Essay/Term paper: The ironies of 1984

Essay, term paper, research paper:  George Orwell

THE IRONIES OF 1984



 



The novel 1984, by George Orwell, has many examples of irony



throughout it. The two major types of irony: verbal irony and situation



irony, are demonstrated again and again in this novel. In the following



essay I will discuss these types of ironies and give examples of each from



the book.



 



The first type of irony is verbal irony, in which a person says or



does something one way, but the true meaning is the opposite. One of the



first example of this irony is discovered when the main character, Winston



Smith, uses the "Memory hole" to deposit things -- one would think that



this would be where things are remembered ("Memory"), but it's actually an



incinerator. The next example of irony comes when you learn about the



departments of Government in Oceania. The Ministry of Truth is actually



the maker of lies for the history books, the Ministry of Love discourages



love, and the Ministry of Peace is actually quite violent. The final



example of verbal Irony can be seen in the name of the leader of Oceania,



"Big Brother." The concept of a big brother is one whom is older and wiser



and helps the "littler siblings" -- this not the case with 1984's Big



Brother. The Big Brother in this novel completely watches over every move



a person makes keeping them controlled with fear.



 



The next type of irony is Situation irony, which is when a character



or a sequence of events appears to be headed one way, but it ends up as the



opposite of what was thought. One example of this is Winston's general



health. From the beginning of the book, it is shown how horrible his



health is and is continually getting worse and more difficult, but as



Winston gets involved with Julia then he begins a metamorphosis into a more



healthy person. Another major example is the betrayal of many of the



people whom Winston thought were his friends, such as Mr. Charrington and



even O'Brien- -who both worked for the Thought Police.



 



This book is stuffed full of irony, the entire plot of the beginning



would makes the reader expect one reaction and instead, the reader gets



twisted the complete opposite direction at the end for surprise. George



Orwell uses irony as sort of an exhibit, making it virtually the "how to



write irony" novel for me. Throughout the book, all of the irony used



became negative and depressing, I still thought this book made its point



successfully and was an incredible novel.