Part Three, Chapter 5 — Teaching Companion

This chapter's big question

O’Brien never tells Winston what to say; Winston works it out himself. Does that make the betrayal of Julia his own choice?

The tension Winston fights his panic to think, “to think was the only hope”, and the thinking produces the betrayal: the reasoning mind he trusted to save him is what hands Julia over.

Today's focus

Notice what O’Brien tells Winston, what he refuses to tell him, and what Winston does with the silence.

The shape at a glance

Winston is brought to a room many metres underground, as deep as the building goes, and strapped upright in a chair so tightly that he cannot turn his head. Two small tables covered in green baize stand in front of him, one near, one by the door. O’Brien comes in: what is in Room 101, he says, is the worst thing in the world, and everyone knows it. A guard sets a wire cage on the far table. The worst thing varies from person to person, O’Brien says; for Winston it is rats. A mask is fixed to the front of the cage, and Winston understands what it is for. O’Brien reminds him of an old dream, a wall of blackness with something terrible behind it that he knew and dared not look at: it was the rats. Winston asks what O’Brien wants him to do. O’Brien gives no direct answer. In a teacher’s manner, as if to an audience behind Winston, he explains that pain is not always enough, that everyone has something they cannot endure, and that courage and cowardice are not involved: it is not cowardly to clutch at a rope when you fall. He moves the cage to the near table. Winston feels alone on an empty, sunlit plain. O’Brien describes what rats do to the helpless, presses the first lever, and brings the cage closer, describing how the rats will leap at his face. Winston fights his panic to think. Through blackness he comes to an idea: he must put another human being between himself and the rats. As the wire brushes his cheek he understands there is just one person, and he shouts, “Do it to Julia!” He feels himself falling away, into space, though O’Brien is still beside him, and hears the cage door click shut.

A way in

Read the chapter in three stretches: the room and the cage, from “At each stage of his imprisonment” to “the worst thing in the world happens to be rats”; O’Brien’s lesson, from the dream of the wall of blackness to the squeals and the groan; and the last seconds, from the first lever to the door that “clicked shut and not open.” As you go, keep two short lists: what O’Brien tells Winston, and what he leaves Winston to work out. Track how close the cage is each time the page measures it. Do not linger on what the rats would do; ask what the room is for. Leave open what the chapter leaves open: whether O’Brien would have opened the cage, whether Julia faced the same room, and what Winston feels afterwards.

Lesson plan

Retell The student retells the chapter in order: the room deep underground and the chair, the two tables, O’Brien’s “worst thing in the world”, the cage and the rats, the mask, the old dream of the wall, Winston’s question and O’Brien’s lecture instead of an answer, the cage moved to the near table and the empty plain, the rats and the baby, the first lever, Winston’s fight to think, the idea of another body, “just one person”, the shout, the fall and the click. Look for the dream and for the plain, which a hurried retelling skips on the way to the shout.

Imitate the author After copying, the student writes two short passages of their own in the same build, about a moment of fear. The first opens with one long sentence that names a feeling by what it does not yet know, using “had” to put the body’s warning first. Then a sentence that turns on “But at this moment” as the meaning arrives, and a short sentence about the body. The second opens with a sentence made only of a sound, then one sentence of effort, then one of failure that joins two clauses with a bare comma.

Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues that the betrayal is Winston’s own choice, and gathers his two unanswered questions, “to think was the only hope”, the idea he comes out “clutching”, and “I don’t care what you do to her.” The other argues that it is not, and gathers O’Brien’s instinct “which cannot be disobeyed”, the rope and the deep water, “one and only one way”, and the moment Winston is “a screaming animal”. Each side must answer the other’s best line, and both must deal with O’Brien’s silence. Neither may say what Winston feels afterwards or whether O’Brien would have opened the cage.

Purpose Close on the shape of the chapter. It opens as deep as the building goes and measures the cage again and again: “three or four metres away”, “not two metres”, “less than a metre”, “a couple of hand-spans”, then the wire on his cheek. When Winston shouts, the measuring flips: he is “light-years distant”, yet O’Brien is still at his side. Ask why Orwell counts the distance so closely, and why the chapter ends on a sound, the door that “clicked shut and not open.” Keep the answer to what this chapter shows.

Three levels

Easier Read the chapter aloud in its three stretches. Keep two lists: what O’Brien tells Winston, and what he leaves Winston to work out. Talk through the first and fourth discussion questions, then answer the last written question aloud, using the lists, before writing it.

On level Talk through all five discussion questions in order, then write both written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.

Harder Ask for one argued essay on the body and the mind in this chapter. The copied passages show a body that knows before the mind does and then cannot move at all; the last paragraph shows a mind falling “light-years distant” while the body is “still strapped in the chair”. Which part of Winston, if either, is free at the end? The essay should use “premonitory”, “immovably” and “didactically”, and should meet the objection that the mind’s flight is itself what the room intends. It must not say what Winston feels for Julia afterwards or whether O’Brien would have opened the cage.

Discussion

1. Winston has already seen the rats. Then O’Brien reminds him of an old dream, where he knew what was behind a wall of blackness but did not dare to look. Why bring up the dream now?Inference

What it asks It asks the student to account for one step in O’Brien’s method. Winston has seen the rats and cried out “You can’t do that!”. Before the cage moves any closer, O’Brien recalls “the moment of panic that used to occur in your dreams”: a wall of blackness, a roaring sound, something terrible on the other side. “You knew that you knew what it was, but you dared not drag it into the open. It was the rats that were on the other side of the wall.” The cage alone would frighten him. The student says what the dream adds. It reaches toward the last question, since the dream is about knowing something without being told it. The card must not say how O’Brien learned of the dream; the chapter does not say. It keeps to what the room is for, not to what the rats would do.

A strong answer A strong response says what the dream adds to the cage, and argues from O’Brien’s words. One reader says it leaves Winston nowhere to hide: the one fear he “dared not drag it into the open” has been dragged out by someone else. Another says it shows how the room works: O’Brien has said Winston “knew the answer already”, and the dream proves he holds things he will not say to himself. The best answers notice that the blackness comes back when he fights to think, ask what is behind it this time, and do not say how O’Brien knows the dream.

2. When O’Brien talks about pain and courage, he looks past Winston. It is as if he were speaking to an audience behind Winston’s back. Who is that speech really for?Character

What it asks It asks the student to judge the speech O’Brien gives instead of answering Winston. Winston asks, “What is it that you want me to do?” O’Brien speaks “in the schoolmasterish manner that he sometimes affected”, looking “thoughtfully into the distance, as though he were addressing an audience somewhere behind Winston’s back.” He says pain “is not always enough”, that for everyone there is something unendurable, and that “Courage and cowardice are not involved”: clutching a rope when you fall, or breathing after deep water, is “merely an instinct which cannot be disobeyed.” Later he is “still addressing his invisible audience”, and at the worst moment he speaks “as didactically as ever”. The student says who the speech is for. The card must not settle whether the betrayal is Winston’s own choice; that is the last question.

A strong answer A strong response says who the speech is for, and argues from O’Brien’s manner and words. One reader says it is for Winston: an excuse handed over in advance, so that what he is about to do is “not cowardly”, only instinct. Another says it is for no one in the room: a lesson given many times, in a manner O’Brien “affected”, that turns Winston into a case and leaves him alone. The best answers notice that the speech is about “everyone”, hear the audience come back later, and do not say whether O’Brien would have opened the cage.

3. The cage is not two metres away. Yet Winston feels he is alone in the middle of a great empty plain. Where has he gone?Inference

What it asks It asks the student to read one strange moment in the middle of the terror. O’Brien has set the cage on the nearer table. “Winston could hear the blood singing in his ears. He had the feeling of sitting in utter loneliness. He was in the middle of a great empty plain, a flat desert drenched with sunlight, across which all sounds came to him out of immense distances. Yet the cage with the rats was not two metres away from him.” A little later the rats squeal, which “seemed to reach Winston from far away”, and he hears “a deep groan of despair. That, too, seemed to come from outside himself.” The student says where Winston has gone. It reaches toward the last question, since it asks who is there to act when the moment comes. The card keeps to this moment, not to how the room changes him afterwards.

A strong answer A strong response says where Winston has gone, and argues from the plain and the groan. One reader says into hiding: his body cannot move, so his mind flees to a bright, open place, and the fall at the end finishes the same flight. Another says he is coming apart: the plain is lonely, not safe, and even his own groan seems to come “from outside himself”, so it is unclear who is left to choose. The best answers set the plain beside the fall, notice that the cage stays close in both, and keep to this moment rather than what the room does to him later.

4. Winston’s idea comes first as “the body of another human being”, then as “just one person”. Julia’s name comes only when he shouts. Why does it come so late?Author's choice

What it asks It asks the student to account for when Julia’s name arrives. Winston comes out of the blackness “clutching an idea”: “He must interpose another human being, the body of another human being, between himself and the rats.” As the wire brushes his cheek comes “not relief, only hope, a tiny fragment of hope”, and he understands “that in the whole world there was just one person to whom he could transfer his punishment – one body that he could thrust between himself and the rats.” Even here there is no name. “Julia” first appears in the shout. The student says why the name comes so late. It reaches toward the last question, since it asks how a plan became one person given away. The card must not say whether Julia faced Room 101 too, or what Winston feels for her afterwards.

A strong answer A strong response says why Julia’s name comes so late, and argues from the steps of the idea: “the body of another human being”, then “just one person”, then the shout. One reader says the name is the betrayal itself: while she is only a body nothing has been done, so the name can come only at the moment of the act, out loud. Another says the plan came first: the room asks for a body, the idea answers like a sum, and only then does he find there is one person to fill the place. The best answers weigh “transfer his punishment” and “a tiny fragment of hope”, and do not say whether Julia faced Room 101 or what Winston feels for her later.

5. Winston shouts, “I don’t care what you do to her.” In that moment, is it true?Character

What it asks It asks the student to judge one sentence in Winston’s shout. The mask is closing; the wire has brushed his cheek; he has found his one way to save himself. Then he is “shouting frantically, over and over”: “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” Saving himself needed only the first words. The student says whether “I don’t care what you do to her” is true in that moment. It reaches toward the last question, since a sentence he means is more his own than one he only says. The card keeps to that moment: it must not say what Winston feels for Julia afterwards, or whether O’Brien would have opened the cage.

A strong answer A strong response says whether “I don’t care what you do to her” is true in that moment, and argues from the shout itself. One reader says yes: the mask shuts out “anything else”, there is no room left in him for Julia, and he goes beyond what saving himself needs, down to O’Brien’s own words about the baby. Another says no: the shout is aimed at the one man who can turn the cage away, and a plea has to be believed, so he says the strongest thing he can, “over and over”. The best answers weigh whether a man who is “blind, helpless, mindless” can mean or not mean anything, leave whether the betrayal is his own choice to the last question, and do not say what he feels for Julia afterwards.

Critical thinking

1. O’Brien says a human being may hold out against pain “even to the point of death.” Yet the worst thing in the world may be “some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.” How can something less than death do what pain could not?

What it asks It asks the student to explain a puzzle in O’Brien’s speech. The chapter opens by setting this room below the cells where Winston was beaten and the room where he was questioned. “By itself,” O’Brien says, “pain is not always enough. There are occasions when a human being will stand out against pain, even to the point of death. But for everyone there is something unendurable – something that cannot be contemplated.” Yet the worst thing “varies from individual to individual” and may be “some quite trivial thing, not even fatal.” Something smaller than death does what pain up to death could not. For Winston it is rats: “a form of pressure that you cannot withstand, even if you wished to. You will do what is required of you.” On the page the cage door never opens. The student builds a thesis on how something less than death can do what pain could not, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card keeps the question of whether the betrayal is Winston’s own choice for the last written question. It must not say that O’Brien would really have opened the cage, or that a different fear would have broken Winston in the same way.

A strong answer A strong response explains how something less than death can do what pain could not, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says the worst thing does not work on courage at all: pain can be withstood “even to the point of death”, but the room works on a pressure no one can withstand, so its size does not matter and there is no holding out left to admire. The strongest objection is that the room is after an act, not a surrender: Winston “will do what is required”, and he must find for himself the one thing that costs most to give. A good revision weighs “something that cannot be contemplated”, notices that the door never opens and only the wire touches him, and leaves the question of choice to the last question.

2. O’Brien never tells Winston what to say; Winston works it out himself. Does that make the betrayal of Julia his own choice?

What it asks It asks the student to judge whether the betrayal of Julia is Winston’s own choice. Twice Winston begs to be told: “What is it that you want me to do?” and “How can I do it if I don’t know what it is?” O’Brien “made no direct answer.” As the cage comes closer, Winston “fought furiously against his panic. To think, to think, even with a split second left – to think was the only hope.” For an instant he is “insane, a screaming animal”, yet he comes out of the blackness “clutching an idea”, and at the last he shouts, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her.” The student builds a thesis on whether O’Brien’s silence makes the betrayal Winston’s own, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say what Winston feels for Julia afterwards, whether O’Brien would really have opened the cage, whether a braver man would have held out, or what the book finally means.

A strong answer A strong response states whether O’Brien’s silence makes the betrayal Winston’s own choice, meets the strongest objection, and revises. One thesis says yes: no one gave the answer, his own mind found it, “to think was the only hope”, and it was not the screaming animal that found the answer but a mind that came out of the blackness “clutching an idea”. The strongest objection is that the room left only one answer and O’Brien called it an instinct that “cannot be disobeyed”, so the silence is part of the design, making Winston believe the act was his. A good revision weighs “one and only one way”, tests the rope against the shout, and keeps to the page about what follows.

Vocabulary definitions