biting day in March” with
“not a bud anywhere” - symbol of how their relationship is over
● Atomic War in ‘1984’
Freedom and Control
● Control of the body
○ In ‘1984’ bodies are controlled through food: victory gin (that tastes bad),
“pinkish-grey stew”, food had the “appearance of vomit”
○ THT: Handmaids are “two legged wombs”
○ Handmaids wear “wings” - restricted vision - they can’t see what is going on
○ Islamic revolution in 1980s Iran - mandated veilling in 1983 - state controlling
women’s bodies through uniform
● Control of language
○ Newspeak: “narrow the range of thought”
■ keeps citizens from having treacherous thoughts. They won’t be able
to express themselves because there aren’t words to describe how
they’re feeling.
■ Critic Jem Berkes: “language becomes a method of mind control with
the ultimate goal being the destruction of will and imagination”
○ Handmaids speak in a fixed register: “may the lord open” and “praise be”
○ THT: “unwomen” and “offred” - removes individuality
○ Use language to constrain knowledge
○ Ministry of Love, Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Plenty - they are the opposite to
what they actually mean
● Control through surveillance
○ “BB is watching you” posters everywhere
○ The Eyes and Thought Police are like secret police
○ Gestapo - official secret police of Nazi Germany
○ Technology: telescreen, hidden microphones
○ Handmaids spy on each other: “she is my spy as i am hers”
● Manipulation
○ Two Minutes Hate
■ “Rapid polysyllabic speech”, “endless columns” of Eurasian army
marching - hypnotic
■ Contrast between terrifying image of Eurasian soldier and BB’s face at
the end “full of power and mysterious calm” - makes you think BB will
save you/ he is god-like
■ Woman says “my saviour” and people start chanting
○ Particicution - combination of participation and execution
■ “I want to tear, gouge, rend”
● Control through torture
○ Ministry of Love
○ Winston was a “bowed, grey-coloured, skeleton-like thing” and his ulcer was a
“flamed mass with flakes of skin peeling off it”
○ THT: Moira’s feet is beaten by steel cables until they “looked like lungs”
○ Russian purges of 1937 and 1938 where prisoners were tortured until they
confessed to crimes they didn’t commit
○ “Electrodes and the other things” used on Moira after her escape
● Freedom
○ “Freedom to” and “freedom from” - THT
○ Women have no freedom to choose what to do with their bodies
, Technology
● 1984
○ Telescreens
■ Surveillance, in every home
■ “There was no way of shutting them off completely”
○ Speakwrite
■ Allows people to dictate texts
■ Microphones were invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell and
Emile Berliner
● THT
○ Soul Scrolls - mechanisation of prayer/ commodification of religion
■ “Machines” print prayers “endlessly”
■ “Toneless metallic voices repeating the same thing over and over”
■ Not genuine faith
○ Compucards
■ Method of controlling women as their accounts were became frozen
● Other dystopian literature
○ Brave New World
■ Bokanovsky process - genetic engineering - allows for mass
production of people
■ Conditioning - to make sure people develop desired traits for designed
roles
■ Feelies: a movie theatre experience that focuses on the viewer’s
sensory experience
○ Never Let Me Go
■ cloning
○ Fahrenheit 451
■ Mechanical hound - robot dog programmed to track and attack people
who are suspected of reading or hiding books
■ Parlor walls - screens that take up the whole wall and provide constant
entertainment
■ Seashell radio - wireless earphones
Nature and Environmental Collapse
● 1984 - Airstrip One’s war-torn atmosphere
○ “Grimy landscape”, “bombed sites”, “heaps of rubble”
○ 1940s - large part of London were flattened in the blitz
○ Industrial Revolution and rise of capitalism led to overcrowded cities, factory
emissions and polluted waterways
■ Soviet industry polluted large part of Russia and Soviet empire in
particular
● Nature in ‘1984’
○ Symbolises freedom
○ First meet with Julia in ‘the Golden Country” - with “dappled light” and
“bluebells” - complete contrast to London
○ Contrasts with the end where they meet on a “vile, biting day in March” with
“not a bud anywhere” - symbol of how their relationship is over
● Atomic War in ‘1984’
