Enrique's+quotes+folder

1984

Quotes from **//1984//** 1) “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” - (Military, totalitarian regime, dangers of totalitarianism) – pg 3 2) “Victory” – (Ironic) 3) “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU” – (Repression, monitoring and control) – pg 3 4) “Crazy garden walls sagging in all directions? And the bombed sites where the plaster swirled in the air and the willowherb straggled over the heaps if rubble” – (Setting) – pg 5 5) “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” – (Paradoxical) – pg 6 6) “Colourless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN” – (Ironic as none of the things marked “VICTORY” have a nice taste) – pg 7 7) “Its smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age” (Contrast book vs. setting, book is a symbol of freedom and hope vs. oppressive nature of surroundings) pg 8 8) “He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984” (uncertainty of time = control of BB) 9) “Suddenly he began writing with sheer panic” (Sense of panic emphasises sense of oppression) pg 10 10) “Stream of rubbish” (not content with what his writing, rather that he is writing) pg 11 11) “Humorous brutal face (Obrien = can’t trust) pg 12 12) “An attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see it through” (People are as children so that need to rely on parents = party and BB) pg 14 13) “Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair” (Idea of controlling mind and body = control of person) pg 16 14) “Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it. Made no difference” (Winston believes his fate is written = fatalistic) pg 21 15) “You might dodge for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you” (Inevitability of being caught) pg 21 16) “Everything had a battered, trampled-on look, as though the place had just been visited by some large violent animal” (Setting reflects society as being oppressed) pg 23 17) “Smelt worse than ever of cabbage” (Setting) pg 23 18) “Liable to start him coughing” (When Winston feels oppressed his health gets worse) pg 23 19) “Ungovernable little savages” (Children spies, animalist imagery = tigers) g 26 20) “Mother had disappeared” (Foreshadowing of betrayal) pg 31 21) “(Winston remembered especially the very thin soles of his father’s shoes)” (flashback à sudden release of emotion) pg 31 Quotes from **//A hero of our time//**  1) My whole life has been merely a succession of miserable and unsuccessful denials of feelings or reason. 2) ...I am not capable of close friendship: of two close friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither of them will admit it. I cannot be a slave, and to command in such circumstances is a tiresome business, because one must deceive at the same time.  3) Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there. 4) It is difficult to convince women of something; one must lead them to believe that they have convinced themselves.  5) What of it? If I die, I die. It will be no great loss to the world, and I am thoroughly bored with life. I am like a man yawning at a ball; the only reason he does not go home to bed is that his carriage has not arrived yet. 6) When I think of imminent and possible death, I think only of myself; some do not even do that. Friends, who will forget me tomorrow, or, worse still, who will weave God knows what fantastic yarns about me; and women, who in the embrace of another man will laugh at me in order that he might not be jealous of the departed--what do I care for them?  7) Women! Women! Who will understand them? Their smiles contradict their glances, their words promise and lure, while the sound of their voices drives us away. One minute they comprehend and divine our most secret thoughts, and the next, they do not understand the clearest hints. 8) There are two men within me - one lives in the full sense of the word, the other reflects and judges him. In an hour's time the first may be leaving you and the world for ever, and the second? ... the second? ...  9) To cause another person suffering or joy, having no right to so-- isn't that the sweetest food of our pride? What is happiness but gratified pride? 10) I'll hazard my life, even my honor, twenty times, but I will not sell my freedom. Why do I value it so much? What am I preparing myself for? What do I expect from the future? in fact, nothing at all.  11) Grushnitski (to Pechorin): "Mon cher, je haïs les hommes pour ne pas les mépriser car autrement la vie serait une farce trop dégoûtante." ("My friend, I hate people to avoid despising them because otherwise, life would become too disgusting a farce.") 12) Pechorin (replying to Grushnitski): "Mon cher, je méprise les femmes pour ne pas les aimer car autrement la vie serait un mélodrame trop ridicule" ("My friend, I despise women to avoid loving them because otherwise, life would become too ridiculous a melodrama.")  13) "Passions are merely ideas in their initial stage." 14) “The turmoil of life has left me with a few ideas, but no feelings.” (Irony, Character of Pechorin)