"'It was only an 'opeless fancy,/It passed like an Ipril dye,/But a look an' a word an' the dreams they stirred,/They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye!'" (Orwell 138).
This is a song that the "red-armed" prole woman outside of the window sings. Winston says it was composed "without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator." It is ironic that the Party would have created this song arbitrarily (evidently they are trying to also remove all art and expression), because it seems to be about Big Brother's control over peoples' lives. It speaks of a thought that someone has, although it is small and passes quickly. It is detected in this person's "look an' a word an' the dreams [it] stirred," and then someone, like Big Brother, has "stolen my 'eart awye!" They catch someone committing ThoughtCrime and they are removed and punished, and, if not killed, returned to being a law-obeying citizen. These people no longer have brains or "'earts," they are mindless drones that do and think what they are told.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
an interesting essay might explore the use of music and rhythm in 1984
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting perspective. I took the song as an expression of hope. It seemed to express the power of memories. The next verse says, "They say that time heals all things,
ReplyDeleteThey say you can always forget;
But the smiles and the tears across the years
They twist my heartstrings yet!" The Party controls the world through its control of memory. But if the people could hold onto their memories of the past the party would lose control.
Thanks Lynsey very insightful post
ReplyDeleteI understand how, I do not understand why.
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there ;)
DeleteThe masses ('proles') are too contented to revolt. Something I learnt from Goldstein's book.
ReplyDelete