Essay on Telescreens in '1984'

The issue of homogeneity is a common, prevalent theme in dystopian literature. Individual thoughts and opinions are condemned, with people taught to have uniform opportunities. Whilst citizens of a dystopian society are often under the illusion of freedom of speech, the role of propaganda controlling minds is perceived to be under constant surveillance. In 1984, The Handmaid's Tale and Nose Dive the state utilizes surveillance or technology to govern and manipulate human lives. It is embodied in many dystopian texts in the form of a telescreen for 1984, eyes in The Handmaid's Tale, and society in Nosedive that constantly watches citizens maintain their obedience and eventually turn them into observers.

One way the totalitarian regime in 1984 sought to stay in power is through denying human beings of their individuality which in turn eradicates independent thought.1984 portrays a totalitarian regime called Oceania, which is ruled by the Party. The leader of the Party is called Big Brother, an anonymous figurehead who is praised by society. We can draw connections to The Handmaid’s Tale to 1984 as the Party attempts to control every aspect of one’s life; freedom of speech, sexual feelings, privacy, and individuality are condemned. The government distorts the media and constantly infiltrates the citizen’s minds with propaganda. This propaganda is compulsory to watch with the famous “Big Brother is watching you” scrawled on posters, highlighting that the citizens are under constant surveillance. The ideology of Big Brother is fortified by forms of propaganda, manipulation of the historical events of the past, the invention of a language, Newspeak, and various forms of control through surveillance. No privacy is given to people even in their own homes, with the Party monitoring citizens through their telescreens that cannot be turned off. In doing this, civilians are expected to maintain all their emotional energy towards worshipping the Party. Additionally, the telescreens become the ultimate representation of disciplinary power; they compel the body to become its judge and induce paranoia.

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The main character, Winston, works at the Ministry of Truth, where his role is to rewrite the history book and alter records of the past. However, as Winston starts to question what is true in Oceania and tries to join the brotherhood in the hope of rebellion, we are shown the tyrannical power that The Party has over its citizens. “Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared.” O’Brien, a member of the Party, says to Winston that he utilizes torture techniques as a device of inquisition. “Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, friendship, joy of living, laughter, curiosity, courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.” From this quote, it is evident that O’Brien desires complete control and power over Winston’s mind. O’Brien continues to exercise his power over Winston, stripping him of his identity and independent thought and emotion. Throughout the novel, Winston progressively becomes an empty, hollow vessel, who obediently follows the regime. His final words “He loved Big Brother” are powerful as Orwell highlights the devastating impacts of control and power on the mind, where Winston is reduced to just another body in the Big Brother’s society, as a broken man.

This is similar to Joe Wright’s episode of Nosedive as part of the Black Mirror series which also highlights the manipulation and distorted perception media propaganda can have on an individual’s mind. Black Mirror, is a speculative anthology series created to explore the blurred relationship between humans and technology, with technology threatening to progress at a faster rate than humans. To this, Nosedive serves as a dystopian fiction and acute social satire. In Joe Wright’s Nosedive, we see the significant impact of technological control. Here, Wright emphasizes that technology is merely a tool for control, but is not the source of control itself. Furthermore, destroying the mechanics behind their repression does not destroy the oppression. However, Wright highlights that the overuse of technology causes social deterioration. In Nosedive, we see Lacie living in a version of America, where every interaction is ranked by the people involved in an app, with augmented reality contact lenses. In this augmented reality, citizens attempt to out-nice each other to bump up their ratings. Set in a ‘Truman Show’ style universe, we see Lacie’s mind influenced and controlled by the higher system of perception through social media as she also does not trust her emotions. We can draw similarities between Nosedive and 1984 as both protagonists have become so disciplined that they start regulating the actions of their own volition. An example of this is when the director employs a midshot to show Lacie in Nosedive rejecting a smoothie from a person of a lower rating as she notices that people are watching her. The director utilizes this mid-shot to show us that Lacie goes against her instinct, and her human nature, and thus she becomes a source of society's suppression and control. Just like in The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, Lacie can never know with certainty if she is being watched, therefore, she starts regulating and controlling her actions and thus this discipline becomes instinctive in her mind. Through Nosedive, Wright exposes us to the control that technologies have become more immersive and distracting, as opposed to terrorizing. Thus, new forms of technology reflect not only advancing industrialization and modernization but also are used to convey political and ideological changes in society, as seen in 1984. Both authors warn us about the dangers of technology being utilized as a tool for implementing social control through the enablement of the state ideology. Through the use of propaganda and media in both 1984 and Nosedive, they retain control by keeping people blind to the outside world, inline or submissive using the messages they distribute. In doing so, they retain control of the people through means such as inspiring hope, inspiring gear, or even in some cases such as in 1984, utilizing torture techniques as a tactic to keep society in order with their rule.

By characters creating an emotional attachment to technology and entertainment of the app in Nosedive, the masses do not wish to deviate from the distraction that technology provides. Thus, Wright has successfully conveyed a scenario where technology provides an alternative world, to not only distract but also to function and live within. Consequently, this blurs the boundaries between reality and the online social media world. Ironically, Wright highlights the impacts of social media by creating an anti-social society, in which privacy is prohibited and eventually criminalized. Dystopian texts are often the result of fear in modern society; particularly fear of external control and fear of anonymity. These fears are portrayed in dystopian literature in the power that the state holds over the lives of individuals due to society’s implemented system. Both 1984 and Nosedive depict very relevant fears about the goals of a surveillance society. Technology has been used as a mechanism, a repressive apparatus, which is oppressive and creates emotional manipulation.

Similarly, Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale achieves in the mind of Offred, similar to what is achieved in the citizens of 1984, with the implementation of “doublethink”. In 1984, “doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them”, which is happening in the mind of Offred. Readers get an example of multiple opinions of the same story when she accounts for her first sexual encounter with Nick. Offred explains 'It didn't happen that way either. I'm not sure how it happened; not exactly. All I can hope for is a reconstruction: the way love feels is always only approximate. This helps us better understand that Offred’s mind is not purposely deceiving us but her mind manipulated; showing the effect the government’s control has on individual thinking. Not only has Offred lost her individuality; her mind starts to progressively believe that her sole existence is being a Handmaid. By referring to her as “we handmaids”, it is evident that Offred believes she is nothing me than a body for reproduction. Due to the fact, that Offred does not retain control of anything, from her mind to her body, in sharp contrast to her life before in which she did, Atwood significantly accentuates the realism that this could happen to anyone.

Orwell, Joe Wright, and Atwood criticize the exploitation of the human mind in dystopian texts which have been limited to the mere exploitation of human conditioning. NoseDive,1984, and The Handmaid's Tales are all examples of dystopian fiction that focuses on the control of the human mind through necessary governing mechanisms of society. This allows us to understand that control is much easier to achieve when everybody is equal and possesses the same ideology. Moreover, the state's constant surveillance controls are utilized to re-emphasize the subjugation of people to produce total conformity thus the state maintains power. Perhaps Orwell, Atwood, and Wright crafted these dystopian texts, not as a prediction of actual future events but to warn the world against what they fear would be the fate of humanity if regimes were allowed to seize power as they have previously done in Germany under Hitler and the Soviet Union under Stalin.

In conclusion, dystopian literature critically explores the effects a tyrannical rule can have on citizens. The futuristic dystopian texts The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, Never Let Me Go and Nosedive are multifaceted, in the sense of how people’s minds and bodies are manipulated by the state. A comparative analysis of these four texts shows that governments produce disciplined minds and bodies in these novels through the use of a strictly regulated routine, emotional manipulation through technology, reproductive control, and constant surveillance. From these texts, it is evident that dystopia mainly depicts the divergence between individual identity or ambition and the collective goals of the state, which suppresses any individual expressions. Through these dystopian texts, we can see how control reduces individuality and increases uniformity. Consequently, we can understand the importance of retaining power as a means to achieve the supreme goal; to form a dystopian society into a homogenous organism where individuals think and act alike, generating perfect conditions for the exploitation of the state.