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STUDY GUIDE

George Orwell’s

1984

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Funded in part by generous individual contributors, the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Foundation for MetroWest, Fuller Foundation, The Marshall Home Fund, Roy A. Hunt Foundation, and Watertown Community Foundation. This program is also supported in part by grants from the Billerica Arts Council, Brookline Commission for the Arts, Canton Cultural Council, Brockton Cultural Council, Lawrence Cultural Council, Lexington Council for the Arts, Marlborough Cultural Council, Newton Cultural Council, Watertown Cultural Council, and Wilmington Cultural Council, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

classic repertory company

artistic director jim petosa managing director harriet sheets

Classic Repertory Company is produced in cooperation with Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre

the professional theatre company in residence at the

arsenal center for the arts

1984 Study Guide 2

Biography ofGeorge Orwell

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair, the second of three children, to Richard and Ida Mabel Blair in Bengal, a British province in present-day India on June 25, 1903. His mother was the daughter of a teak merchant in Burma, and his father was an official in the Indian Civil Service. When Orwell was about one year old, his mother moved him and his older sister to England, while his father continued to work in India. He retired from the service in 1912, when Orwell was nine years old.

In 1911, Orwell was sent to boarding school on the Sussex coast. Because his family came from very little means, he was distinguished among the other boys by his lower class, but he was also marked by outstanding intelligence. He was awarded a scholarship to Eton, one of England’s top schools, which he attended from 1917 to 1921. There, Aldous Huxley, author of the famous dystopian novel Brave New World, was one of Orwell’s mentors.

Upon leaving Eton, rather than attending university, Orwell followed in the footsteps of his father and joined the Indian Imperial Police in 1922. He received his training in Burma and served at various country stations before resigning five years later, on New Year’s Day, 1928. Some suggest that he recognized himself as a cog in the machine of British imperialism, a political practice he came to reject—in fact, by this time he identified as an anarchist. He began to turn his focus toward writing.

In an attempt to assuage his guilt about his participation in the political system in Burma, Orwell spent a period of time living the lives of the poor. He dressed in tattered clothing and took up residence in tenements in East London, among the city’s downtrodden. He also spent some time in the Paris slums working as a dishwasher at a slew of hotels and restaurants. He wrote about his experiences in his first major work, Down and Out in Paris and London, published in 1933. By this time Orwell began to call himself a socialist, aligning himself against the bourgeoisie and the British imperialist project.

In 1936, Orwell was commissioned to report on the widespread poverty among miners in Northern England. Later that same year, he travelled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War, and he stayed to fight against Franco’s Nationalists, taking up arms with the Republican militia. During World War II, he worked for the BBC writing propaganda. When he left in 1943, he was named the literary editor of a left-wing magazine called the Tribune.

By the 1940s, Orwell had made a name for himself as a prolific journalist. When he published Animal Farm in 1945, an allegory about the Russian Revolution set in a barnyard, in which the main characters are animal, he gained widespread acclaim and financial success. As influential as this novella was, however, it was undeniably eclipsed by 1984, the magnum opus of Orwell’s literary career. Unfortunately, by the time he wrote the final pages of the novel, he was very sick with tuberculosis. He found time to write in between hospital stays and died in

January 1950. ■

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1984 Study Guide 3

Connections to Psychology The world that George Orwell imagines in 1984 does not involve the physical

or biological manipulation of the masses’ minds, like those of other popular dystopian novels. Instead, and perhaps more disturbingly, 1984’s manipulation relies on human psychology. Orwell, in devising the methods that the Party uses to maintain control over the citizens of Oceania, draws on a variety of very real psychological principles.

The Hawthorne Effect describes the phenomenon in which people that know that they are being observed “behave better” and exhibit higher levels of productivity. Henry A. Landsberger discovered the effect upon his analysis of the “Hawthorne Studies” performed at the Hawthorne Electric Company in the 1920s and 1930s led by a professor at the Harvard Business School. An alarming parallel comes very early in book: “...the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.” Instead of secretly monitoring the citizens of

Oceania with private cameras like in the Hawthorne study, the Party uses telescreens. This transparency instills fear in the people. They know they’re being watched, and one false move could put them at risk to endure serious consequences.

In fact, even the suggestion of being observed has a palpable effect on people’s behavior. In a study conducted by scientists at the Center for Behavior and Evolution, it was determined that images and posters of eyes could influence people to conform to societal expectations. For 32 days, scientists monitored the littering habits of diners in Newcastle University’s cafeteria. During periods of time in which posters of eyes, rather than posters of flowers, hung on the walls of the cafeteria, twice as many people cleaned their trays and refrained from littering. Orwell’s poster of Big Brother has eyes that “follow you about when you move,” enhancing the effect of observation on the citizens in his imagined Oceania.

The torture tactics O’Brien utilizes to brainwash Winston are also very real, and although international law prohibits them, they are sometimes used today. The first of these tactics is sleep deprivation. The regular regeneration of the immune system occurs during sleep, and when people or animals are sleep-deprived for unnaturally long periods of time, the immune system breaks down. Intense sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on the mind and body and eventually causes a rapid decline in a person’s mental faculties. Symptoms of prolonged sleep deprivation include: disorientation, hallucinations, apathy, lethargy, hallucinations, and social withdrawal. Eventually, sleep deprivation can lead to death.

Winston also states that he was starved and forced to stand for weeks. Forced standing has serious effects on the body and is extremely painful—within 24 hours, the ankles and feet swell to twice

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1984 Study Guide 4

their size. Enduring this kind of physical pain for weeks would push anyone to the breaking point. In 1944, scientists conducted the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, wherein 36 young men lost 25 percent of their normal body weight, during a 24-week starvation period. The study revealed the physical effects of hunger, as well as the psychological effects, which included fatigue, irritability, depression, and apathy.

The fact that George Orwell draws on what makes us human, our psychology, to construct such a bleak projection of the future makes his warning all the more serious. He shows us what we are capable of, by showing

what makes us tick. ■

Dystopian GenreGeorge Orwell’s 1984 is one of the most famous examples of dystopian literature, a subgenre of science

fiction. Dystopian novels are characterized by their settings. A utopia is an imagined place where everything is perfect, a dystopia is exactly its opposite. It is a fictional place where everything is awful, and, in most cases, under a totalitarian government or existing in the aftermath of environmental devastation. In Orwell’s dystopia, the citizens of Oceania have lost their identities as individuals and their lives are ruled by an inhumane state that is constantly at war with the other two world superpowers.

Erich Fromm, in his afterward to 1984, identifies the major questions posed by Orwell and other dystopian writers of the twentieth century: “Can human nature be changed in such a way that man will forget his longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love—that is to say, can man forget that he is human? Or does human nature have a dynamism which will react to the violation of these basic human needs by attempting to change an inhuman society into a human one?” Orwell, through the character of Winston, explores these questions, and, by the end of 1984 provides a disturbing answer. Winston embodies this “dynamism” that seeks to turn the inhuman society of Oceania into a human one. He is willing to sacrifice his life for moral progress when he pledges his allegiance to the Brotherhood, accepting whatever fate may come to him, including dying alone, without Julia. It is only at the end of the novel, after he has been tortured for months and threatened with facing his deepest, most primal fear (being devoured by rats) that he breaks. Orwell’s assertion is that, though it may not be easy, it is possible to destroy a person’s humanity.

George Orwell utilizes the dystopian genre to warn his readers. He wrote 1984 in the wake of World War II, during which the first and last atomic bombs in human history were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing widespread devastation on a scale that had never been seen before. The cities were

leveled and the death toll reached as high as an estimated 246,000. Orwell, through showing us a bleak depiction of a possible future in 1984, warns us against the dangers of an arms race—a competition between countries to build more and more powerful weapons. By illustrating this dystopian society, he hopes to steer us away from making it a reality.

Compare the covers to these two novels in the dystopian genre, Brave New World and The Hunger Games. What does the cover say about the story being told? What differences do you

notice between the two? ■BR

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1984 Study Guide 5

NewspeakIn his novel, George Orwell invents a language for the Party, called Newspeak. Orwell even included an

appendix for the language in the book. He outlined the purpose of Newspeak as a method of thought control,

a language constructed so as to “make thought crime literally impossible,” as Syme notably says. Newspeak,

according to Orwell, was designed so that ambiguity of meaning within words was scrubbed out from the

language itself. Words had concrete meaning based in logical processes that rid English of its former peculiarities,

connotations, and room for interpretation.

Remnants of Newspeak seem to live on in America’s growing interest in language that is “politically correct.” In

his appendix, Orwell outlines B Vocabulary as such: “consisted of words which had been deliberately constructed

for political purposes: words, that is to say, which were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the

person using them.” Political correctness is very related to the B Vocabulary. In fact, much of our vocabulary has

political connotations. An example can be found in the growing usage of “Happy Holidays.” Whereas as some

critics regard this as a war on Christian values, other commentators note that phrases like “Merry Christmas” are

just as politically loaded.

In this type of commentary, authors often use many of the terms that George Orwell coined in his novel. In

addition to the list below, can you think of present-day examples of these principles?

Newspeak:

speech or writing that uses words in a way that changes their meaning especially to persuade people to think a certain way

Doublethink:

a simultaneous belief in two contradictory ideas

Big Brother:

an all-powerful government or organization monitoring and directing people’s actions

Thoughtcrime:

an instance of unorthodox or controversial thinking, considered as a criminal offense

or as socially unacceptable

All definitions are taken from the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, except the last, which is taken from the online Oxford Dictionary

1984 Study Guide 6

Classic Repertory Company’sApproach to 1984

Sitting down with the script for 1984, an adaptation already produced by Alan Lyddiard in Newcastle, England, we

were able to gather a few remarks from our director, Clay Hopper. This production was approached collaboratively

with the cast, under the guidance of Clay. He calls 1984, the novel by George Orwell, an “antique vision of the

future”—especially notable considering that the year Orwell chose as his future is already in our past.

There are many reasons to be wary of the “antique” effect. One is that it prompts readers to see Orwell’s classic

not as the keen, harrowing prophecy it is, but as a quaint glimpse into the worries of the past. It has what one might

call a “Jetsons” effect, in that the reader is so amused by the novel’s technological predictions that they neglect

to examine the allegorical parallels to our own time. It is easy to get lost in how technologically different Orwell’s

future is from our present that we fail to see the eerie similarities between Winston’s world and our own.

Today, government and corporate surveillance is easier than ever before. While telescreens do not exist in

the form Orwell predicted, smartphones seem like an apt alternative. They can track your movements, save your

messages, pick up your conversations on their microphones, and eventually, all that information can be sold to

separate party. Big Brother doesn’t have to watch you from the wall—you willingly put him in your pocket. In fact,

people camp for days to get the newest screen, the most cutting edge device, all the while, making it easier and

easier to be tracked.

The world we live in is full of cameras. They perch on telephone poles, at traffic stops, and most insidiously,

in our cell phones. In fact, the new Big Brother has been so successful only because they have encouraged the

people to do the surveillance themselves. You log your life on Facebook, giving your life history and private

thoughts up for public review, and the file grows and grows as they learn who you are.

For the most part the data is used to advertise, but as we have found, the government is very interested in

gaining access to this information. In 2013, Edward Snowden became a household name after he leaked NSA

documents showing that the NSA had been collecting and mining the data of U.S. Citizens, as well as foreign

diplomats. The reasoning of the NSA was that the surveillance was necessary to keep the United States safe,

though independent reviewers have failed to find evidence of the program’s effectiveness.

Not only has Orwell’s nightmare become

a reality, but it’s been done more artfully than

he could have predicted. Orwell’s world of

overbearing posters and devout nationalism

seems unsophisticated compared to the subtler

and more effective methods used now. One thing

is for certain, however: like Winston, we love Big

Brother. We love him so much we’ll pay hundreds

of dollars to keep him with us at all times. We

won’t put him down. We’ll stay plugged in. ■

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1984 Study Guide 7

classic repertory company

cast( in alphabetical order)

LAURA DETWILER O’Brien MICHAEL KELLY Winston LILY LINKE Julia CORY MISSILDINE Parsons ALEXANDER RANKINE Mr. Charrington KAI TSHIKOSI Syme GRACE KENNEDY WOODFORD Mrs. Charrington, Figure in White, Voice

GEORGE ORWELL’S

1984DIRECTED BY CLAY HOPPER

LAURA DETWILER makes her New Repertory Theatre debut. Recent credits include Romeo vs Juliet (Anthem Theatre Company) and Mrs. Packard and In The Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Boston

University). Laura earned her BFA in Theatre Arts at Boston University, and studied at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Center. Laura grew up abroad in Indonesia and now resides in Somerville.

MICHAEL KELLY makes his New Repertory Theatre debut. Boston credits include The Wakeville Stories (Davis Square Theatre), Whisper House: A Reading (ArtsEmerson), Couch Troll (Interim Writers), and Gunplay

(directed by Benny Sato Ambush). New York credits include Waiting for Hermann Haber (NY’s Equity Library Theater) which won best play and best actors. Other recent credits include Mother Hicks, Fathers and Sons, The Learned Ladies, A Fable Regarding The Octopus, Waiting For Godot: A Clipping, Big Love and The Grapes of Wrath (Emerson College). Michael earned his BFA in Acting at Emerson College, completed the Acting for the Reel World Intensive in Los Angeles with Ken Cheeseman, and studied at Stella Adler Studios in New York City. Originally from New Jersey, Michael resides in Brighton.

LILY LINKE returns to New Rep after performing in Classic Repertory Company’s summer 2015 tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent credits include Changes of Heart, Stella Maris, and Great

Expectations (Boston University) and Assistant Directing A Disappearing Numbe (Central Square Theater). She has participated in the development of two original works: The Wastelands Project (Children of the Wild) and Ex Nihilo (Boston University). Originally from Los Angeles, she now resides in Somerville.

CORY MISSILDINE makes his New Repertory Theatre debut. University credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Merchant of Venice and Detroit. A Massachusetts native, Cory earned his BA in Theater Arts at

the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

ALEXANDER RANKINE makes his New Repertory Theatre debut. Recent credits include The Grapes of Wrath, Fathers and Sons, The Love of the Nightingale and Uncommon Women and Others (Emerson

College). Alexander has earned his BFA in Acting from Emerson College. Originally from Connecticut, he now resides in Cambridge.

KAI TSHIKOSI makes his New Repertory Theatre debut. Recent credits include Colossal (Company One), Macbeth, J.B., Cymbeline, and Cyclops: a Saytr Play (Emerson College). Kai earned his BA in Acting

and Stage Combat at Emerson College and now resides in Roxbury.

GRACE KENNEDY WOODFORD makes her New Repertory Theatre debut. Recent credits include Equal Writes (Boston Playwrights Theatre), and The Skin of Our Teeth, The Bagman, and Mrs. Packard (Boston

University). Grace received her BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and studied at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Grace resides in Allston.

CLAY HOPPER (Director) returns to New Repertory Theatre after directing Classic Repertory Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, and To Kill A Mockingbird. In Washington D.C., he served as the Associate Artistic Director of Olney Theatre Center and Director of both the National Players and the Summer Shakespeare Festival. He now serves as lecturer in Directing and Theatre Arts at Boston University’s School of Theatre. Directing credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Amadeus, Farragut North, Triumph of Love, and Call of the Wild (Olney Theatre). Other recent credits include On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning (Contemporary America Theatre Festival Actor’s Lab). Off-off-Broadway credits include A Home Without and Different Zen (Third Eye Rep); Earthworms (The Working Group); and Triage and The Interrogation (The Miranda Theatre).

production designerGHAZAL HASSANI

assistant directorKIERA MUCKENHIRN

sound designer & composerPHIL SCHROEDER

1984 Study Guide 8

Pre-Show Questions

1. Orwell devotes a large section of 1984 to Goldstein’s book, which outlines the way that the world operates. Why do you think Orwell waits so long to give readers a clear view of the world he has created?

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2. Examine the ways in which Winston changes as the novel progresses. How would you describe his growth? How does his behavior at the close of the novel impact his arc?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3

3. Examine a theme of your choice from the text and describe how it is developed over the course of Orwell’s novel? Cite specific examples from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

4. Examine the word “love” in Orwell’s novel and identify the ways in which it is used. How does love as a concept contribute to some of the larger themes?

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Post-Show Questions 1. Compare and contrast CRC’s production of 1984

with the novel. What changes were made to the story? Why do think they were made, and were they effective in telling the story?

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2. In a political novel like 1984, authors often have a strong opinion. What do you think was Orwell’s point of view?

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3. Select one moment from the play or excerpt from the novel that you found particularly powerful. What makes this passage so effective to you? What devices does the author use to capture your imagination?

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4. Have your opinions of the story changed since seeing it performed?

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Baker, David and Natacha Keramidas. “The Psychology of Hunger.” October 2013 Monitor on Psychology. American Psychological Association, October 2013. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/10/hunger.aspx>

Bulkeley, Kelly. “Why Sleep Deprivation is Torture.” Dreaming in the Digital Age. Psychology Today, 15 December 2014. Web. 13 May 2015. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dreaming-in-the-digital-age/201412/why-sleep-deprivation-is-torture>

Fromm, Erich. Afterword. 1984. By George Orwell. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. 313-326. Print. “George Orwell.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://www.biography.com/people/george-orwell-9429833>“George Orwell.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/

EBchecked/topic/433643/George-Orwell>“George Orwell.” BBC Online. British Broadcasting Company, n.d. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/

orwell_george.shtml>“George Orwell Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, 2015. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.notablebiographies.

com/Ni-Pe/Orwell-George.html>“The Human Relations Movement: Harvard Business School and the Hawthorne Experiments.” The Baker Library Historical Collections.

Harvard Business School, 2012. Web. 13 May 2015. <http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/hawthorne/intro.html#i>Kelley, Michael B. “Why Edward Snowden won’t be coming home anytime soon.” Business Insider. 7 Mar. 2015. Web. Aug. 10 2015. <

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-edward-snowden-wont-be-coming-home-anytime-soon-2015-3>Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. Print.Orwell, George. “The Principles of Newspeak.” Appendix. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. 299-312. Print. “Science Fiction.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, 2015. Web. 15 May 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/

topic/528857/science-fiction/235724/SF-cinema-and-TV#toc235726>“So Are We Living in 1984?” New Yorker. 11 Jun. 2013. Web. 10 August 2015. < http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/so-are-

we-living-in-1984>van der Linden, Sander. “How the Illusion of Being Observed Can Make You a Better Person.” Scientific American. 3 May 2011. Web. 13

May 2015. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-illusion-of-being-observed-can-make-you-better-person/>