Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Student Gen: 1984: Dislocation of Eloquence
George Orwell creates a ‘fictitious’ society, one that is under constant surveillance and ruled over by a totalitarian political regime called the Party. In this society, the English language is slowly diminishing and becoming Newspeak, a language that is constantly decreasing its vocabulary. In Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye, Frye mentions “Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four … Orwell even goes as far as to suggest the only way to make tyranny permanent…is [to] deliberately debase our language by turning our speech into automatic gabble.” (91-92). How does the Party use the Newspeak language as a control mechanism over the Inner and Outer Party members?
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Language is the structure that supports civilization. It is a communication tool used between individuals to share thoughts, ideas, and convey emotion. In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, language is debased by reducing the depth and variation of words. This restricts the people’s ability to think beyond what is given to them, therefore eliminating ideas that are dangerous to the governing of the Party.
Imagination plays a key role in the use of language. Orwell states that, “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thoughts”, this illustrates the concept of Newspeak. The notion works for if the words used to articulate sentiments, such as happiness or freedom, disappear then the concept of it ceases to exist. The destruction of language eliminates a person’s ability to have and educate an imagination. Without an imagination, the mind is limited. It will believe whatever it is fed because it does not know any better, “We become what we behold.” (Frye, 92). The mind will be unable to comprehend what it cannot explain; confining it to the world it is in, incapable of thinking of a world it wants.
The narrowing of words is equivalent to the narrowing of the range of thoughts, “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” (55), Newspeak would eradicate thoughts against the Party and pursue orthodoxy on all the comrades within Oceania. It serves as a control mechanism over the Inner and Outer Party members because there will be no thought, contemplating, and questioning. Exercises on doublethink would be well enforced into their consciousness and unconsciousness, “Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”(56)
The destruction of language limits the capability of individuals to formulate and express their own opinion, thereby avoiding the possible threat of rebellion amidst members of the Party.
Communication is essential for conveying one person’s idea to another. In Oceania this one person is Big Brother and the other is the masses. The masses told what they can think and by debasing their language stripped of their right to comprehend otherwise. The party uses the language of newspeak as a control mechanism simply because it limits the range of thought. It mechanicalizes thought. It makes the possibility of individual opinion obsolete. This is called orthodoxy and is the aim of Big Brother “Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?…The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."(46-47) this is the perfect plan, by only giving people the words to obey the party it removes all chance of rebellion. After the concept of the language is universal it must be force fed to all inner and outer party members. If the people who run the society will follow blindly so will the masses. Everyone will be influenced and nobody will ask questions. It would eliminate the possibility of any crime and banish the ability to be curious or to even understand, it will strictly have people follow.
Newspeak can be used as a control mechanism because it narrows the range of thought, limits self-expression and simultaneously advertises the sanctioning of Ingsoc.
If thoughts are dependent on words then, if there are no words for a particular heretical idea or action, it should follow that they become unthinkable. The nameless actions become unimaginable. Newspeak purges all other secondary meanings out of words as well as the possibility of alighting on them. The manner in which this is accomplished is by “eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings whatever” (313) resulting in unambiguous words with no connotation. Abbreviations are used to compel an agreeable reaction upon using words— a dismissive attitude—the result of a lack of association attached to the language. By destroying the natural metaphors in the faculty of speech a person is made ignorant and detached from the words they speak, so that an automatic gabble is produced. As well, by making all words easily pronounceable they come out of the larynx as quickly as possible so people become unhesitant to talk, since hesitation leads to thought and thought to consciousness. The end goal of the language is after all unconsciousness; a condition of duckspeak in which the brain is not called upon in conversation. If thought diminishes then consciousness is confined and the imagination is as a conclusion crippled because, it requires that first level of the mind characteristic of awareness, which is uprooted by Newspeak. People “moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions” (166) but Newspeak gets rid of ideas which are fundamental to movements, thus by eradicating the foundation of this process the rest comes to a halt. No action can be taken if the thought is not sparked and if it was, it is necessary for it to become concrete in words so that a plan of action may be developed.
Since Newspeak affects the range of thought, it concatenates that self expression is also affected. Even if people were to form cogitation without words, like is done in creating music, they would be unable to express themselves or get the support of others within the context of Newspeak. It would be problematic for them to illustrate a concept without words to sustain it. The consequence is that the vision becomes absurd to all others and does not attain a reasonable argument. Heresies can not be distinguished, “Ideas inimical to Ingsoc could only be entertained in a vague wordless form” (323) and are grouped together with other undesirable perceptions—all of which remained undefined. Therefore if a person cannot describe a conceptualization or is incapable of forming a symbol surrounding it, it remains “In the world of the imagination… but nothing really happens” (Frye), the model of human experience that has been constructed with the imagination cannot be manifested because it lacks the words to transition into the practical world. Independent thought is cancelled out because words are dependent on Ingsoc. Only Orthodox appropriate words are allowed to survive and those that are not but are kept out of necessity, are stripped of fundamental meaning or branded with prejudice. A variety of words are denied to the Oceania citizens, that has a result will not be able to express themselves eloquently.
Newspeak is propaganda at its best since there is no possible way to avoid communication, in that manner people are not only influenced by newspeak bias but it envelops them. For instance Oldthink, peculiar to objectivity and rationalism, is instead linked to wickedness or decadence. Ideas that were once considered noble, such as the ones in the Declaration of Independence, are now outlawed as ‘crime think’. Newspeak is also an exercise in doublethink, thereby adding to the cause of the Party, this is evident in the names given to the four ministries “For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained definitely”(225), for example, the ministry of love is concerned with torture and is conversely named miniluv. By taking control of the language of Oceania and therefore the mode of communication, the Party becomes infallible. Just like taking control of the past legitimizes anything that they do, controlling words legitimizes anything they say or teach. Controlling the definitions of words gives them the advantage of logic and tautology. It cancels out disagreement because just as no one would argue a statement of fact it would be a vain attempt to try and overthrow the rigid, set definitions outlined in any dictionary. Furthermore anything which would be contradictory to the Party would become unintelligible because there would be no translation for it in the Newspeak language. The foundations of all societies lie in the necessity for communication and therefore relays on language, since the Party has taken control of this they are able to organize everything to their advantage, and bring all events, people and concepts into alignment with the philosophy of Ingsoc.
Newspeak narrows the capacity for thought, undermines the ability for self-expression and because of these imposed limitations Ingsoc becomes the infallible universally acclaimed truth through the tautology of Newspeak.
Language is one of the most important aspects of humans, it is the basis of all life, and we could not function without it. As doctor Frye says, “English… it’s the most practical subject in the world: you can’t understand anything or take any part in your society without it.”(2) So without language a society is not able to function with each other or understand anything, making them puppets for the party to control. Newspeak is also used by the party as a way, “to make all other modes of thought impossible” (312), with newspeak also used to destroy peoples minds and their imagination people are turned into nothing. If the people of Oceania are not able to use their imaginations, “they become mechanical clichés, and get further and further removed from any kind of reality.”(97) With no imagination reality has disappeared on the people of Oceania and they can’t tell what is right in society and they don’t know what they want so they listen to what they are told they want by the government. With no language, the imagination is destroyed and people cannot think for them selves so a higher power is able to control their minds since they are so weak. Newspeak is used solely for this purpose of breaking down the citizens of Oceania to nothing so that they can be manipulated and controlled to follow all orders and become slaves to the government.
The main basis of the human language is the ability to express the emotion through the discernment of words. What George Orwell has done with the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is he’s taken the most important aspect of the human being and has stripped them of it which would be language. In the book Nineteen Eighty-Four society has been removed from its uniqueness and how they did this was by removing the language that expresses feeling and emotion. Language is the heart of human existence and without the ability to use human expression through language there will be no sense of response left in humanity. In Nineteen Eighty-Four INGSOC has managed to rip out the while meaning of words and how they accomplish this is by creating a new language Newspeak. “Take ‘good’ for instance if you have a word like ‘good’ what need is there for a word like ‘bad?’ ‘ungood’ will do just as well-better because it’s an exact opposite to which the other is not” (54). The problem isn’t the language it’s what forms the language into meaning, the immortal soul. INGSOC is trying to remove the human and by doing that there erasing all human language that will express the souls feeling of what it is to be an endowed being. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meaning rubbed cut and forgotten.”(55). As hard as the Party will try they will not be able to take the soul out of the human whether or not it’s with the Inner or Outer Party. Humanity can be stripped from its self but its self cannot be stripped from the human.
In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and of the Party. The purpose of Newspeak is to diminish Oldspeak to the point where everyone is speaking in “automatic gabble as Frye called it. It is this very language that keeps the party and Ingsoc in power and its people under control.
The use of Newspeak is “to provide a medium of expression for the world –view and mental habits proper to the devotes of Ingsoc”and to “make all models of thought impossible”(312). Newspeak creates a civilization that is inhabited by creatures of habit and followers of Ingsoc’s principles. Newspeak also annihilates all other models of thought so that no one thinks outside the principles of Ingsoc. This ensures the Party that no one is thinking for them self.
In Part 1 of Nineteen eighty-Four, Winston is talking to Syme about the new edition of the Newspeak Dictionary. Syme then tells Winston that “the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought and in the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible because there will be no word in which to express it”(55). Here Syme is explaining that language encourages thought and to eliminate a language little by little, you are eliminating the thoughts and phrases that encourage it and narrowing the mind down to its simplest form. This prevents thoughtcrime by getting rid of the thought associated with it. This once again proves as a control mechanism to keep the Party in power and its people under their control
When Newspeak deteriorates an entire language, it destroys the very thoughts associated with it thus creating a society of inhabitants that are doomed to follow another range of thoughts that are not their own. It is this deterioration that inevitably keeps tyranny “permanent and unshakable”(Frye, 91)
Language is the base and foundation of what makes us human. It creates and supports our human ability to communicate with each others, expressing our given abilities to feel and comprehend emotions. Omitting words and definition of words would cause us to control our emotions. Newspeak is an excellent control mechanism as it fully illustrates what can happen when we are reduced to less then the basics.
Literature expressively paints how we feel, it does so in different ranges of emotions which we can feel, from the highest extreme down to the lowest. By reducing our vocabulary or not educating ourselves we reduce ourselves to feel only what we know. “Your intellect and emotions are now both engaged in the same activity, so there’s no longer any real distinction between them.” (Frye, 5-6) Having a “Big Brother” character that is able to control what is able to be said and reduces the language a whole to nothing but the basics, they would be able to control us. To only allow us to think what they wanted us to think about or even not allow us to think at all.
The use of Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four exposes the truth about a society where the citizens have had their vocabulary stripped from them and the ideal citizen is one who cannot think for themselves. Their imagination has been stripped from them, their own thoughts and even memories have been stolen from them. The citizens in Nineteen Eighty-Four may not be fathomable for most because it seems almost exaggerated that one party could take control over a whole population, yet as discovered, Nineteen Eighty-Four is now.
Newspeak is a language constructed by the Party. Newspeak is the only language with a vocabulary that is constantly decreasing. The Party intends to use Newspeak as a way to control those in the Outer and Inner Party. This is accomplished through the control of thought.
In The Educated Imagination, Frye states that “the only way to create a literal hell on earth is deliberately to debase our language by turning our speech into an automatic gabble.” (94) Newspeak uses this concept of decreasing the vocabulary in a language. It is the goal of the Party to turn every citizen's speech into “an automatic gabble”. This can only be accomplished when there is very little free thought amongst the society. Every person's mind must produce an immediate response to any material introduced to them. “The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought” (55) because once thought is eliminated the Party will be able to control the minds of the Outer and Inner Party. Without thought remaining to justify any kind of feeling other than the joy that the Party forces them to feel, members of the Outer and Inner Party are incapable of forming their own rational feelings towards a subject matter. The only thoughts that members of the Outer and Inner Party have are those that are fed to them by the Party. The Party maintains the stance of feeding lies to the Outer and Inner Party that make them happy and content. This is evident in “raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week” (61) although Winston recalls that it had been decreased to twenty grammes. This contradiction represents the lies that the Party feeds to the Outer and Inner Party in order to make them happy with their lives. This, combined with the elimination of uncontrolled thought, remove any will to overthrow the Party. The Outer and Inner Party are thus controlled through the use of Newspeak. All of the thoughts are reduced to mindless duckspeak.
The Outer and Inner Party are not able to overthrow the Party. This is because they cannot imagine their lives differently than they are. The Party members are satisfied with the life that they are living, and do not have any form of thought capable of supporting any form of an imagination. The elimination of thought is a result of the elimination of language. Newspeak focuses on this principle, controlling the minds of the Outer and Inner Party members by eliminating any medium that they can use in order to formulate their thoughts. Without words no one is able to think.
George Orwell’s 1984 has the concept of newspeak engrained within a new tyrannical society. The idea behind newspeak is to limit the ability of language to express ideas. This oppressive mentality is used as a means to control people, because without individual ideas there can be no opposition to the totalitarian regime’s concepts and actions. “Doublethink lies at the very heart of INGSOC, since the essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty”(pg.223). Doublethink is a sedative to the mass of people that the party controls. It is used to rebuke old ideas, sometimes so far as to say that the idea never existed, and allow for new ideas and concepts from the party to be fed to the people. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we will make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words to express it.” (pg.55). The integration of newspeak into society oppresses the ideas that could be associated with a word or phrase, and instead gives it a set meaning. The idea that thought crime would cease to exist would also mean that thought itself had become obsolete, and that a society could become completely autonomous with a single idea being the driving factor.
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