The
Role of betrayal in “Nineteen eighty-four”
Introduction
“We have to distrust each other. It is
our only defense against betrayal.”
-Tennessee
Williams, American author and playwright
With
this quote Tennessee Williams captured an important part of the word betrayal.
It says that betrayal cannot exist without trust. Moreover it describes that
distrust is the main result of the existence of betrayal in our everyday life.
You need a well aligned distrust for not being betrayed too often. The bigger
your trust the easier you can be betrayed. Therefore describing trust is an
important part for describing the word betraying.
Betrayal
has ever been a part of the human being. This has often been reflected in
literature. A very good example for this is the book “Nineteen eighty-four”
written by George Orwell in 1948. In his book he continued this capturing of
betrayal in literature and wrote a book, where it plays an important part. Till
today “Nineteen eighty-four” has been a very relevant and important book for
this topic. But what exactly is meant with the word “betrayal” and which role
does it play in “Nineteen eighty-four”?
Therefore
we begin with our own definition of betrayal to as a basic for our
interpretation. The next part is “Role of betrayal in 1984”. Here we are going
to state out where betrayal takes place in “Nineteen eighty-four” and we are
going to describe its meaning for the book. For Intension we added three sub
points: “Where does betrayal start” closely connected to “Reasons for betrayal”
which leads to “Betrayal of the party”. The last part is “A comparison to the
GDR”. We added this part, because we wanted to analyze whether the book is
still up-to-date and whether there were any comparable parts in history.
We
split our Essay in two parts. will do the first one from Introduction to
“Role of betrayal in “Nineteen eighty-four” ” and Nils will continue from “Where
does betrayal start” to the end.
A
definition of betrayal
Betrayal
is a complex word. There are different kinds of betrayal, different kinds of
traitors, many situations it could lead to and many reasons why someone betrays.
Wherever betrayal takes place there must be a traitor. This can be a single
person, a group of people or a whole system.
The
different traitors betray on several ways. In fact there are two types of
betraying: an indirect and a direct way. If you are deviously lying to someone
face to face, you betray him directly. Also if you mask who you are or expose
someone, you are directly betraying. In contrast indirect betraying takes place
via third parties (for example structural lies by governments or “singing”
while being tortured).
The
occasion of betraying often is the fact that the traitor always gets bonuses.
These include simple things like money or personal interests, but also power
and personal secureness.
Another reason for betraying could be a personal conviction or the fear of
punishment. The most critical consequence of betraying is distrust. But often
structural betraying especially leads to loneliness, because you cannot feel
safe and you have to distrust each other to defend yourself against being betrayed.
This could also lead to disillusion and a loss of reality.
Betrayal in “1984”
In
“Nineteen eighty-four” the government and the whole system are betraying their
population all the time. They permanently tell the people structural lies and
change the reality. The border between betrayal in the system and accepting the
system is very small. Even thinking about the wish of opposition is a betrayal.
And the government decides on which side of the border your daily acting is. So
the word and the existence of “Betrayal” is an important instrument to keep the
state alive. Its omnipresence and its deep meaning remember the people to act
like the system wants them to act at any time.
Furthermore
the turning point of the book is a big point for the importance of betrayal for
“Nineteen eighty-four”. Mr. Charrington offers the main character, Winston
Smith, to rent a room without televisors for He accepts and meets his secret girlfriend
there. This leads to the turning point when Mr. Charrington comes out as a
member of the “thoughtpolice” and both get arrested. In this important part of
the book betrayal plays a big role again, because the betrayal of Mr.
Charrington changed the whole life of the main character and shows Smith the
consequence of not being with the system. At this point the book changes
completely. Smiths’ normal life becomes a life under torture, so the plot in
the third part of the book is only about the torturing and brain washing he has
to suffer. So betrayal is the reason for a big change in “Nineteen
eighty-four”.
Another
example for the continual presence of betrayal is the character O’Brian. Smith
thinks O’Brian is an ally in the resistance movement. So he trusts him and
arranges a meeting together with Julia. O’Brian tells them he is a member of
the “Brotherhood”, an underground movement. In the third part of the book, when
Smith is in captivity, O’Brian turns out to be the person who examines and tortures
him.
But
the government and the members of the system are not the only ones who betray. In
“Nineteen eighty-four” there are also people who do not want to fit in the
system, but who have to deal with it. So they pretend to be with the system in
their daily life and break its rules secretly. This is also a kind of betrayal
which is very present and also very important for the book. This very normal behavior
of some enemies of the system in this system gives a tension to the book itself
and it gets more realistic.
Finally
the behavior of Winston Smith is an indicator for the role of betrayal in
“Nineteen eighty-four”. He is a part of this surveillance
state
he is living in. With his work in the ministry of truth which changes the
history and things that do not fit in the world the government pretends, he
plays an important role for the structural lying of the government. But in fact
he is against the system. He does not believe its lies and wants to work
against the government. Moreover Smith does not follow the given rules. So he
commits bilateral betrayal. One the one hand he betrays the government by
working for it while being against it. On the other hand he betrays the other
enemies of the system with helping to keep its construct alive.
In conclusion betrayal plays a very big role in “Nineteen eighty-four”, because
it is on the spot from the beginning till the end and it plays a big role in
important situations. Even the people who are against the system, because of
its structural lies and its general betraying, betray too. So every character
which appears in the book betrays. In addition to its value for the book, betrayal
rates as a guideline for “Nineteen eighty-four”.
Where
does betrayal start?
In
the general Definition, betrayal not only means to set up a Situation like Mr.
Charrington did, but it is also about being unfaithful, disappointing people
and their hopes and dreams, or all in all to be disloyal. If one watches
betrayal in this wider definition, one could also see a betrayal in the way the
party interacts with the people. The party commits direct and indirect betrayal
by spying on their own people with greatest mistrust and pretending a fake
history. But betrayal not only starts in this big circumstances, but also in
very tiny sections of life, like if we lie to ourselves to cope with a
situation, or if we tell white lies to other people, not thinking about the
consequences they might have.
Reasons
for betrayal
There
are many different reasons for people to betray each other. One has to differ
between positive and negative motivation. Positive motivation is, if a person
offers another person huge benefits for becoming a traitor. This benefit can
occur in numerous facets, like money, or social benefits. But also friendships
can be a huge motivational factor. Mr. Charrington for instance, the most
obvious traitor in the novel, worked for the party, in the thought police. With
doing this, he benefited with money, from his work, and social benefits, by
doing the groundwork for the party, so that he gets a higher position and
obviously more social force. Negative motivations are also as various as the
positive motivations. Fear, is an important factor, for example if ones family
is taken as hostages, one could be forced to betray someone, but also base
motives, like greed, envy or rage can be very tempting.
If
people want to acquire property of others, they can easily become traitors. A
good example for that was the burning of the witches in the middle ages. If
someone wanted to take over the property of another one, he accused them of
being a witch, so they got punished and they just took the belongings of the
other one.
But
what requirements have to be fulfilled, so that an actual betrayal can take
place? In my eyes, betrayal is one of the basest actions that humans can
commit. I compare it to the basic instinct-theory of Konrad Lorenz. The
Instinct-theory of Konrad Lorenz says that every instinctive action is motivated
by an active, specific Potential. The higher the potential gets, the heavier
the End-action is, when the release mechanism, or fixed action pattern (FAP) is
triggered.
The
motivations, regardless if positive or negative, build a potential, which makes
the person susceptible for becoming a traitor. There is also a release
mechanism, which leads to actually committing the betrayal. Every person thinks
about betrayal once in a while, but only few are betraying their loved ones and
friends.
The
reason is that not everybody owns such a „release mechanism“, because of moral
restrictions. But if betrayal fits into the moral pattern of a person, there is
a great possibility for him to become a traitor. People in the surrounding of
such persons have to build up great mistrust towards that person, or they will
be betrayed. If the betrayal potential rises, the moral restrictions are
overcome easier and easier. That is the case in “nineteen eighty-four”. Because
the motivation to betray someone is very high, people have to be very
mistrusting in the presence of other people or televisors, because every
suspicious move could be misinterpreted and be reported to the thought police.
The
betrayal by the party
Not
only people can betray each other, but even a system can betray the inhabitants
of its country. In “nineteen eighty-four“the system is the party with big
brother, whose existence is not even confirmed, as its leader. The party is
controlling everyone’s life in an inhuman way. It disregards the privacy of the
people. With doing this, it violates the real-world human rights, which can be
applied as a general morality guideline. In my personal interpretation, the
party betrays the inhabitants of Oceania. It constantly destroys the hopes and
dreams of the people, when it tells them what they should become and what jobs
they should take. It shows no acceptance or human behaviour in dealing with
misbehaviour. Everyone who misbehaves is a traitor in the eyes of the party. A
system like this is a dystopia. But also in reality there were systems similar
to this. The people are put down and there is nothing they could do against the
system by their own, because any resistance is stopped from its beginning.
People are not able to demonstrate against anything. This is also a big
interference with the human rights, in our definition. The party also betrays
because of base motives: control mania. If the party would not cover its
betrayals with control, the people would rise up to put down such a system. The
consequences if such a betrayal are losing the trust of the society and the
need to control people with force, entering a vicious circle, where more force
is necessary, which leads to more mistrust and so on.
Comparison
to the GDR
The
situation which is described in “nineteen eighty-four” is a dystopia. It
exaggerates the scenario to its maximum, so that every reader would understand
the horrible situation. But in the real world, ironically also at “nineteen
eighty-four”, there was a similar situation in eastern Germany. From October
1949, until October 1990, it existed in middle Europe. The instance, even
though not as controlling as the thought police, which controlled the people in
the GDR was the so called stasi. The party that was leading the GDR was always
the SED. People also had to be mistrusting all the time, because they had
reason to be suspicious that their apartments were bugged. In a transferred
sense, there were invisible televisors. People also could not talk freely with
their own family members, because they could work for the stasi secretly. There
also was a file for every person that fell into the attention of the stasi
agents. This came out, when the GDR collapsed. Information were gathered in
these files, which were interpreted, sometimes in a totally wrong way. Normally
living persons could be accused of being traitors, because of misinformation.
You not only had to change the way you act, you even had to change the way you
talk. For example: You could not talk about the Berlin wall as Berlin wall, you
had to name it the „Anti-capitalistic-Defence-Barricade (Antikapitalistischer
Schutzwall). If not, you got into the attention of the Stasi, and you certainly
did not want that. If you got into the attention, it could be possible that you
get punished by total arbitrariness. One could name very many similarities
between GDR and Oceania.
Sources:
“Nineteen
eighty-four” by George Orwell
Dict.cc
as a dictionary
“Nineteen
eighty-four” by George Orwell
Geschichte
und Geschehen Neuzeit (Schulbuch Sekundarstufe 2) Klett Verlag, pages: 371 ff
ISBN:
978-3-12-430021-8
( as secondary source)
Dict.cc
as a dictionary
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