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A Comparison Of 1984 'And The Handmaid's Tale'

1002 Words5 Pages

The society of both novel, “1984” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” shares familiar methods in order to maintain higher power to control lower class citizens. Their absolute goal to gain complete dominance is through removing or destroying a piece of humanity in order for disobedience or rebellion to be impossible. Gilead and Ingsoc constantly condition citizens by monitoring and invading their privacy. Both regimes employed similarly styles of monitoring, such as spies organisations or simply through the surveillance camera. In 1984, people of Ingsoc are constantly monitored through telescreens as all members of Ingsoc, the inner party and the outer party, have a telescreen in their house with the exception of the proles - because the government are unimportant to the …show more content…

Although Ingsoc employed used on spies, they went to a further extent to control people - using children to distort the sense of relationships through individuals. Similarly in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Gileadean citizens are constantly surveillance through camera and spies. Both Gilead and Ingsoc have resembling aspects in monitoring, they both have an organisation - The Eyes and The Thought Police - that surveillance citizens. The Eyes in “The Handmaid’s Tale” are secretive enforcers of Gilead’s law, representing surveillance, the citizen’s paranoia, and Gilead’s authority. The Eye’s reputation is so fearsome that it creates an atmosphere of paranoia and fear as it creates a delusion that anyone could be spies. The main reason citizens fear the Eyes is that their presence can be seen anywhere, and if an individual were to break Gilead’s law they would be sentenced to death. Thanks to the organisation, Gilead has successfully created a paranoia and distressing mood so powerful that it make citizens self-monitor, demonstrated how Offred is distressed by Nick’s winks, fearing that he might be an

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