Part Three, Chapter 5

1984

Mountaineers · 10th–12th

Copywork

A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage. But at this moment the meaning of the mask-like attachment in front of it suddenly sank into him. His bowels seemed to turn to water.

There was a sharp click. Winston made a frantic effort to tear himself loose from the chair. It was hopeless, every part of him, even his head, was held immovably.

In the first passage Winston’s body knows before his mind does. In the second, his body cannot move at all. What part of him is still free?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences. The first, three sentences, comes just after Winston first sees the rats in the cage; the second, three sentences, comes when O’Brien presses the first lever. The first moves from body to mind and back to body. Its long opening sentence names a fear by what it does not know, “a fear of he was not certain what”, and its past perfect, “had passed”, puts the body’s warning ahead of the moment of understanding. The second sentence turns on “But at this moment”: the meaning of the mask “sank into him”, with no one explaining it; O’Brien explains the mask only later. The third is short and bodily. The second passage starts with a sentence of pure sound, “There was a sharp click.”, which the chapter’s last paragraph answers with “another metallic click”. Then comes one sentence of effort, and one of failure, where Orwell joins two clauses with a bare comma, “It was hopeless, every part of him”, as if there were no breath for a joining word. “even his head” echoes the start of the chapter, where he “could move nothing, not even his head.” Students copying them practise a phrase that names a feeling by what it does not know, a past perfect that sets one event before another, a short sentence after a long one, a sentence made only of a sound, and two clauses run together with a comma for effect. For the talk prompt, listen for more than one answer. One student says his mind: soon after, “he fought furiously against his panic”, and thinking is “the only hope”. Another says nothing is free, since even his mind flees to an empty plain and later goes “black”. A third says his voice, the one part of him that acts at the end. Each helps with the last written question. Keep to the page: the chapter does not say what the room does to him afterwards.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order, from the room deep underground to the second click of the cage.

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

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

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

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

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

Make a Connection Think of someone, in history, in a story or in your own life, who saved themselves at another person’s cost under great pressure. What would you need to know before you judged them?

Vocabulary

premonitory A sort of premonitory tremor, a fear of he was not certain what, had passed through Winston as soon as he caught his first glimpse of the cage.

immovably It was hopeless, every part of him, even his head, was held immovably.

schoolmasterish When he spoke it was in the schoolmasterish manner that he sometimes affected.

didactically ‘It was a common punishment in Imperial China,’ said O’Brien as didactically as ever.

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?

Thesis

Objection

Revision

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

Thesis

Objection

Revision