The Nature of Control
Is it the common human nature to feel power over others? A totalitarian government seeks to utilize its message of confinement and authority to control the many aspects of life. In the novel 1984, Orwell portrays totalitarianism through psychological manipulation, physical control and the control of language.
The totalitarian party manipulates and invalidates the minds of the outer party and proles. Orwell describes the surroundings of Winston, showing totalitarianism, writing:
The black-mustachio’d face gazed down from every commanding corner. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own. Down a street level another poster… uncovering the single word INGSOC. In
How many times he had been beaten, how long the beatings had continued he could not remember… sometimes it was fists, sometimes it was truncheons, sometimes it was steel rods, sometimes it was a boot. There were times when he rolled about the floor, as shameless as an animal… (247)
The party mutilates the prisoners to “skin and bones”. They punish Winston to a point to where he rolls about the floor, “as shameless as an animal.” The party won’t stop bruising the prisoners until they truly love Big Brother. The recurring abuse and torture becomes a “routine” to Winston. The dominions of Big Brother will not stop exploiting the heretics until they gain complete control. When O’Brien is catechizing Winston, Orwell writes, “No! Not merely to extract your confession, nor to punish you. Shall I tell you why we have brought you here? To cure you! To make you sane! Will you understand, Winston, that no one whom we bring to this place ever leave our hands uncured” (261).The Party doesn’t merely want the people to love Big Brother halfheartedly; they want the citizens of Oceania to be devoted to Big Brother fully. They think that the prisoners are insane and that they themselves are the ones who are “sane”. Through the eyes of the party, in order to control the millions of citizens of

Oceania, the totalitarian government finds it necessary to re-educate the heretics. To die hating Big Brother would be freedom.
The party limits