threat of torture are meaningless. Most people would say whatever is required to make the torture stop. However, Winston believes that while saying these words, one would remain free inside one's own head. The Party, he thinks, cannot get inside your heart and mind to change the way you feel about people.

Winston's story shows that this is not true. At the beginning of the book, he hates Big Brother and everything he stands for. He even hates Julia at first because he believes her to be an orthodox follower of the Party. When he finds that Julia hates the Party as much as he does, he is delighted to the point of reveling in her promiscuity since it is subversive.

In the final scene, however, he not only loves Big Brother, but hates Julia. Their experience in the Ministry of Love has changed them both completely, putting an end to their love, making them betray one another, and conclusively proving that neither the head nor the heart can be free in a totalitarian state.

In chapter eight of Book Two, Winston and Julia discuss their relationship and the inevitability of their arrest. Both characters recognize that they will eventually be arrested by the Thought Police and tortured in the Ministry of Love. While Winston and Julia understand that they will be forced to make confessions, they acknowledge that the Party will never be able to "get inside" their minds and truly affect their feelings for each other. When Julia tells Winston that they cannot help confessing, Winston says,

"I don’t mean confessing. 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" (Orwell, 210).

Winston believes that the Party cannot alter his emotions or read his mind. He is willing to say whatever the Party desires him to say during his forced confessions but tells Julia that he will not believe his own words inside his heart or mind. According to Winston, the only real betrayal is if he stops loving Julia. Tragically, Winston underestimates that Party and does not know that they are capable of reading his mind and altering his emotions. While Winston holds out against the Party for a considerable amount of time in the Ministry of Love, he finally betrays Julia in Room 101 when he comes face-to-face with his worst fear.

To understand this quote, let's first put it into context. The quote comes from Part Two, Chapter Seven when Julia and Winston are discussing the probability that their relationship will be discovered by the Party. When this happens, they know that they will be tortured and forced to confess to their crime of being in love.

For Winston, confessing is not really a problem. He knows that when someone is being tortured, they will say anything to make the pain stop. So he knows that if Julia confessed under torture and said that she doesn't love Winston, it's not a big deal because she doesn't really mean it. She just wants the pain to end.

The real problem, according to Winston, is if Julia really stops loving him. If this happens, it is because the Party has been able to get inside Julia's head and manipulate her thoughts, molding her into the perfect Party member. If this happens, it will be a real betrayal because Julia could not withstand the Party's manipulation tactics. In other words, she could not stay strong for Winston.

What is meant by the quote is that in this society, like everything else what you say and do is not enough, it is what you think that really counts. That is why this society is policed by the Thought Police and not by typical law enforcement because the only thing that matters to the Party and Big Brother is absolute loyalty within which can only be monitored through the thoughts. The quote is quite literal in its meaning, confessing with your tongue is not betrayal, you can say anything they want to hear and it is not true betrayal. The same goes for ones actions, you can act as though you betray someone, but in this society even that is not proof enough of betrayal. You have to think it and feel it with your entire being to make it so. When Winston finally betrays Julia he wishes the worst thing in the world for him upon her and in that wish, with his entire being, he finally betrayed her.