History Literature / NineteenEightyFour

* SarcasticConfession: Goldstein's book thoroughly exposes the Party's philosophy and methods, and has been written by the Inner Party. But it is presented as propaganda lies from enemies of Oceania spread by a Resistance who might exixt ... or not.

* Rough Overalls: The Party has overalls and coveralls as its primary uniform, since they are ostensibly meant to represent the working class that they profess to champion--blue for outer party members, black for inner party members, all to align with the idea they're connected to the common man.

* PragmaticAdaptation: The 1984 movie is extremely faithful to the book, but the shift in medium means that Orwell's detailed narration on the history of Ingsoc is lost. Since the movie obviously cannot devote itself to lengthy info breaks like the novel does, it spends more time cultivating atmosphere and showing just how ''miserable'' life is in Airstrip One. Also, because all of Winston's thought processes (save for his diary entries) are lost, he ends up as more of an AudienceSurrogate -- the fact that he's magnificently played by the incredibly aptly named Creator/JohnHurt (who even ''looks'' like George Orwell) is an added bonus.\\
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The ending is also subtly different, changing the meaning but not the outcome. Winston writes "2 + 2 =" (as opposed to "2 + 2 = 5," which was Orwell's intent; "2 + 2 =" was a typo in many editions), and thinks "I love you!" (after Julia leaves, but while staring at Big Brother, so it could go either way; whereas the book directly states that he loves Big Brother). "2 + 2 =" is arguably more powerful, since O'Brien says in both versions that the answer to 2 + 2 is ''whatever he decides it is,'' and could be 3, 6, or all at once. With regard to Winston thinking "I love you!," if he had simply said "I love Big Brother" (translating the famous closing line from third person to first person), it would have sounded a lot more awkward.

* ShareTheSickness one of the crimes many of the political criminals are made to publicly confess to is purposefully contracting syphilis and attempting to spread it to their family members.

* ShareTheSickness In Literature/NineteenEightyFour one of the crimes many of the political criminals are made to publicly confess to is purposefully contracting syphilis and attempting to spread it to their family members.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: The slogan of the Party has three key concepts: "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery" and "Ignorance is Strength." The latter is the only one in which the two terms are not polar opposites.

* AnAesop: Don't be naive and trust nobody when living under a totalitarian regime; If you choose to rebel against a corrupt society, be extremely careful who you associate with since a lot of "nice" people are just agents putting on an act. Winston lets his guard down around the nice-seeming Charrington and O'Brien...and surely enough, they turn out to be undercover agents, dragging Winston and Julia into an absolutely hellish situation .

* DoomedMoralVictor: Actively [[DefiedTrope defied]] by the party in two ways. Normal operating procedure is to torture dissidents until they have no hatred of or resistance to the party left in them. They also have sting operations with Inner Party members posing as Goldstein supporters, and the oath they make them take is to renounce all ethics; this oath is recorded, and played back during Winston's time in Room 101.

* Room101: The TropeNamer, where Winston and Julia are faced with their worst fears and made to betray each other.

* PainfulRhyme: One of Winston's co-workers is responsible for re-writing famous poetry to make sure it aligns with Party propaganda. Winston notes it is generally gibberish.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: The TropeNamer. Between the telescreens in every home and workplace, microphones hidden everywhere, and the potential for anyone to be an undercover Thought Police agent, citizens live under the constant threat of being arrested if they show even a hint of suspicious behaviour.

* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: Some focus is given to everybody having to use the metric system; for instance an old man in a pub wants a pint of beer, because half a litre is not enough and one litre is too much.[[note]]Pubs in the UK use the Imperial system, in which a pint is equal to 568 millilitres, as opposed to 473 for a US pint.[[/note]] Orwell was against the complete scrapping of Imperial, though he supported the use of the metric system in scientific work.

* AssimilationPlot: The Party claims to be doing this.
-->"You know the Party slogan 'Freedom is Slavery." Has it ever occurred to you that it is reversible? Slavery is freedom. Alone -free- the human being is always defeated. It must be so, because every human being is doomed to die, which is the greatest of all failures. But if he can make complete, utter submission, if he can escape from his identity, if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all-powerful and immortal.

* TakeThat: People have wondered how writers like Orwell could predict a future surveillance state so well. The answer is that he didn't; the novel is based on his own participation in Britain's system of surveillance during WWII. Although the novel is largely and obviously aimed at the USSR, it's also aimed at the UK of TheFifties.

* AbusiveOffspring: Oceania's children are indoctrinated to love the Party and hate its enemies, and part of this involves encouraging them to report their parents to the Thought Police if they overhear them saying something that could be interpreted as a sign of disloyalty to the Party. Winston notes that it's almost normal for people older than thirty to be frightened of their children.

* TaughtToHate: From a very young age, Oceania's children are taught by the Party to hate all enemies of Big Brother with a fanatic zeal. They are given war-themed toys like model helicopters and submachine guns, and youth organizations like the Spies (of which the minimum age to join is seven) teach them to report their own parents to the Thought Police for signs of disloyalty to the Party and assault random people in public for doing anything that could be perceived as an insult to Big Brother, such as setting a woman's skirt on fire for wrapping sausages in a poster with Big Brother's face on it. Hardly a week goes by in which the newspaper doesn't have an article about a "child hero" who turned their parents in to the Thought Police.

* TaughtToHate: From a very young age, Oceania's children are taught by the Party to hate all enemies of Big Brother with a fanatic zeal. They are given war-themed toys like model helicopters and submachine guns, and youth organizations like the Spies (of which the minimum age to join is seven) teach them to report their own parents to the Thought Police for signs of disloyalty to the Party and assault random people in public for doing anything that could be perceived as an insult to Big Brother, such as setting a woman's skirt on fire for wrapping sausages in a poster with Big Brother's face on it.

* BathroomControl: One of the methods used by the Ministry of Love officers holding Winston Smith was to deny him the ability to go to the bathroom to further humiliate him.