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Book 2, Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in 1984, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Totalitarianism and Communism
The Individual vs. Collective Identity
Reality Control
Sex, Love, and Loyalty
Class Struggle
Summary
Analysis
Winston wakes to the singing of the prole woman in the courtyard. He and Julia watch her and Winston is fascinated by her vitality and fertility, and agree that, though they themselves are doomed, if there is hope for society, it lies in the proles. Winston and Julia together say, "We are the dead."
Suddenly an iron voice speaks to them from behind the picture saying "You are the dead." It orders them not to move, and speaks the last two lines of the nursery rhyme about St. Clements church: "Here comes a candle to light you to bed / Here comes a chopper to chop off your head!" Winston realizes that the picture of the church hides a telescreen. Black-uniformed Thought Police rush into the room. They smash the glass paperweight and Julia is beaten and carried away.
Winston and Julia's illusion of having created a private reality of their own is shattered–they have been under surveillance the entire time. All of their intimate secrets are now known, and the Party mocks them with the bits of historical trivia they have gathered, while also shattering the symbol that indicated the permanence of their love.
Themes
Literary Devices
Although the clock reads nine, Winston suspects that he and Julia have slept through the night. Mr. Charrington enters the room, and orders the troopers to clean up the shattered paperweight. Winston realizes that the iron voice belonged to him and that he is a member of the Thought Police.
The Party is everywhere, even hiding among the proles. The reality Winston thought he knew is not a true reality. Now he can't even tell what time of day it really is.
Themes
