“By 2050—earlier, probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron—they’ll exist only in Newspeak version, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.” (53)
Orwell shows how simple the Party is trying to make life, and how they are trying to control everything, from knowledge and thought, to language and literature, so that it fits with their system of ideas. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Byron are all known for the literature they wrote, which have been considered works of art by many. The Party’s destruction of Oldspeak and literature as it once was known shows that it does not care for the arts and only wants power and control, at whatever the cost, even if it means rewriting some of the best pieces of literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment