"Then why are you sorry that you didn't do it?"
"Only because I prefer a positive to a negative. In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all." (135)
Julia could not comprehend that in the law of nature, the individual is always defeated. Orwell wrote that if Winston pushed his wife off of cliff, he would have, in a sense, defeated himself. The last line suggests that if failure is eminent, there is still a better way to chose. During the second world war, which had ended several years before the publication of 1984, Hitler didn't win the game he was playing. And in the end, because he knew that his death was upon him, he did not want anyone to have the sweet satisfaction of killing him other than himself. Throughout the book, Winston mentions killing himself, or he and Julia together once discovered. This is much the same deal. Death is failure, yes, but suicide may be a better route for them all.
check eminent vs imminent; How can you make clear that that last line is Orwell's intent here and not just your opinion?
ReplyDelete"Then why are you sorry that you didn't do it?"
ReplyDelete"Only because I prefer a positive to a negative. In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all." (135)
Julia could not comprehend that in the law of nature, the individual is always defeated. Orwell wrote that if Winston pushed his wife off of cliff, he would have, in a sense, defeated himself. The last line suggests that if failure is imminent, there is still a better way to chose. During the second world war, which had ended several years before the publication of 1984, Hitler didn't win the game he was playing. And in the end, because he knew that his death was upon him, he did not want anyone to have the sweet satisfaction of killing him other than himself. Throughout the book, Winston mentions killing himself, or he and Julia together once discovered. This is much the same deal. Death is failure, as Orwell shows, because once dead, people in Oceania are forgotten. Suicide, Julia and Winston believe, may be a better route for them.