Irony In 1984

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade May 2001

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Downloaded 15 times

The book, 1984, is a dystopian novel. The author, George Orwell, describes how he thinks life will be in the future, hence the name 1984. If you lived during this time in the book, you would be constantly watched by telescreens and you wouldn't have any of the freedoms or luxuries we have today. But throughout this book you are able to see many examples of irony. Irony involves asserting or suggesting the opposite of what is actually true. Three examples of irony in 1984 are the names of the Ministries compared to what they actually control; the Party slogans, which are paradoxes; Winston and Julia are arrested in the place where they felt the safest.

The names of the Ministries compared to what they actually mean are not anything you would think they would be just by hearing the name. The Ministries are broken up into four branches, which are the Ministry of Love, Truth, Plenty, and Peace.

The Ministry of Love is a prison. Most of the prisoners kept here are the ones who were arrested by the Thought Police because they are against the Party and are going to be shaped into better Party members. They will torture you and have you confess to things you never did. Inside of Room 101, they force you to face your worst fear. The next Ministry, where Winston worked, is the Ministry of Truth. In this building, books are made and pieces of history are rewritten to conform to the standards of the Party. Since things have been rewritten so many times and the Party never tells the truth anyway, no one can really know for sure what has really happened in the past. No one is even sure what year it is. The Ministry of Plenty has control over...