The perception of time represents one of the main motifs of modernist literature. Many works address the subjectivity of our experiences, including how we process and consider the passage of time. Because of the modernist and postmodernist emphasis on story style and meaning, time becomes less and less an element of the setting and more and more a device that acts and interacts with the characters. As the idea of ​​time changes, so does every conception of the past, present and future. Knowledge of history is essential for human existence; it allows people to learn from mistakes and honor heroes and victories. Without the past, no one can understand the present, much less imagine a future. Human existence depends on time for lessons, ideas and ambition. Time provides us with objectivity; it tells us when something has happened. The perception of reality is based on time. Once time is altered beyond control, chaos ensues and existence itself becomes hopeless. Orwell's 1984 embodies this idea, as time and history are manipulated to emphasize the novel's themes of desperation and chaos in the dystopian society of Oceania. The Party's control over the past, present, and future, Winston's lack of memories and search for the past through the object of Mr. Charrington's shop, and the novel's uncertain temporal setting all contribute to the feeling of chaos and desperation by abolishing the reliability of time. in the narrative. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Throughout the novel, the Party has supreme control over history, both present and future. Their slogan, "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past" appears for the first time on page 30 and sums up the full extent of their power over time. With the ability to control all aspects of time, the Party controls every event that has ever happened and even those that may happen in the future. The Party uses this power to create a truly frightening vision of the past. "They claimed, of course, to have liberated the proles from slavery. Before the Revolution they had been horribly oppressed by the capitalists, they had been starved and flogged, women had been forced to work in the coal mines... children had been sold in factories at the age of six" (62). Winston claims several times that he has proof that the information is fabricated, which would demonstrate the Party's control over history and time. By shaping the past in a harsh and undesirable way, the Party maintains control over the present and future, because no one would want to rebel against the current system and run the risk of repeating the "past". These ideas of a horrific past before the Party are reiterated in Mrs. Parson's book, which Winston copies into his diary on page 64. The Party's production of statistics and stories prevents time from representing the stable institution it would normally see in a novel. . So much of the past is questionable that even the present must be questioned. Time and history are dismantled, leaving Winston and the reader unclear as to what really happened. The Party's Ministry of Truth exists for the express purpose of changing history and the present to make the Party appear consistently infallible. Winston creates Comrade Ogilvy from his mind, complete with a full biography and numerous accolades that other party members can be proud of. Even people don't really exist in time, as the Party controls who each person has been.No event or person actually fills a place in time unless the Party allows it, making time almost entirely irrelevant as a measure of reality. Even Winston will not exist in the story because, like Withers, he is accused of crimes against the Party, the "unperson" he erases from existence. «It didn't exist; had never existed" (40). This trick played on the reader, making the protagonist non-existent. The ending of the novel, is very cruel, as I could imagine another "Ogilvy" written for Winston immediately after his death. On page 52, Winston acknowledges that the Party has changed history and the present regarding chocolate rations: "There even seemed to have been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for increasing the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it was announced that the ration would be reduced to twenty grams a week." Without Winston's insight, over time the reader also relinquishes control to the Party. The narrative itself is influenced by the Party, so the time spent reading the narrative is manipulated as well as the past and present described in the plot. The Party manipulates the reader's time with Goldstein's book, which takes up a considerable portion of the novel and takes time to read, but turns out to be invented. Winston and the reader examine thirty pages of text assuming it contains a greater truth, but in reality the book is just a ruse created by the Party and given to Winston by O'Brien to help capture him. As a result, Winston and the reader are deceived and the present is distorted. At this moment, the idea of ​​manipulated time occurs outside the narrative, whereas in the previous story it occurred within it. At this point the reader is also under the control of the Party, further resonating the feeling of desperation. With the vast control of time, history, and the future, there appears to be no order in Oceania except that chosen by the Party. As the reader's only link to the past, Winston takes on the immense task of recovering the past through his memories, and his attempt to overthrow the party. Winston's only real attachment to the past is through his dreams. He gets facts about the story from the paperweight and the photo of Charrington and the church song, but all of these things contribute to or foreshadow his impending capture. The first time a dream emerges, he dreams of his mother, father and sister. Winston remembers his mother's appearance and particularly points out the thin soles of his father's shoes. Beyond these useless details, however, Winston does not remember anything noteworthy, and indeed deduces what might have happened to his parents: "The two must evidently have been swallowed up in one of the first great purges of the 1950s" (25 ). The wording "evidently" reveals that Winston is not sure what really happened to his parents. Even after the vividness of the dream, he can't seem to grasp the past. Winston also remembers seeing fighting in London during his childhood, but has no way of determining who specifically was fighting: "To say who was fighting whom at any given time would have been absolutely impossible" (29). Once again, no concrete information about the past is presented, only speculation, which makes time unreliable as an indicator of reality. During Chapter 7 of Section 2, Winston wakes up after dreaming his entire childhood and gaining an understanding of his past. After this important revelation, however, nothing happens; Winston changes the subject and begins to consider his love for Julia, who has completely ignored the memories. The largestWinston's personal victory in the novel comes and goes in just four pages, which makes it seem unimportant. Furthermore, Julia's reaction does not attach much importance to the memory. "He told Julia the story of his mother's disappearance. Without opening her eyes she turned and settled into a more comfortable position" (145). The memory is trivialized by his reaction, demonstrating that there is no hope for a personal past. This closure on the theme of memory also reaffirms the desperation of the novel, because it passes so quickly and does not help to re-establish an objective and reliable concept of time. In chapter eight, Winston ventures into the working-class neighborhood and talks to an old man in a pub in hopes of finding answers to his questions about the past. He shows great enthusiasm and asks the old man if before the Revolution things were as bad as the Party says. The old one, however, seems to be yet another obstacle and does not provide good information. On page 79 he talks about top hats, but gives Winston no useful information. Even the old man, who may have lived before the Party existed, is not a source of solid information about the past, because he cannot be objective. Without some objectivity, historical accounts are useless and offer no comfort to either Winston or the reader. Once again, time and history are incomplete, but instead appear to be controlled by the human mind, making it impossible to perceive a single truth. This event leaves Winston shaken, but reaffirms the theme of desperation in the book. If no one, not even those who directly experienced an event, can remember it, there is no way to bring the past to light. The antique shop, a beacon of the past, reiterates this tortuous perspective on time, because it is responsible for Winston's capture later in the novel. The paperweight and the photo of San Clemente both symbolize the story and are objects that Winston can use to learn more about the time before the party. The paperweight has meaning as a simple consequence of its age. At the end of the book the paperweight is destroyed during Winston's capture, eliminating an element of the past and consolidating the Party's power in time and reality. The coral paperweight may have been planted by Charrington to test Winston, which may be another way time is manipulated to stop Winston. St. Clement's photo is the only photo in existence, aside from the evidence Winston claims to have against the Party. This second piece of evidence, a photo that speaks of the old world, a world with religion and freedom, ultimately takes part in Winston's death. The most concrete examples of the past ultimately reveal themselves to be instruments of deception. "There was a snap, as if the latch had been turned back, and a crash of shattered glass. The image had fallen to the floor, exposing the telescreen behind it" (197). Time and history are not objective, but are rather firmly under the control of the Party. Even simple things like paintings and paperweights are used to manipulate the present through the past. The church song that Winston learns from Julia is yet another example of a past that now exists only in memory. He gradually puts the song together, creating the past again, but the final verse foreshadows his death: "Here comes a candle to light you in bed, here comes a helicopter to cut off your head!" (129). This final line seems like the final piece of a puzzle describing the past, but it turns out to be nothing more than a distraction and proof that Winston will eventually be purged from the Party. Despite these three signs of the past, Winston is still defeated because the Party controls every aspect of time. The image and the coral are distinct remnants of the past, but both are corrupted andthey play a role in Winston's capture. Furthermore, both are literally broken, indicating that the past is nothing more than a tool that can be easily gotten rid of. If the past can be influenced and destroyed, then there is no hope for change or order, and time as an objective measure of reality is ruined. Although the title of the novel is 1984, the actual date of the events that take place is unclear and is, in fact, questioned several times. The first instance where the date is questioned appears on page 6, "To begin with, he didn't know for sure that this was 1984... but nowadays it has never been possible to fix a date within a year or two". This sets up the theme of manipulated time by immediately forcing the reader to question the present, leaving them with only the past to rely on for accurate information. Big Brother has the ability to change the date to suit his own purposes; as a result, time becomes infinitely uncertain. "The reporting of the Big Brother Agenda in the Times of 3 December 1983 is extremely unsatisfactory and refers to non-existent persons. Rewrite it entirely and submit your draft to a higher authority before filing" (39). The events of the day and even the day itself can be modified to meet the needs of the Party. Considering the Party's efficiency throughout the novel, it seems strange that there was a four-month wait to make these corrections. There is no mention of New Year's Eve celebrations of any kind that would signify the transition from 1983 to 1984, but there are constant references to specific times of the day throughout the novel. For example, Winston remembers his wife, Katherine, and reflects on how long they have been separated: "It must have been nine, ten, almost eleven years since they were separated" (58). The separation from his wife is supposed to be an important event in Winston's life, but the actual date can only be approximated within three years. Winston also often uses the words "about" and "or" when talking about a period of time, revealing that no passage of time is certain in his mind or in the world. When Winston and Julia meet O'Brien, he loses track of time during the conversation: "It seemed to Winston that a long time had passed before he answered" (153). After Winston's capture, time becomes even more ambiguous and even the number of hours that have passed is in question. He asks what time it is and gets no answer, and finds that time passes much more slowly than usual. Furthermore, on page 66, he thinks about the time when he had concrete evidence against the Party, and states that it "had to be" 1973, and that "it was about that time." There is an indecisive tone in his explanation that illuminates the indistinction of time and history. Even proles have difficulty remembering the recent past and present. On page 75, two men argue about the Lottery: neither is really sure when it happened, but he distinctly remembers the lottery numbers. Time is shown as unreliable and chaotic when Winston and Julia cannot meet because her period comes early. "Tomorrow afternoon. I can't come. -Why not? -Oh, the usual reason. This time it started early" (123). Biology can also be manipulated by time, and now it is stopping Winston and Julia's rebellion. Time also appears in a negative context in the case of "Five Minutes of Hate", which reveals that time is dedicated to chaos and the destruction of hope. Nowadays, time appears almost evil, slowly collapsing and destroying Winston. Without a truth about the past and present, the future is completely hopeless, and indeed, it turns out to be so for Winston. Please note: this is just an example. Get one now.