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Book: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Part I , Chapter VI

Summary - Analysis

Chapter VI begins with Winston making his next entry in his secret diary, in which he talks about sex and his personal sexual experiences. He starts off by discussing his encounter with a prostitute in 1981. Reminiscing the incident leads him to reflect that the sex instinct was another area of human life, which the Party sought to eliminate, or at least distort.

Only the ‘proles’, the so-called lower class people who did not actually qualify to belong to the party were acknowledged to have sexual instincts. Among Party members any form of love and eroticism was removed from the sex act. Marriages were permitted, but they ought to be officially approved and were to be undertaken for the sole purpose of begetting children who would grow up to be responsible Party members. Permission would be denied should the couple show any signs of being physically attracted to each other. Ideally, the Party would prefer complete celibacy, which would mean that men and women would forge fewer bonds of individual loyalties and children could be produced artificially. Failing this, it tried to present the sex act as a rather disgusting preliminary necessity.

Winston goes on to write about his first and only wife, named Katharine. Their marriage had been approved by the Party, but he had soon found life with her impossible. The fact that she did not have a single original thought and simply functioned as a party mouthpiece was bad enough. But what Winston confesses to have been truly unbearable was the sex. Winston would not have minded remaining celibate, but Katharine insisted they go through the process at fixed intervals so as to ‘fulfill their duty to the Party’ by producing a future comrade (i.e. Party member). And each time, it was evident to Winston that she despised the act and was merely submitting passively. When no children appeared, they parted with Party approval and reciprocal relief.

His...