Discussion Topic

Portrayal and Influence of Female Characters in George Orwell's 1984

Summary:

In 1984, George Orwell portrays women through a mix of traditional stereotypes and progressive elements, reflecting the gender norms of his time. Julia is depicted as a rebellious, sensual character who contrasts with Winston's intellectualism, representing a modern view of femininity. Other women are shown in traditional roles, such as Winston's mother and Mrs. Parsons, who embody maternal and submissive qualities. Though some female characters appear weak due to the oppressive regime, they also demonstrate resilience and agency, influencing the plot and Winston's rebellion against the Party.

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How does George Orwell portray women in 1984?

Oceania replicates the patriarchy of mid-twentieth century England, with women in subordinate and nurturing roles (although the state would like to stomp out nurturing activities).

Julia fits the traditional stereotype of "woman" as natural, sensuous, material, and practical. In Winston's first vision of her, a dream, she is explicitly connected to nature in the form of the Golden County. His first actual meeting, orchestrated by her, is also in nature.

Winston, complementing her, is the stereotypical male: an abstract thinker worried about the "bigger" picture of past and future, the larger questions of civilization and truth, bent on political change in contrast to Julia's fixation on the here and now. He represents civilization: as he takes a more active role in the relationship, he is the one who rents the room in the heart of the city.

Winston romanticizes the prole washer woman who is always in the courtyard...

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outside Mr. Charrington's room, hanging endless amounts of wash and singing. Even though she is older and heavy, Winston comes to find her beautiful. To him, her role is not drudgery: to him it represents the continuation of humanity. He idealizes her into a representative matriarch, symbol of redemption for society: the future, he thinks, lies with her and prole women like her, who have stayed embedded in family.

Winston has, for him, an appalling encounter with a prostitute, because he realizes too late she is an older woman. He also initially wants to physically harm Julia before he gets to know her and fall in love with her because she brings home to him his sexual frustration. These incidents suggest he sees women as sex objects and feels revulsion and aggression when they don't meet his perceived needs for youth and and sexual availability. He never considers that he, middle-aged, with thinning hair and with a running leg ulcer might be no physical prize to the women he encounters, suggesting that physical appearance is less important for a man.

Winston also has a complicated relationship with his mother, a woman he loved, and who he idealizes in memory for her nurturing, maternal, and sacrificial qualities but towards whom he also feels anger and aggression for her inability to meet his physical needs, especially for food. Although he is just a child in his memories of her, he has internalized the social message that women are meant to sacrifice for males, and he consistently exploits her generosity.

Finally, since violence is the chief sign of power in Oceania and we never see women as agents of violence or Outer Party members, it is unlikely their role will improve within the context of the totalitarian state.

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While 1984is primarily a male-dominated novel, Orwell's portrayal of women makes some important statements about gender and its role in society.

With the exception of Julia, Winston's girlfriend, the women of 1984 are depicted in traditional roles where they espouse traditional norms and values. At the beginning of Part One, Chapter Three, for example, the reader meets Winston's mother who Winston remembers "with his young sister in her arms." Later in the chapter, his mother is portrayed as the protector of her children during an air raid which Winston is reminded of. 

Similarly, the prole women who Winston observes in Part Two, Chapter Ten, is depicted in a traditional setting: she is hanging out some washing in a courtyard. Surrounded by the "cries of the children in the street," Orwell, once again, reinforces the traditional role of women as mothers.

Though she is not a mother, the character of Katharine, Winston's estranged wife, reinforces Orwell's emphasis on traditional and domestic models of femininity. The first memory of Katharine, for instance, comes to Winston in Part One, Chapter Six, while he is standing in the kitchen, the 'traditional' bastion of women. Katharine's characterisation is also reminiscent of domestic female values: she is submissive, readily accepts party propaganda and is consumed by the desire to have a child and become a mother. Orwell's strong association between his female characters and motherhood is, thus, suggestive of his view on what constitutes a socially-acceptable role for women.

In contrast, however, is the character of Julia. She is a confident, rebellious and sexual woman who is complete opposite to all the other female characters in 1984. She represents a more modern view of femininity and openly rejects society's views on women and sexuality. In Part Two, Chapter Two, for example, Winston and Julia meet in the woods to avoid detection by the party. There, Julia confesses that she has had sex "hundreds of times" with other party members, despite being an active member of the Junior Anti-Sex League. 

Orwell, therefore, presents women in extremes of character. On one side, they are submissive mothers and, on the other, highly-sexualised rebels. This is, perhaps, more indicative of Orwell's own experiences with women than a true representation of femininity at the time of writing.  

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In my opinion, women are placed in stereotypical roles. Our Julia character is type-cast as the bimbo or flusey. She sneaks around to get to have relationships with men for purposes of her own pleasure, and then when it comes to thinking about something serious, like a potential rebellion or a moment of joining a conspiratorial revolution, she's not interested.

Of the other women we see, we only receive glimpses. These women are often at work doing domestic chores. I think this further demonstrates the role of women was considered as second-class. Mrs. Parsons spent time being excited about her kids and their futures, Winston can hardly remember his wife or mother, and the woman outside doing laundry was always singing. No woman, besides Julia had significant thought or quality of detail enough for Winston to remember him.  

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Are female characters in George Orwell's 1984 portrayed as weak?

Initially, I think that it has to be made clear that outside of Big Brother and the Party, everyone is weak in Orwell's narrative.  The entire purpose for Big Brother's control is to ensure that everyone is weak.  The narrative is not one in which men are strong and tough, embodiment of fortitude, and women are demure and weak.  Orwell's narrative is too complex for such a reductive reading.  In this light, one has to make clear that in discussing the weaknesses of the female characters, men in the novel are just as weak.

Women are shown to be easily controlled by the Party.  If a case was to be made that the female characters in the novel are weak, it would start here.  Katharine is shown through Winston's recollections as plain and rather dim, someone who is weak of spirit in freely parting from Winston when it is understood that they cannot have children.  She is not shown to be strong in the name of her commitment to Winston.  Additionally, Mrs. Parsons is shown to be weak and timid because of the fear of her children.  The power of her children causes her to be submissive and very weak.  Winston's mother was eliminated by the party.  Julia's betrayal of Winston was so quick, from O'Brien's point of view, that her weakness was evident.  While she professes strength in how she will not betray Winston, we are led to believe that the betrayal was fairly quick.  Even the Prole woman, where Winston sees so much of hope and promise for change, turns out to be weak when she runs at the sight of the Thought Police who are there to apprehend Winston and Julia. In these depictions, the argument can be made that the female characters in Orwell's work are shown to be weak.  Yet, it has to be stressed again that all of the characters- men and women- are shown to be weakened by the power of Big Brother.

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How are the women in 1984 depicted differently from traditional literary portrayals?

One way in which it is possible to argue this statement is to look at the way that the Party has perverted and twisted relations between the genders to create female characters who are very different from those normally encountered in literature. This can be approached best through the character of Katharine, Winston's wife, whom we meet in his memories of her in Part I Chapter 6. Winston quickly concludes that actually she is the dullest and least intelligent person he has ever met, and note his assessment of her:

She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swalowingif the Party handed it out to her. "The human sound-track," he nicknamed her in his own mind. Yet he could have endured living with her if it had not been for just one thing--sex.

Because the Party says it is the duty of married couples to try and procreate, Katharine calls sex "our duty to the Party" and "making a baby," but she treats it like an unpleasant job. She is an interesting example of a female character that has let the Party erode all of her femininity. Winston's memory of Katharine in the novel is used to show how the Party tries to control all forms of relationships, and even the sexual relations within those relationships. Katharine is an example of a "twisted" form of femininity in that she seems stripped of the normal qualities associated with women in literature: she is not loving, sensitive or passionate and lives to serve the Party alone. The Party's impact on gender is thus demonstrated.

However, having argued this, it is important to consider the ways in which Julia is not presented in this way, and also the memories that Winston has of his mother and sister. Katharine seems to prove that female characters are presented in a twisted form, but the other female characters do not suggest this.

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How do the manipulated and weak-willed female characters in George Orwell's 1984 influence the plot?

The perfect example that seems to embody these characteristics is of course Katherine, Winston's wife, who has vanished by the time the novel begins. It is particularly important though to realise how the experience of being married to a woman like Katherine has impacted Winston, which arguably leads him to seek pursuing the affair with Julia in a way to gain a sexual relationship that is meaningful and liberating, rather than the sexual activity which he conducted with Katherine. Note how Chapter 6 describes this:

And what was strange was that even when she was clasping him against her he had the feling that she was simultaneously pushing him away with all her strength.

Winston describes her as "submitting" as she forced him to carry out a sexual act that became "embarrassing" and "horrible." Katherine is presented as weak-willed in the way that she is so brainwashed and dominated by Big Brother and the Party, and her morality is shown to be corrupt through the way that she insists on continuing engaging in a sexual act with her husband even though she obviously hates it and he finds it terrible too. Katherine is presented by Orwell as an example of somebody who has been completely brainwashed by Big Brother and party propaganda, and Winston's later decision to rebel against Big Brother can arguably be traced back, at least in part, to his experience of being married to Katherine.

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In 1984, women are extremely stereotyped. Take a look at Winston's neighbor across the hall. SHe is completely unable to take care of herself. She cannot fix her plumbing (although we know Winston is not strong and is certainly no amazing handyman) even though she has watched Winston do it countless times. She has been removed as a mother of her children and replaced by the government--they are little spies who she cannot stop. 

Beyond that, look at Julia. Julia's sex drive certainly has not been eradicated--instead, she is simply using sex as a rebellion against the party. She appears, in Orwell's novel as an unintelligent distraction for Winston. She has no desire to actually stop the party, she essentially just enjoys "spitting in their faces". 

Then there is the proletariat woman. This woman is the one WInston admires from the window of his and Julia's apartment. She is always singing and hanging clothes. The woman is completely at peace with life and with her continuous repetitive chores. She is the true icon in this novel.

Orwell's commentary on women is this: any woman who is continuously sexually active is weak willed and cannot influence the world around them. They simply act and lure men. However, mothers who nurture and love and care for their children--fathers who spend time with their little ones--they are the true backbone of any country.

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