O'Brien (1984)
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Image:1984-02.JPGO'Brien is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The protagonist Winston Smith, living in a dystopian society governed by the Party, feels strangely attracted to Inner Party member O'Brien. (Orwell never reveals O'Brien's first name.)
Winston suspects that O'Brien is secretly opposing the Party, and eventually finds the courage to approach him, openly declaring himself an enemy of the totalitarian state. At first, Winston's intuition seems to be correct: O'Brien presents himself as a member of the almost legendary "Brotherhood" seeking to overthrow the Party.
However, when Winston is later arrested, it turns out that O'Brien is actually entirely loyal to the Party. Reading between the lines, we may even suspect that he is one of the architects of the totalitarian society Winston lives in (the ultra-cynical faction of the Party that eliminated the original leaders of the Revolution). O'Brien tortures Winston to cure him of his "insanity", in particular his "false" notion that there exists an external, self-evident reality independent of the Party; O'Brien explains that reality is simply what the Party defines it as. He is entirely honest about the brutal cynicism of the Party; the Party does not seek power to do anything good, but simply to revel in that power: "Always, Winston, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever."
Even in the torture scenes, a strange intimacy persists between Winston and O'Brien, who displays an uncanny ability to infer what Winston is thinking. O'Brien even states that Winston's mind appeals to him, and that it resembles his own mind, except that Winston happens to be insane. Eventually, using the "Room of Phobias", better known as "Room 101", O'Brien does manage to torture Winston into submission so that he "willingly" embraces the philosophy of the Party.
The character of O'Brien may be regarded as Orwell's chilling portrayal of an intellectual who uses his gifts to serve the authoritarian state rather than criticize it.
In the 1984 movie version of the story, O'Brien was portrayed by Richard Burton in his last role before he died (his demise being an uncanny apropos to the story: Winston at one point observes that O'Brien looks old and tired, but O'Brien says the death of the individual is of no importance since individuals are just the cells of the immortal Party). In the 1954 BBC Television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the character was played by André Morell.
See also
- Goldstein's book (which O'Brien alleges was actually written by him and some other Inner Party members).