Winston fears rats. This is first exposed in chapter 4 during one of his escapades with Julia in the room on top of Mr. Charrington’s junk shop. Julia spotted a rat poking its head from a corner of the room and this terrified Winston to the point of screaming. He then revealed that he feared rats more than anything else in the world. This same fear is what O’Brien eventually used to get Winston to betray his love for Julia. Winston had actually intended to keep his love for Julia in his heart forever but upon transfer to room 101 and additional threats of a cage of hungry rats, he betrayed Julia.

Winston also feared being executed for thought crime. During one instance, he encountered three men who were executed for treason which they allegedly committed during a party function when in reality they were in the same venue as he was during the alleged time of the crime. Winston, noting this experience as real history, had kept their photograph but later threw it into memory hole.

Let us not forget the rats!  Winston finally betrays Julia in Room 101 because of his horrid fear of rats and the cage containing two rats that O'Brien brings in.  O'Brien tells Winston that the cage will fit over Winston's face and that they will devour his face, and Winston screams, "Don't do it to me! Do it to Julia!" AFter which, Winston never feels the same way toward Julia.  We find out later that she, too, has betrayed Winston in the same way although we don't know the fear that she was subjected to in order to encourage her betrayal.

What dreams does Winston have in the book 1984?

Winston's dream is about his mother and sister.  He dreams that his mother and sister are on some kind of ship.  The ship is sinking, and Winston knows that they are going to die on board that vessel. Winston is watching this from an outside view because he himself is not on the ship (he is somewhere sunny and nice and safe), but still able to watch them die.

"He was out in the light and air while they were being sucked down to death, and they were down there because he was up here.  He knew it and they knew it, and he could see the knowledge in their faces." 

The dream is symbolic of his guilt.  The reader learns that as a boy Winston took more food than was his ration amount.  On one particular day, he took extra food, his mother protested, but he still took it and ran out of the house.  That was the last he saw of them.  Winston feels guilty that his selfishness somehow played a part in their disappearance, and the dream is a representation of that. 

The other dream has a man who tells Winston that they will "meet in a place where there is not darkness." Winston believes it is the voice of O'Brien.  There is also a dream sequence about a dark-haired woman that runs naked toward Winston in an act of freedom and Party defiance.