Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

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effectively governed Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles who are an apolitical class. The government in 1984 explicitly discourages romantic sexual activity amongst its citizens. Instead, sexual activity is for purposeful procreation determined by the Party. Unlike Brave New World , pleasure is discouraged by the government as the Party believes it is the generation of focused hatred towards Oceania’s enemies that best provides stability for the nation. It unites the citizenry against a common enemy and keeps them devoted to Big Brother. In both novels, sexual activity is controlled by the governments but this control manifests in different forms. In Brave New World , children learn to be promiscuous as the World Controllers believe that this will prevent people from having an intimate connection with just one person, which could undermine loyalty to the state. Contrastingly, citizens in 1984 are taught that sex is repulsive. The Party through the control of the citizens, eliminates intimacy in marriage. In Brave New World , marriage does not exist as an institution, whereas in 1984 , the Party chooses the partner and the marriage is loveless. Both governments attempt to prevent love for another human being. The only love tolerated is the love for the nation and Big Brother. Despite both novels being written more than 70 years ago, the messages about the dangers of governments that have too much control still resonate in today’s global political climate. The research question for this essay encourages a consideration of how Huxley and Orwell utilize their representations of sexual relations and marriage to critique aspects of totalitarian control in Brave New World and 1984 . Both authors envision totalitarian societies in which individual liberty has been usurped by an all-powerful state. However, Orwell’s novel, 1984 , presents the rather more conventional vision of totalitarianism, in which the government maintains power through ruthless oppression. In contrast, Huxley seems to