Original artwork, not a still
1984 · 1949
Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Cut the vocabulary and you cut the thoughts that can be had. The line is the book's best-known statement of how language is used as a tool of control, and it is why Newspeak is cited whenever a euphemism, a banned word or a slogan is said to be doing someone's thinking for them.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for 1984Show the scene
In Part One, Chapter 5, Winston eats with Syme, a philologist from the Research Department, in the canteen. Syme is working on the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak dictionary and takes delight in the destruction of words. He tells Winston that in time thoughtcrime will be literally impossible, because there will be no words left in which to express it, and that the process will go on long after they are dead. Winston listens with sadness, privately certain that Syme is too intelligent to last and will be vaporised.
Sources (1)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, full text (Project Gutenberg Australia)Part One, Chapter 5Reference checked
Context reviewed
