The perception of time represents a major motif in modernist literature. Many works address the subjectivity of our experiences, including how we process and view the passage of time. Due to the modernist and postmodernist emphasis on style and meaning rather than story, time becomes less and less of a setting element, and more of a device that acts and interacts with the characters. As the idea of ​​time changes, so does any conception of the past, present, and future. Knowledge of history is essential to 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 the future. Human existence depends on time devoted to lessons, ideas and ambition. Time gives us objectivity; it tells us when something happened. The perception of reality depends on time. Once the weather is altered uncontrollably, chaos ensues and existence itself becomes hopeless. Orwell's novel 1984 embodies this idea, as time and history are manipulated to emphasize the novel's themes of despair and chaos in the dystopian society of Oceania. The Party's control over the past, present, and future, Winston's missing memories and his search for the past through the item in Mr. Charrington's shop, as well as the novel's uncertain time setting all contribute to the sense of chaos and despair by abolishing the reliability of time. in the story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Throughout the novel, the Party exercises supreme control over history, both present and future. Their slogan, “He who controls the past controls the future.” Who Controls the Present Controls the Past” first appears on page 30 and summarizes the full extent of their power over time. Having the ability to control all aspects of time, the Party controls all events that have occurred, and even those that may occur 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 proletarians from servitude. Before the Revolution, they had been horribly oppressed by the capitalists, they had been starved and whipped, the women had been forced to work in the coal mines... sold in factories at the age of six" (62). Winston repeatedly states that he has proof that the information is fabricated, which would prove the Party's control over history and time. shaping the past in a harsh and undesirable way, the Party maintains control of the present and the future, because no one would want to revolt against the current system and take the risk of repeating the "past" These ideas of a horrible past. before the Party are reiterated in Mrs. Parson's book, which Winston copies into his diary on page 64. The Party's fabrication of statistics and stories prevents Time from representing the stable institution that it normally would in a novel. Much of the past is questionable, and the present must also be questioned. Time and history are dismantled, leaving Winston and the reader in the dark about what really happened. The Party's Ministry of Truth exists for the explicit purpose of changing history and the present to make the Party appear consistently infallible. Winston creates Comrade Ogilvy from his own mind, with a full biography and many honors that other Party members can be proud of. Even people do not really exist in time, sincethe 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 completely 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 “non-person” he erases from existence. “He didn’t exist; it had never existed” (40). This trick played on the reader, making the protagonist non-existent by the end 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: "It seems that there have even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for increasing the chocolate ration. chocolate at twenty grams per week. And just yesterday, he reflects, "it was announced that the ration was going to be reduced to twenty grams a week." Without Winston's insight, even the reader cedes control of time to the Party. The story itself is influenced by the Party, so that the time spent reading the story 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 considerable space in the novel and. takes time to read, but turns out to be fabricated Winston and the reader go through thirty pages of text assuming it contains a greater truth, but in fact the book is just a ruse created by the Party and. given to Winston by O'Brien to help him catch him. Therefore, Winston and the reader are deceived and the present is distorted. At this point, the idea of ​​a manipulated time appears outside the narrative. , while it occurred within it for the previous story At this point, even the reader is under the control of the Party, which makes the feeling of despair resonate more. With extensive control over time, history, and the future, there seems 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 efforts to overthrow the Party. Winston's only real attachment to the past is through his dreams. He gets facts about the story from the clipboard and the picture at Charrington's and the church singing, but all of these things contribute to or foreshadow his impending capture. The first time a dream arises, he dreams of his mother, father and sister. Winston remembers his mother's appearance and makes a point of including the thin soles of his father's shoes. But beyond these unnecessary details, Winston remembers nothing of value and in fact deduces what might have happened to his parents: "Both of them must obviously have been swallowed up in one of the first great purges of the fifties » (25). The diction “obviously” reveals that Winston is unsure of what really happened to his parents. Even after the vividness of the dream, it seems that he cannot 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 who at any one time would have been completely impossible" (29). Again, no concrete information about the past is presented, only speculation, making 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. But after this major revelation, nothing happens; Winston changes the subject and begins to reflect on his love for Julia, who has completely dismissed the memories. Winston's greatest personal victory in the novelcomes and goes in just four pages, making it seem unimportant at all. Furthermore, Julia's reaction doesn't give much importance to the memory. “He told Julia the story of her mother’s disappearance. Without opening her eyes, she turned around 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. Even this closure on the theme of memory reaffirms the despair of the novel, because it passes so quickly and does not help to reestablish an objective conception of time that is reliable. In chapter eight, Winston ventures into the working-class neighborhood and talks with an old man. man in a pub hoping to find answers to his questions about the past. He is very enthusiastic and asks the old man if things were as bad before the Revolution as the Party claims. The old man, however, proves to be another obstacle and provides no good information. On page 79, he talks about the top hats, but doesn't provide Winston with any useful information. Even the old man, who may have been alive 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 Winston or the reader. Again, time and history are incomplete, but rather seem controlled by the human mind, making it impossible to perceive a single truth. This event leaves Winston shaken, but reaffirms the theme of despair in the book. If no one, not even those who directly experienced an event, can remember it, then there is no way to discover the past. The antique store, a beacon of the past, reaffirms this tortuous perspective on time, as it is responsible for Winston's capture later in the novel. Both the paperweight and the photo of St. Clement symbolize history and are objects that Winston can use to learn more about the time before the feast. The paperweight carries 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 solidifying the Party's power over time and reality. The coral paperweight could have been planted by Charrington to test Winston, which could be another way to manipulate time to stop Winston. The photo of Saint-Clement is the only one that exists, apart from the evidence that Winston claims to have against the Party. This second piece of evidence, a photo that speaks of the old world, a world of religion and freedom, ultimately contributes to Winston's disappearance. The most concrete illustrations of the past ultimately turn out to be tools of deception. "There was a snap as if the latch had been turned, and a crash of broken glass. The image had fallen to the floor, exposing the telescreen behind it" (197). Time and history are not objective, but rather are firmly under the control of the Party. Even things as simple as pictures and clipboards are used to manipulate the present through the past. The religious song that Winston learns from Julia is another illustration of a past that only exists in memory. He gradually pieces together the song, creating the past anew, but the last phrase foreshadows his death: "Here's a candle to light you to bed, here's a cleaver to cut off your head!" (129). This last line appears to be the final piece of a puzzle describing the past, but it turns out to be nothing more than a diversion and proof that Winston will ultimately be eliminated by the Party. Despite these three signs of the past, Winston is still defeated because the Party controls all facets of time. The pictureand Coral are distinct remnants of the past, but both are corrupted and play a role in Winston's capture. Additionally, both are literally broken, indicating that the past is nothing more than a tool that can be easily disposed 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 taking place is unclear. and is also called into question on several occasions. The first instance in which the date is called into question appears on page 6: "At first, he did not know for sure that it was 1984...but, it has never been possible nowadays 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 purposes. therefore, time becomes infinitely uncertain. "The Big Brother Agenda report in the Times of December 3, 1983 is extremely unsatisfactory and refers to non-existent people. "Rewrite it in its entirety and submit your draft to a higher authority before submitting it" (39). The events of the day and even the day itself can be changed to suit the needs of the Party. Given the efficiency of the Party throughout the novel, it seems strange that it takes four months to make these corrections. There is no mention of any New Year's celebration which would signify the transition from 1983 to 1984, but there is no mention. There are constant references to specific times of day in the novel. For example, Winston remembers his wife, Katherine, and reflects on the length of their separation: “It must be nine, ten, almost eleven years since. 'they separated' (58) The separation from his wife should be an important event in Winston's life, but he can only get closer to the actual date three years from now. about” and “or” when he speaks of 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 appeared 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 called into question. He asks what time it is and can't get an answer, and finds that time is passing much more slowly than usual. Also, on page 66, he thinks about the time when he had concrete evidence against the Party and states that "it must have been" 1973, and that "it was around that time." There is an indecisive tone to his explanation that highlights the indistinctness of time and history. Even proletarians have difficulty remembering the recent past and present. On page 75, two men argue about the lottery: neither is sure when it happened, but clearly remembers the lottery numbers. Time is presented as unreliable and chaotic when Winston and Julia are unable to meet because her period comes early. "Tomorrow afternoon. I can't come. -Why not? -Oh, the usual reason. This time it started early" (123). Even biology can be manipulated by time, and it now stops 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 doomed to chaos and the destruction of hope. Nowadays, the.