1984

Part One, Chapter 6

George Orwell · Mountaineers 10th–12th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

He seemed to breathe again the warm stuffy odour of the basement kitchen, an odour compounded of bugs and dirty clothes and villainous cheap scent, but nevertheless alluring, because no woman of the Party ever used scent, or could be imagined as doing so. Only the proles used scent. In his mind the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with fornication.

The aim of the Party was not merely to prevent men and women from forming loyalties which it might not be able to control. Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it.

The first passage is a memory Winston can smell. The second sets out what the Party wants. Why might his mind turn from one to the other, right in the middle of his confession?

For the educator Two passages, six sentences. The first is a memory Winston can smell. Its long opening sentence repeats “odour” to open a description of it, then runs a list on “and … and”: “bugs and dirty clothes and villainous cheap scent”. It turns on “but nevertheless alluring”, and the reason after “because” claims two things at once: no Party woman “ever used scent”, nor “could be imagined as doing so”. A short flat sentence follows, “Only the proles used scent.”, and the last sentence turns on the word that names its knot, “inextricably”. The second passage is a cool account of what the Party wants. The first sentence states the obvious aim only to set it aside: “not merely”. The second names the “real, undeclared purpose”, and “undeclared” fits a chapter full of rules that are never stated. The third is an antithesis, “Not love so much as eroticism”, followed by a balanced pair, “inside marriage as well as outside it.” Students copying them practise a noun repeated to open a description, a list joined by “and … and”, a turn on “but nevertheless”, a very short sentence set after a long one, “not merely” used to correct a first idea, an antithesis, and a balanced pair. For the talk prompt, listen for two readings. One says the policy is an escape: the entry has just broken off at “She –”, and thinking about rules is easier than finishing the memory. The other says the policy is the explanation: the scent draws him “because no woman of the Party ever used scent”, so he cannot understand his own desire without thinking about what the Party has done to desire. A strong student may notice that the report does not stay cool: a few lines later the account calls sex, as the Party teaches it, “a slightly disgusting minor operation”, and says the Party means “to distort it and dirty it”, so the anger leaks into the report.

Discussion

Narration Give a short account of the chapter: the diary entry, which breaks off four times, and what Winston thinks about each time it stops. Then pick the one sentence you think matters most, and say what it shows about the chapter as a whole.

In the dark street, what drew Winston was the paint, “like a mask”. What was he hoping to find behind it? Theme
Winston stops writing, and his mind goes to a stranger whose face twitched as they passed. At the time he thought, “That poor devil is done for.” What does that man have to do with the memory Winston can’t finish? Inference
Winston decided that Katharine had “the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind” he had ever met, though “perhaps it was only that he knew her more intimately than he knew most people”. What does that doubt do to his judgment? Character
The chapter calls one thing Winston saw in the lamplight “the truly dreadful detail”. He never puts it in his diary. Why might he leave it out? Author's choice

Make a Connection Think of someone, in a story, in history or in your own life, who wrote down or said aloud something they were ashamed of. Did it help them, and what made the difference?

Vocabulary

inextricably: In his mind the smell of it was inextricably mixed up with fornication. So tangled together that the parts cannot be pulled apart (Latin ex-, out of, and tricae, tangles; to extricate is to free from a tangle). In Winston’s mind the smell of cheap scent is “inextricably mixed up” with the act, so the memory comes back through his nose as well as his eyes.
eroticism: Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside marriage as well as outside it. Sexual desire, and the pleasure taken in it (from Eros, the Greek god of desire). The chapter draws a line the Party draws: “Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy”. The Party fears the pleasure even more than the love. That is why its committee turns away couples who seem “physically attracted to one another”.
aquiline: She had a bold, aquiline face, a face that one might have called noble until one discovered that there was as nearly as possible nothing behind it. Curved and sharp like an eagle’s beak, said of a nose or a face (Latin aquila, an eagle). Katharine has “a bold, aquiline face”, one “that one might have called noble”. It is a word for a proud, noble face, and Winston grants it only to take it back: there was “as nearly as possible nothing behind it”.
inaudibly: Winston sighed inaudibly. So quietly that no one can hear (Latin in-, not, and audire, to hear; an audience is the people who hear). Alone with his diary, Winston still sighs without a sound. The chapter does not say why, but earlier it showed a stranger’s twitch: in this world even the body has to be kept quiet.

Critical thinking

Winston does not know why the Party wants to take the pleasure out of sex, “but it seemed natural that it should be so.” How can a man who hates the Party find its aim natural?
Winston believes that desire is a kind of rebellion against the Party. Was what he did in the basement kitchen rebellion, or only another kind of defeat?