Essay, Research Paper
ironies in the novel 1984 george Orwell THE IRONIES OF 1984 The novel 1984, by George Orwell, has many examples of ironythroughout it. The two major types of irony: verbal irony and situationirony, are demonstrated again and again in this novel. In the followingessay I will discuss these types of ironies and give examples of each fromthe book. The first type of irony is verbal irony, in which a person says ordoes something one way, but the true meaning is the opposite. One of thefirst example of this irony is discovered when the main character, WinstonSmith, uses the “Memory hole” to deposit things — one would think thatthis would be where things are remembered (”Memory”), but it’s actually anincinerator. The next example of irony comes when you learn about thedepartments of Government in Oceania. The Ministry of Truth is actuallythe maker of lies for the history books, the Ministry of Love discourageslove, and the Ministry of Peace is actually quite violent. The finalexample of verbal Irony can be seen in the name of the leader of Oceania,”Big Brother.” The concept of a big brother is one whom is older and wiserand helps the “littler siblings” — this not the case with 1984’s Big
Brother. The Big Brother in this novel completely watches over every movea person makes keeping them controlled with fear. The next type of irony is Situation irony, which is when a characteror a sequence of events appears to be headed one way, but it ends up as theopposite of what was thought. One example of this is Winston’s generalhealth. From the beginning of the book, it is shown how horrible hishealth is and is continually getting worse and more difficult, but asWinston gets involved with Julia then he begins a metamorphosis into a morehealthy person. Another major example is the betrayal of many of thepeople whom Winston thought were his friends, such as Mr. Charrington andeven O’Brien- -who both worked for the Thought Police. This book is stuffed full of irony, the entire plot of the beginningwould makes the reader expect one reaction and instead, the reader getstwisted the complete opposite direction at the end for surprise. GeorgeOrwell uses irony as sort of an exhibit, making it virtually the “how towrite irony” novel for me. Throughout the book, all of the irony usedbecame negative and depressing, I still thought this book made its pointsuccessfully and was an incredible novel.