Authorial Choices and Textual Features (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

1984: authorial choices and textual features

Across assessments in English A Language and Literature, you need to show the ability to analyse and evaluate how a writer achieves a purpose, conveys a message and/or explores a theme. Therefore, knowing the names of authorial choices and textual features, and pairing them with specific references and impacts, is key to your success in assessments.

Literary methods

There are a number of literary methods used in 1984:

• Structural techniques 

• Setting and narrative perspective

• Language

• Characterisation 

• Symbolism and motifs

Structural techniques

Chronological 

The three-part structure of 1984 follows Winston Smith's rebellion and eventual submission to a dictatorship. 

• Part 1 describes Oceania’s oppressive atmosphere, raising ideas about surveillance and control:

  • Winston's initial rebellion becomes the inciting incident: Orwell builds suspense as his journey begins

• Part 2 follows Winston’s developing hope and budding individualism through his romantic relationship with Julia and his thoughts about joining the “Brotherhood”

• Part 3 details Winston's imprisonment and torture in the “Ministry of Love” where all hope is destroyed:

  • Orwell deviates from the traditional hero’s journey to present a warning to society

• Orwell makes use of flashbacks (opens in a new tab) of memory to create pathos (opens in a new tab) as readers see Winston’s reflective introspection:

  • Flashbacks from Winston's childhood contrast the dystopian world of his adulthood with a simpler past

Dramatic irony

Orwell uses dramatic irony (opens in a new tab) to create satire (opens in a new tab), or to illustrate Winston’s naïve ignorance, raising themes of powerlessness and corruption in a political commentary. 

• Pathos is created when the reader is made aware of things Winston has not understood:

  • Big Brother casts a constant supervisory eye over Winston, of which he is largely unaware

  • Readers suspect O’Brien before Winston, which highlights the imbalance of power between readers and characters

• The irony (opens in a new tab) of the slogans (“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”) creates a sinister atmosphere of disinformation:

  • The names of the departments are equally ironic: the “Ministry of Truth” is the hub for propaganda and historical revision, and the “Ministry of Peace” encourages war

Setting and narrative perspective

Setting

The setting of 1984 is a dystopian world, a future version of a bleak London.

• The novel is set in the fictional nation of “Oceania”, in the province of “Airstrip One”

• The city represents the seat of government: the ministries, located within four large structures, run the “justice” system, defence/war, food, and media (such as propaganda and historical revision)

• The hierarchical structure of the society raises ideas about class division and disenfranchisement:

  • The “Inner Party” has a privileged position that affords them a life of comfort, while the “Outer Party” struggles under poor conditions with little agency

  • The lowest social group are the “proles”, who live in slums and are neglected and ignored by the Party

Narrative perspective

Orwell adopts a third-person (opens in a new tab) limited perspective, showing the reader Winston’s thoughts and feelings while highlighting his vulnerable and isolated position.

• Orwell’s use of inner monologue (opens in a new tab) heightens the tension and increases pathos:

  • The reader understands Winston better than he does

• The limited perspective creates a claustrophobia that reflects Winston’s environment and his state of mind:

  • Orwell is able to heighten suspense as the reader, like Winston, is unaware of what others are thinking or planning

• A notable shift in perspective occurs at the end of the novel, in the Newspeak appendix:

  • Written in a detached, retrospective voice, it seems to be written from a future after the regime’s fall

Language

Propaganda 

“Newspeak” and propaganda is the Party’s predominant method of control, recreating a false history to break down its subjects’ independence.

• Via its systems of control, the Party destroys all sense of individuality, identity and independence of person and thought:

  • In Part 1, Syme explains the political goals of “Newspeak” to Winston: “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” 

• By simplifying and distorting language, the Party is able to control the population:

  • Their ability to resist through personal expression and individuality is thwarted

• The Party’s complete power in the present is a result of controlling the history books: history reflects only the Party’s ideology 

Irony and euphemism

To emphasise the power of language to control, Orwell’s characterisations and settings are satirical.

• Ironically titled places present the dystopian world as dangerously optimistic:

  • For example, a work camp is a “Joycamp”

• Euphemistic (opens in a new tab) names like “Minipax” for the “Ministry of Peace” minimise and falsify real motivations 

• Blending the idea of thoughts and criminal behaviour in the word “thoughtcrime” (or “crimethink”) persuades a population the Party ideologies are correct

Logos 

Logic and reason are used in arguments to present a warped world that has dismissed scientific fact.

• O’Brien’s power is not only his ability to inflict physical pain on Winston, but that he is also able to abuse Winston emotionally and psychologically 

• O’Brien’s arguments are as much a weapon against the freedom of the individual as any physical weapon:

  • In Part 3, he explains the Party ideology to Winston

  • He says: “Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing”

• “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”, or “the book”, is an example of the way rhetoric (opens in a new tab) has been used to apply logic to the ideological aims of the Party

Imagery 

Orwell frequently uses animalistic imagery (opens in a new tab) to describe citizens, effectively suggesting the Party strips individuals of their humanity and dignity.

• Rats, Winston’s deepest fear, represent the dangerous, diseased society:

  • Rats symbolise (opens in a new tab) the idea of preying on the weak and causing pain and fear

• The Party links the “proles” to animals: “Proles and animals are free”

• Goldstein’s face “resembles the face of a sheep”

• Reference to “bugs” (hidden microphones), as well as descriptions like “beetlelike” men, connote to insects able to get everywhere:

• In contrast, a singing thrush symbolises freedom

  • Winston watched it with a “vague reverence”, in admiration of its voice

  • Orwell uses sensory imagery to juxtapose (opens in a new tab) the bird-song against the oppressive conditions for humans

  • He describes how “In the afternoon hush the volume of sound was startling”

Characterisation

In 1984, Orwell presents ideas about individuality, power, and powerlessness in a totalitarian state via his use of characterisation.

• The protagonist (opens in a new tab), Winston Smith, is a feeble, yet intelligent thirty-nine year old man:

  • A member of the “Outer Party”, he lives in a rundown flat with poor facilities

  • He can be seen as a hero-victim; although his story arc begins portraying him as a potential hero, he fails against his oppressors and ends up a victim

• Orwell’s character Julia is an ally for Winston, but her resistance focuses on the personal rather than the political:

  • Winston initially suspects of her of being a Party spy, as a “dark-haired girl” which creates a sense of threat

  • She represents a sensual counter-force to the Party’s puritanism — her rebellion is private and physical rather than ideological

• Typical of political satire, Orwell uses characters (like Mr. Charrington) to represent the everyday citizen who carry out orders for totalitarian leaders:

  • An unsuspecting elderly antique shop owner, he is also a member of the “Thought Police”

• O’Brien is the novel’s antagonist (opens in a new tab): he, as a member of the “Inner Party”, represents corrupt bureaucracy:

  • His powerful arguments often convince Winston of his good intentions

  • He represents the idea of “doublethink”

Symbolism and motifs

The past and the present

One of the most significant ways symbols are used in 1984 is via the juxtaposition between the past and the present.

• The present is symbolised overall by Big Brother and its all-seeing eyes

• The “Telescreen”, a two-way television, delivers propaganda and keeps surveillance of the city, serving to represent technology used to control:

  • This portrays the dystopian environment as under constant scrutiny

  • It serves as a visual representation of the line: “Big Brother is watching you”

• Technology is the instrument through which Winston and Julia are discovered and captured:

  • An “iron voice”, characteristic of a machine, speaks to Winston and Julia

• Technology is a tool of oppression in this present society: “technological progress only happens when its products can in some way be used for the diminution of human liberty”

• In contrast, the glass paperweight offers a stark reminder of past beauty and art:

  • The coral inside the paperweight may symbolise fragility, such as Winston’s love for Julia

  • It could, perhaps, also symbolise the delicate (and lost) human connection with nature

Motifs

Orwell employs motifs (opens in a new tab) to deliver dominant themes, such as the significance of critical thinking and its decay. 

• Recurring descriptions of the decaying and crumbling city represent the dystopian world in which Winston lives:

  • This background symbolises Winston’s oppressive and broken environment 

• Books serve as a reminder of the past and raise ideas about free thought:

  • This works as a contrast to the “Newspeak” and propaganda of the telescreen

• Winston’s diary symbolises thought, memory and rebellion against the Party line

• The “book” (“The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”) symbolises Winston’s ability to think on his own, while also symbolising the idea of distorted truth

Sources:

Jaccard, Erik. “"Not Death, but Annihilation": Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Catastrophe of Englishness."” Critical Insights: Nineteen Eighty-Four., 2016, pp. 98-112, https://english.washington.edu/research/publications/not-death-annihilation-orwells-nineteen-eighty-four-and-catastrophe-0 (opens in a new tab). Accessed 15 April 2026.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-four. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. Accessed 13 April 2026.