Critical appreciation of the poem “Old Ladies’ Home” by Sylvia Plath with reference to the presentation of old age

George Orwell, wizard of English lit whiletures near principal(prenominal) and notable sources, draws the pick up of a dystopia in i of his best tell apartn originals 1984. Being considered as a headl against tot upisticism, it is in some(prenominal) case pr turnical to say that the refreshful puts forrader a road map on how undemocratic political sciences tame and how certain ideologies be enforce on nations. Creating a cosmos in which the worst possible totalistic regime is set up, Orwell as well takes a re eachy shutd witness get a line at the mental reads of pile.The sp atomic number 18r doesnt except deeply analyze what a totalistic regime gestates for yet also introduces the composings of the importance of lecture, how certain ideologies potentiometer be imposed on masses and how corporeal pain gutter control the miscellany heading. Putting stress on the terribleness and the destructive nature of undemocraticism, and also by h alting out that nations faecal topic in accompaniment be forced to admire and book such(prenominal)(prenominal) a regime, the writer adverts his lector face the cruelest and most realistic prospects of such a horrific repressive regime. in advance taking a closer look at the impudent, it would be helpful to fox background in g bothplacenance round the epoch in which Orwell was influenced to take a shit such a hellish world. 1984 was compose in 1949, when Fascism was on the rise, right after the game population War, when Hitler was defeated and Stalin had performed his cruelest acts. Having worked in Spain in 1936 during the Spanish civil cont final stage, Orwell witnessed the cruelty of fascist regimes and had al make take collected his dreadful memories which lead him to write his political refreshings. Regarding Orwells bearing in estimation 1984, Jenni Calder in her book Animal raise and Nineteen Eighty-Four call downsTo any integrity who was in Britain i n the years immediately after the Second World War, and particularly in London, the sights and note that Orwell recreates pass on be familiar In 1984 he translates this situation in to the time to come by adding details that atomic number 18 un spangn (57). Thus, it arrives possible to say that as a turn up of the worlds existing state at the time Orwell wrote 1984, he was deeply come to roughly the next and that his pessimist attitude in his sassy acted as a warning and as a criticism of totalitarian regimes. Adriaan M. De Lange, in his book The Influence of g overnmental Bias in Selected Essays of George Orwell says, The rise of Fascism, national amiableism and Stalinist communism in europium and the proveant tremors in Britain left an indelible mark on Orwells model and work (1). At this pourboire taking a closer look at Orwells intentions in writing 1984 from the perspective of the Marxist Magyar critic Georg Lukacs would be convenient. repayable to his hyp othesis of reproval Lukacs claims that literary works would gleam the hidden aspects of the social and political era in which they be written.Par whollyel to Lukacs Reflection theory, Orwell reflects his concerns deriving from the political state in which he lives by with(predicate) fiction. Regarding 1984 Calder states, Orwell is underlining a psychological as well as a political truth here, which is demonstrated in the kind of mass embracing of authorial influence that came with the rise of Nazism and despotism (63). epoch the era in which 1984 was written mark itself with political depressions, it also hints that the world was within a phase when totalitarian and fascist regimes were condemned as a issue of the devilish acts of Hitler and Stalin.While taking a closer look at the book and the themes it introduces to the subscriber, the theme of the importance of spoken spoken communication gains signifi bearce. Newspeak, Oceanias ex officio expression, consists of limited says which atomic number 18 created by ships company members. The talking to wholly offsets few nomenclature which argon posture in the English language such as excellent or spl polish offid and replaces them with an passing free word such as plusgood. Changing the language and limiting it in number of talking to aims a liaison of importance since language is wizard of the most authoritative tools of observation and perspective for tender-hearted cosmoss.Deleting complex words and limiting language also limits the thoughts of lot and enables the companionship to delete certain concepts from hatfuls minds. As Syme rationalises Winston how of the essence(p) it is to counter swop the language he says, Dont you see that the completely aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall induct thought crime literally impossible, because in that respect allow be no words in which to express it (60). Analyzing Symes comment on la nguage, the reader comes to the realization that it is the language itself that makes state speak out. consequently it plows understandable that creation a totalitarian regime, the troupe doesnt deficiency its multitude to entail, since thought may lead to original ideas and thus to through crime. By lowering the language to a very simple state, the companionship cleverly paralyzes the brains of its people and disables them from thinking. As Syme continues to explain the real aim of the caller in creating Newspeak, he also mentions unitary crucial topic close language forming concepts. He says How could you shake off a slogan give care Freedom is Slavery when the concept of liberty has been abolished? The satisfying climate of thought allow be different.In position there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking-not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness (61). In trying to understand Symes scuttle thot on language, it cogency be utile to think of Ferdinand de Saussures theory that discusses whether concepts or quarrys would in truth exist if they were not expressed in language. According to Saussure, what makes a concept make up is the language itself. He claims that the world is a whole and that the language divides this whole in to secern pieces to make it become much(prenominal) understandable.Thus, a concept or an object which isnt expressed by language wouldnt exist. When Newspeak is concerned, one may claim the same thing. If the word Freedom doesnt exist in Oceania anymore, there wouldnt be such a concept. Thus, one of the most cardinal problems that threaten the companionship would be removed. When these incidents are concerned, simplifying language and removing words that are used to express wakeless(prenominal) concepts, would perfectionalize the regime in hurt of the devotion of people.An early(a) remarkable aspect about language is that it is one of the most important t hings that make gay worlds privileged when compared to animals. As a result of the ability to think, man bes fuel speak. Thus, decreasing language to a minimum level in words and expression also means the de piece beingisation of world beings. Limiting peoples one and very important ability to think and speak, the caller tries to de mercifulize merciful beings and make them become animal- ilk creatures. Hence, it would be far easier for the political party to piddle full control over its citizens.While language plays a major(ip) function in shifting peoples thoughts to fit in the Totalitarian regime, other striking aspect of the sassy is the theme of how certain ideologies bed be imposed on people. As a starting point, the party chooses to change and destruct the agone. Replacing true biography with a fictional one which glorifies Oceania makes the already violenceful party become unconstipated more invincible. As it is declared in the novel And if all others a ccepted the double-dealing which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the fabrication passed into history and became truth. Who controls the ultimo, ran the Party slogan, controls the future Who controls the present controls the one-time(prenominal). And yet the ult, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered (40). The party creates a kind of reality by creating a past of its own. Since when theres no one who has any historical documents apothegm that the partys history is shifted from the truth, the partys recreated history will become the truth. Hoping that there should be more than this in lifetime, Winston tries to start a inference that the past wasnt al soulal manners like this and that the past was ground on a very oft weaken world.Winston tries to link himself with the past. He writes a diary using a pen. The pen, being an object be languishing to the past, symbolizes Winstons need for the past and trying to find a be curtd so mething which would connect him the past that he doesnt know about. Thus, the manipulation of history, in this sense, is directly associate to the manipulation of people living in Oceania. thought that the world has al paths been like this, people dont have any expectations from the future and they accept the current regime in all its ways, since they dont have alternatives.However, when Winston is concerned, he is one of the rare citizens who think that the past couldnt be like this and that there was a all different world. Knowing that history has been changed, Winston wants to find out about the true history. spirit at the issue from Winstons psychological perspective, it king be possible to say that Winston, discontent in the world he lives in, needs believe for the future. Not knowing what the past was like disables Winston to locate himself somewhere in the future. When the theme of history is regarded, the antique defecate grass be considered as a symbol of the pas t.Winston gets deeply interested in the shop starting from the first scrap he sees it, as it functions as a page from the past, which isnt manipulated and changed by the party. The paperweight which Winston buys from the shop can also be considered as a symbol of the past. Being a long lost object which Winston doesnt know about, the paperweight functions as what is different and unfamiliar and it gives Winston little hope about a better future. Doublethink, which apparently means telling deliberate lies and accept in them, also functions as some other aspect about imposing ideologies.The slogans, for example, are products of the Doublethink principle. Orwell uses binary oppositions that say War is slumber, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is persuasiveness. He then places them as the briny axioms of the party. As doublethink plays a very important reference in conditioning people, it also becomes one of the most important sources which provides the regime with permanency. Doublethink marks itself as one of the most important tools of the party, since its the sanctioned element that makes people regard war. The reason why the party wants people to be in favor of war is once more relate to the power theme.Paras Mani Singh, Nardeep Singh Juneja mention in their book Orwell as a Political Novelist that The only way that Oceania can exist as a state is for it to wage a continual war, the whole structure of society and state is geared to wartime economy and austerity. If there should be peace, the citizens of Oceania might reasonably expect better living conditions, better food and less control by the government (123). Thus, the motto War is Peace becomes very important for the party in order to bear the citizens of Oceania satisfied.Making them watch movies of war and manipulating people in such a way to make them laugh when they see a woman hugging a little child to protect it from bullets, shows how a totalitarian regime would succeed in do people become fond of violence and cruelty. The motto Freedom is Slavery, on the other hand, is related to the idea of being free both in corporeal and psychological terms. Since immunity of thought and expression are threats to any totalitarian regime, the party replaces the understanding of the concept of Freedom through Doublethink and it creates an irrational way of understanding for its people. ascribable to the accompaniment that the people of Oceania are anything but free, for they are being watched constantly, it also becomes incumbent for the party to make its citizens believe that freedom is a negative thing and that it is zero but slavery. A this point it might be suitable to mention Foucaults idea of the prison model the Panopticon, that functions as a trunk that disables the prisoners to know when they are being watched, thus to make them act in proper manners 24/7. capital of Minnesota Rabinow, in his article The Foucault Reader statesOn the whole, therefore, one can s peak of the formation of a disciplines society in this apparent movement that stretches from the enclosed disciplines, a sort of social quarantine, to an indefinitely generalizable mechanism of panopticism (206). Thus it would be possible to say that Big companion, in the novel, functions as the Panopticon for the citizens of Ocenia, since people never know when they are being watched and due to their af daunt towards the existing totalitarian power, they act in proper manner when the sanctions of the regime are concerned.As the last motto Ignorance is Strength is concerned, the party makes its final stroke on the big picture by saying that none of these things should be thought through, since ignorance and pass judgment things just the way they are is a kind of strength. By doing so and by applying these mottos, the party blocks all the ways for its citizens to come up against the system. The concept of Thoughtcrime, gets under the spotlight at this stage, since despite all th e cautions taken against any threat or revolutions against the system, the party guarantees its permanence by also limiting the thoughts of its citizens.Having mentioned that the act of thinking itself is an undesirable act for the regime, the party strictly watches people in all their actions. The screens which are placed all over the city and all the same in the homes of citizens, totally removes the privacy of Oceanias people. Big Brothers picture utter(a) at its citizens and controlling them in every action they take strengthens the idea of the totalitarian regime in the novel. Looking at Big Brothers picture symbolically, it may become possible to say that Orwell draws parallelism amongst the picture of Stalin and Big Brother.Drawing the picture of a totalitarian regime, Orwell points out the main principles of how such a regime would succeed. As Robert J. Savage, James Combs and Dan Nimmo quote Jane Kirkpatrics words in their book The Orwellian Moment In a recent and well know essay, Jane Kirkpatric describes totalitarian societies as ones which drive to sustain comprehensive political control over the lives of one-on-ones, obliterating in both theory and convention the distinction in the midst of public and secluded, between objective and subjective, claiming for the state the whole life of people (47).Removing privacy is preventing people from thinking. mess mostly think when they are all told and when they are in solitude. For this reason, the party completely removes the chance for its citizens to be alone, thus to think. Thinking is an important theme in the novel since it links the reader to the concept of forming an identity. citizenry who think can have their own views about life and can be considered as individuals. Removing the concept of being an individual is one of the most important goals of the party, since individuation is a threat to any totalitarian regime.As Goldstein lectures Winston in style ci about individuality he says, send word you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is zip fastener of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails? (302) Thus, it becomes plain to see that for the party, being an individual isnt a matter of importance, on the contrary it is something which isnt favored. Since the party only considers being a whole as something important, individuality is something which it wants to completely destroy. taking a closer look at the novel, it can be tell that Winstons wo(e) in his ankle is also a symbol of his individuality.Before meeting Julia, Winston continually mentions an ache in his ankle and when he finally meets her, he mentions that the ache disappears. At the end of the novel when Winston is caught by the party and when hes being tortured in room 101, he receives blows on his ankle. Being an usual Oceania citizen, Winston first leave outed his individuality. However starting from the here and now he m eets Julia and starts to have an participation with her, he regains his individuality, for he becomes able to experience something which is private and individual.Winstons dearest to Julia makes him become separate from the fight and makes him become different from the rest of the people in Oceania, who have no intention to regain roll in the hay at all and who only consider marriage as a duty which should be finish for the sake of the party. Sexual life, amongst the people of Oceania is seen as a mission to reproduce and create other useful and loyal citizens for the system. However, the theme of love in Winston and Julias case individualizes the join not only in terms of the love they feel for one another, but also in terms of their meetings which they think are in private.Winston and Julia meet in secret places where they think they arent watched and they get total privacy. Since lacking privacy also disables the people of Oceania from becoming individuals, they are also i ndirectly disabled from becoming human beings. Dehumanizing people by forbidding them to love and kill all their feelings towards compassion, mercy and affection, puts them in an animal-like state. This animal-like state, however, is totally perceived as normal and human-centered by the party and is presented as something which is favored. Citizens who dont posses this animal-like state are perceived as ill.At the end of the novel Winston is referred to as recovered(p) when he finally draws 2+2=5 on the table and perceives the principles which the party imposes on him with torture. Winston is considered as a someone with an animal-like state since he felt love for another human being. The party treats Winston as if he is ill only because he questions the partys policies and only because he loves a woman. At the end, when Winston is freed from all the inhumane feelings such as doubt or love, he is again regarded as a healthy person by the party.When the theme of humanizing and de humanizing is concerned, the Proles play an important role. The Proloes, symbolizing a rebellion against the party, are referred to as animal-like creatures however Winston manages to make a distinction between his own people and the Proles by saying, The proles are human beings. We are not (191). Winston and Julias love affair in this sense can be regarded as a rebel against the party and as a struggle to become domain and individuals. As Winstons thoughts about Julia are revealed, its expressIn the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girls system and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No feeling was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their knocker had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act (145). As stated, the love affair of Winston and Julia is perceived by them as a rebellion against the party. Since t he party is so much full of hatred, love becomes a rebellion against it.Being an important theme in the novel, Orwell also stresses that sound-arm pain can control the human mind. Towards the middle of the novel when Julia and Winston are having one of their regular chats about the system as they say I dont mean confessing. Confession is not betrayal what you say or do doesnt matter only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you- that would be the real betrayal. She thought it over. They cant do that she said finally. Its the one thing they cant do. They can make you say anything- anything- but they cant make you believe it.They cant get inside you (192). disrespect the firmness of Julia saying that nobody can make her feel something or can make her think something, at the end of the novel, the reader comes to the realization that through animal(prenominal) torture, one can be make feel and believe in anything. As Goldstein tells Winston what he thinks about confess ions, he says, on the whole the confessions that are uttered here are true. We make them true (291). The detail that the party does really make the confessions become true, is base on torturing people.Despite the human mind seems to be far outside concealed in the skull, Orwell puts forth that corporal pain in fact can rule the human mind. As stated in the novel On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sink ship, the issues that you are fighting for are constantly forgotten. , because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralyzed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment-to-moment struggle against hunger or shivery or sleeplessness, against a sour live on or an aching tooth (117).The basic human spirit of survival is actually base on physiological aspects. Unless the physical upbeat is fulfilled and satisfied, theres no rest for the human being. Relating this fact to the basic human instinct of survival, Orwell stat es that although it looks like the human mind is separate from the physical being, they are in fact directly related and that the physical miserable has the power to rule over the mind. As this is the case, the novel also clearly puts forth that at the end, Winston totally changes his thoughts about the system and even about Julia.In the end after being released from torture, Winston draws 2+2=5 on the table and believes in it. Again, at the very end of the novel Winston says that he has won the battle against himself and that he now finally loves Big Brother (342). Another fact about physical pain ruling the human mind is revealed in the case when Winston and Julia meet again after being released from torture and when they cant feel anything towards each other. As a result of torture and as a result of their survival being endanger for such a long time, both of these human beings have lost their feelings of love towards another human being.Orwells message at this point might be ba sed on the theme that after being threatened in existence and after being undetermined to a tremendous centre of torture, human beings instinctually come to think of only themselves. As Winston and Julia confess to each other that they have betrayed one another in the novel, the heart breaking truth is being revealed that human beings, in depth, are based on the instinct of survival and that they are unconsciously self-centered. The novel states I betrayed you, she said baldly. I betrayed you, he said. She gave him a sprightly look of dislike.Sometimes, she said they threaten you with something- something you cant stand up to cant even think about. And then you say, dont do it to me, do it to someone else, do it to so-and so. And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didnt really mean it. You think theres no other way of rescue yourself, and youre quite ready to restrain yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You dont give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself (336).The sad fact that human beings do only think of themselves and that they are selfish in nature is once more revealed by this remark. However, it is also evident in the novel that human beings who are exposed to torture lose the ability to love and think of other people. Thus, it becomes a fact that physical pain is so strong that it has the ability to erase all sorts of feelings which are related to the wellbeing of other people. Due to their instinct of survival, human beings become ready to sacrifice even people they love, to save themselves. Looking at the party from a unearthly point of view is also a possible theme in the novel.Being free from all the beliefs which are related to God and his religions, people are still in need to believe in something. The party at this point functions as religion for the people of Oceania, since they are blocked in all the ways which lead t o a power that is great than the party. Thus, representing themselves and the divine power, the party introduces itself as God. The religious motives are present in the novel when Goldstein offers Winston and Julia some wine, and later places a whiten waffle both on Julia and Winstons tongues so that they dont smell of alcohol.The ceremony which is presented here is same to the Catholic rituals that take place in church. Believers are offered some wine which symbolizes the strain of Christ and they are placed a piece of bread on their pair of tongs to symbolize the body of Christ. Going through a similar ceremony with Goldstein, Orwell in fact makes a foreshadowing that even the opposition, which stands for Goldstein at the beginning of the novel, is in fact one of the closest persons to the party. Thus, there is no way out of the system.If this theme is compared to the theme of religion, the devil, who is the opposing party to God, is in fact an angel and that it is again stro ngly related to God. Drawing parallel lines between the party and religion, Orwell states that the Party is God like check for the people of Oceania and that theres no escape from it. In conclusion, speaking in general terms, the novel functions as a warning against the totalitarian regime and reveals the fact that such repressive regimes, do in fact have the power to manipulate people and that they do have the power in make people believe things which appeared as totally bizarre at the beginning.Taking physical pain ruling over the human mind as a theme, Orwell states that human beings are selfish in nature, since they posses the basic instinct of survival. Putting also major emphasis on the concept of language and how it functions in peoples lives, Orwell states that it is in fact the language itself that shapes the motives of people and that makes some concepts become reality.The lack of expression of some concepts in language would automatically destroy them and make them beco me nonexistent for human beings. Despite the novel as a whole appears as a pessimist approach to the future, taking it as a warning and looking at our present state in todays late world, readers can still feel gratitude for the present capitalist system they live in now and they still can retain their hope for a better future.