#10- 1984

"It was O'Brien who was directing everything. It was he who set the guards onto Winston and who prevented them from killing him. It was he who decided when Winston should scream with pain, when he should have a respite, when he should be fed, when he should sleep, when the drugs should be pumped into his arm. It was he who asked questions and suggested the answers. He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend. And once - Winston could not remember whether it was in drugged sleep, or in normal sleep, or even in a moment of wakefulness - a voice murmured in his ear: 'Don't worry, Winston; you are in my keeping. For seven years I have watched over you. Now the turning point has come. I shall save you, I shall make you perfect.' He was not sure whether it was O'Brien's voice; but it was the same voice that had said to him, 'We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness,' in that other dream, seven years ago" (201).

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, O'Brien plays the role of a god; in a sense, the Party is God and O'Brien is part of this. Orwell uses the number seven because it represents perfection and completeness, as its root "savah" means "to be full or satisfied." O'Brien watched over Winston for seven years until Winston was ready, or complete, and now the time has come for O'Brien to fix Winston and "make him perfect." In Nineteen Eighty-Four, O'Brien states that he will "save" Winston just as salvation results in the savior of an individual by God. In the opening of the passage, Orwell confirms O'Brien's role as a god, as he controls what happens to Winston. O'Brien is part of, or possibly even the center of, the Party which watches over and controls the society as gods would. Earlier in the novel, Winston had stated that it was definitely O'Brien who had foretold him that they would "meet in a place where there is no darkness" (see page 24, "It was O'Brien who had spoken to him out of the dark"). The fact that Winston is now questioning to whom the voice belongs parallels the change that Winston is going through as O'Brien "fixes him" and takes away individual thought. Finally, since darkness often represents germination, Orwell uses this symbol to show that Winston had to travel through the darkness to be mature enough for O'Brien to save him.

Works Cited:
Bullinger, E.W. "Meaning of Numbers in the Bible, Number Seven (7)." Bible Study. 22 Aug. 2010 <http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/7.html>.

Protas, Allison, Geoff Brown, Jamie Smith, and Eric Jaffe. "Darkness." Dictionary of Symbolism. 2001. 22 Aug. 2010 <http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/D/darkness.html>.

Photo Credit:
G, Willie. "Darkness." It's My Mid-life Crisis. 5 Aug. 2008. WordPress. 26 Aug. 2010 <http://papawillie.wordpress.com/2008/08/>.