which moves from a sexual fling to a full-bodied love affair. This restores Winston's tattered humanity. Before he knew Julia personally, he had violent fantasies about raping and killing her. He also enjoyed movies in which enemy children were blown up and callously kicked a severed hand into the gutter after a bomb explosion. Once he gets involved with Julia, Winston becomes a more caring and loving person: a full human being.

Third is the rendezvous between O'Brien, Winston, and Julia, as it shows the reader a glimpse of life in the Inner Party circle and allows O'Brien to give Winston the book by Emmanuel Goldstein. The book explains to Winston and the reader the underlying logic of the regime.

Fourth is Winston's betrayal of Julia when threatened with having his face chewed off by large, hungry rats. He has always said that no matter what happened, he would never betray her. After he does, he stops loving her and feels empty.

Fifth is something that happens to Winston after he is released from prison. He has a chance meeting with Julia that confirms their relationship is broken, but the really important event, to my mind, is Winston's unbidden memory of a happy day playing a game of Snakes and Ladders with his mother and little sister. This shows, right before he is presumably killed, that there is a part of him that the Party never got to, a vestige of humanity left to him when he dies.

Some readers may have different opinions on what the five most important events in George Orwell’s 1984 are. However, the following are some of the main events that are key to the development of the plot.

The first is when the book’s protagonist, Winston Smith, writes “Down with Big Brother” in his diary. He knows that by doing this he is betraying the Party. He feels “a twinge of panic” when he sees the words he wrote and is even tempted to tear the page out. But he doesn’t, because he knows that at this point it would be useless: “The writing of those particular words was no more dangerous than the initial act opening the diary.”

The next important event is when Winston receives a note from a dark-haired girl named Julia. The note says “I love you,” and soon after Winston receives it, the two begin a sexual and emotional affair. This affair brings a much-needed spark to Winston’s life. As the narrator explains, “At the sight of the words I LOVE YOU the desire to stay alive had welled up in him.”

The third important event is when Winston and Julia are arrested. They have been meeting secretly for some time in a room above Charrington’s shop that they thought was free from the Party’s constant surveillance. But one day they are lying together saying “We are the dead,” and they hear a voice behind them confirm “You are the dead.” They spring apart and realize that there is a telescreen behind the picture on the wall of St. Clement Danes. Winston and Julia are separated, arrested, and tortured.

The fourth most important event is when Winston betrays Julia. The couple swore they would never turn on one another, and Winston even said,

Confession is not betrayal. What you say or do doesn’t matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you—that would be the real betrayal.

Julia agreed with him, replying, “It’s the only thing they can’t do.” But in the end, Winston is tortured with rats, which are his worst fear. This pushes him to the brink, and he screams: “Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her.” Thus, he was wrong—the Party was capable of making him betray his love for her.

Finally, the fifth most important event comes at the very end of the book. Winston is drinking gin in a cafe, “sitting in a blissful dream.” He hears on a telescreen that victory has come to Oceania, and he gazes up. The narrator says, “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” This haunting last line is proof that the Party has finally destroyed his ability to resist them. Despite his previous awareness of and resistance to the Party’s dangerous power, they were still able to get to him. This is Orwell’s final warning to all readers about the dangers of totalitarianism.

Choosing the most important events of 1984 clearly involves the interpretation the reader; however, in selecting these the reader can look for events that have significant consequences. From this perspective, then, here are 5 events that can be considered to be the most important:

1. Winston Smith, who works for the Ministry of Truth, clandestinely purchases a diary. This in itself is forbidden, but then Winston writes the rebellious words, "Down with Big Brother"--a thought crime--and hides from the telescreen.

2. Winston begins an affair with Julia, an act that is also rebellious as promiscuity is forbidden by the government. After some time, they fall in love which each other.

3. Winston and Julia consider joining the Brotherhood, a subversive organization run by Emmanuel Goldstein (public enemy #1) who has as his main purpose the overthrow of Big Brother. They meet each other for lovemaking and conversation at a room above the store where Winston has purchased his diary, the store of Mr. Charrington. Shortly afterwards, at work O'Brien approaches Winston and asks him if he would like to join the Brotherhood, offering him Goldstein's book that contains strategies on how to destroy Big Brother.

4. Winston and Julia are arrested for their subversive activities. While they have been lovemaking and talking Mr. Charrington, a member of the Thought Police has been listening and watching. Both are separately tortured. Winston is taken to Room 101 where he is broken when his greatest fear, that of being gnawed by rats, is made real. After his terror, O'Brien works on Winston until he becomes brainwashed, agreeing, for example, that two plus two is five. 

5. Winston and Julia are released. Winston, devoid of his emotions, now waits for the bullet that will kill him. He spends his evenings at the same cafe where he drinks himself into oblivion. Ironically, he meets Julia one day and they reveal that they have betrayed each other's love. But, Winston does not care; he watches the telescreen at the cafe and cries because now "the struggle is finished....He loved Big Brother."