Discussion Topic

Julia's Role and Relationship with Winston in 1984

Summary:

In George Orwell's 1984, Julia plays a significant role in Winston's life. She first captures his attention by slipping him a note saying "I love you," a daring act in their oppressive society. Julia influences Winston by providing a sense of freedom and rebellion, yet her impulsiveness ultimately leads to their downfall. Their relationship, while initially liberating, becomes a critical weakness for Winston. Julia chooses Winston as a lover due to his apparent opposition to the Party, and their forbidden love becomes a form of resistance, albeit a doomed one.

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What message does Julia's note to Winston convey in 1984?

The note says "I LOVE YOU."  

It's an odd sequence in the book, because other than Winston, the reader sort of assumes that all of the other characters are emotionless automatons.  Perhaps anger and fear are felt, but love?  That's not something the reader really sees.  Nevertheless, Julia discreetly passes the note on to Winston while he is on his way to the bathroom.  Julia is walking toward him, fakes a trip and a fall right in front of Winston, and Winston helps her get back up.  It's a completely innocuous encounter, and Julia uses the moment to pass the note on to Winston.  

 Nevertheless it had been very difficult not to betray a momentary surprise, for in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand. There was no question that she had done it intentionally.

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 Nevertheless it had been very difficult not to betray a momentary surprise, for in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand. There was no question that she had done it intentionally.

The next few pages are a lesson in building suspense, because the reader, and Winston, are not allowed to read the note immediately.  Winston has to keep the note hidden, but deeply wants to read it.  He has to unfold it within his pocket while using the bathroom.   Then Winston has to casually toss the note on his pile at work, so as to make it look like a useless piece of scrap.  Then he goes about working and tells himself to wait "five minutes" before looking at it.  Only then does he read it, and he tries to make sure it looks like a normal part of his work routine.  

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The note said "I love you."

This happens in Part 2, Chapter 1.

Winston has left his cubicle to go use the bathroom when he sees Julia (he doesn't know her name yet at this point) coming down the hall toward him.  Her arm is in a sling.  As she comes toward him, she trips and falls and seems to have hurt herself.

Winston helps her up.  When he does, she slips him a note.  He takes it very carefully back to his cubicle and eventually reads it.

They have to be so secretive because the Party would not approve of them starting any kind of an affair like the one they are about to start.

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How does Julia influence Winston in 1984 and what is her impact on him?

Julia has a generally positive influence on Winston's health and spirits, but in the larger sense she simply assists in first confirming and then destroying his illusions. I do not think that she is a spy, as has been suggested, but to Winston's larger aims, she is more a hinderance than a help.

To begin with, Julia has no long-term plans on how to oppose the Party. When she is with Winston, life shrinks to an eternal present with no real future. Perhaps without meaning to, she tempts Winston into taking measures, such as renting the bedroom from Mr. Carrington, which are ultimately suicidal. Her rebellion against the Party is impulsive and unthought; as Winston points out, "You're only a rebel from the waist downward." It is significant that she finds this a "brilliantly witty" remark (Part II, ch. 5).

Julia also reinforces Winston's delusion that he will be able to hold onto her despite any torture that the Party can inflict. His devotion to her becomes his greatest weakness, in that when O'Brien breaks it, he can be sure he has broken the whole of Winston Smith.

Thus, we can say that although Julia was probably trustworthy as far as that went, and had a temporary positive effect on him both mentally and physically, Winston's relationship with her ended up becoming one of his most critical weaknesses. Her relationship with Winston is one of the ways Orwell criticizes romantic "love conquers all" ideas of resistance to tyranny.

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How does Julia attract Winston's attention in 1984?

Of course, Julia feigns an accident to make her first real contact with Winston, but in reality he has already noticed her. She sits behind him at the Two Minutes Hate and makes fleeting eye contact with him in the commissary. During the Two Minutes Hate, in fact, he has quite graphic and violent fantasies about her. He hates her before he gets to know her because he assumes she is "young and pretty and sexless," wearing (ironically, as it turns out) the red sash of the Anti-Sex League, the "aggressive symbol of chastity" (15). Although his hatred has more to do with the violent emotions elicited by Party propaganda than Julia herself, Winston assumes she is a Party spy. This fear seems confirmed when she follows him as he makes one of his regular trips among the proles. He even thinks about chasing her down and killing her at this point, but he realizes that he is too physically frail to do so. But he is convinced that she will betray him and experiences equal parts terror and exhilaration when she passes him the note a few days later. He does not even read it for several minutes, until his curiosity overcomes him. The clandestine effort that Julia undertakes to make contact with Winston and his initial reaction to it demonstrate the degree to which the Party has made even the most natural and innocent gestures into life-and-death acts of defiance. Having gotten Winston's attention with her "accident," Julia arranges their subsequent meeting in a Party rally in a crowded square. She is amused by Winston's admission that he hated her, and it becomes clear that she has been trying to arrange an affair with him for some time. 

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In Orwell's 1984, why does Julia choose Winston as her lover?

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Julia chooses Winston Smith to be her next lover for a number of reasons, including the following:

  • When she first saw him, she immediately sensed that he was opposed to the Party and was thus a potential lover, since she also opposes the Party. Thus she says to Winston:
“I’m good at spotting people who don’t belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against them.” (p. 122, Signet edition)
  • She considers sexual relations a means of revolting against control by the Party.
  • She hates the kind of so-called purity and goodness dictated by the Party.
  • She actually enjoys sexual relations. Raw physical desire is something the Party can’t entirely control.
  • She takes pleasure in outwitting the Party, even though her opposition to it is not especially principled or intellectual.
  • She recognizes that if the Party can control or suppress sexual instincts, those emotional energies can instead by made useful to the Party for its own political purposes.
  • She recognizes that sex threatens the Party in other ways, since it robs of the Party of energies it might be able to use in its own interests. Sexual activity makes the people who engage in it briefly apathetic toward the Party.
  • She uses her sexual attractiveness to help encourage Winston in his own hidden revolt against the Party. With Julia to desire, he has something to live for. Thus her affair with him helps strengthen him and (slightly) weaken the Party.
  • She seems to enjoy taking the initiative in planning the details of their trysts.  Having the affair with Winston helps increase her own sense of power and independence.

Thus Julia chooses Winston for a variety of reasons, although she might just as easily have chosen anyone else whom she strongly suspected of disloyalty to the Party.

For evidence to support the points just listed, see Book II, Chapters 1-3 of the novel.

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Why does Winston love Julia in 1984?

At the beginning of the story, Winston Smith vehemently hates Julia and believes that she is a completely orthodox government spy. However, Winston's feelings immediately begin to change after she leaves him a note and they privately meet in the Golden Country, outside of the city.

Initially, Winston is only physically attracted to Julia and enjoys the idea of disobeying the totalitarian regime by privately being with her. However, the more time Winston spends with Julia, the more his feelings for her begin to grow. Winston eventually rents an apartment above Mr. Charrington's antique shop, where he and Julia frequently meet and carry on their private affair.

After Winston spends an extended period of time with Julia, he develops a strong emotional bond with her and realizes that he is in love with Julia after she agrees to join the Brotherhood with him. Winston then demonstrates his love by vowing to never betray Julia before the Thought Police eventually arrest both of them. Winston's love for Julia is rooted in loyalty and sacrifice. He recognizes that Julia significantly improves every aspect of his life and he can forget about the threatening government for brief moments when he is in her presence. The fact their love is forbidden also intensifies Winston's feelings for Julia. They are two lovers against the world and are willing to die in order to be together.

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