1984 Torture Stages

Ross Schonberg

Ms. Gubanich

Western Literature

October 14, 2015

1984 Torture Stages

            In the beginning of book three of 1984 Winston and Julia are separated and taken away to the ministry of love. Once Winston is in there he is put in a holding cell, where he sees some familiar faces, some of the people that he knew Winston would never have though to have commit a thought crime, which kind of worries him. Then the other people in the cell are taken away to room 101, and that scares Winston, because he does not know what is in that room. He is also afraid of the unbearable beating s that he may or may not get (but he gets them anyways). As he is in the holding cell he sees a man coming in, but it was O’Brien. Winston is shocked and is so upset and can’t believe that he was tricked, and that really lowers his sense of power in preparing for trying to fight against the torture. As Winston is speaking to O’Brien another guard goes and smashes Winston’s elbow, as Winston is getting beaten he is realizing that it is impossible for anyone to be a hero under this kind of torture, which is making him give up more and more hope. 

           Weeks and weeks go by and the torture gets worse. He is even laid down on a board and electrocuted to unimaginable degrees. Throughout this torture O’Brien is trying to “help” Winston by not just making him go along with what the government say’s, but also actually making him believe what they say. As O’Brien says “There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers? ‘Yes’.”(258). Winston agrees that O’Brien is holding up five fingers, even though he is really holding up four. It is this kind of hopelessness that is transforming Winston back into a slave of the party member. 

         Lastly Winston is then forced to strip down, be completely naked and is put in front of a mirror. This type of torture is truly meant to break Winston at his core. As Winston sees himself in the mirror he is realizing (as O’Brien is repeating to him) that he is nothing but, a small and weak man, O’Brien makes him feel even less than a man. As O’Brien says to Winston “You are rotting away,’ he said; ‘you are falling to pieces. What are you? A bag of filth. Now turn around and look into the mirror again. Dou you see that thing facing you? That is the last man. If you are human, that is humanity.”(272).  As O’Brien is bombarding him with insults it is this stage of torture that truly breaks Winston.