CHAPTER 3

Summary

Winston, still in the Ministry of Love, is totally wasted. O'Brien strips him and thrusts his body in front of a mirror. His emaciated and tortured appearance makes Winston shrink away in horror. O'Brien informs him that he has been brought to the Ministry of Love to 'learn', 'understand,' and 'accept' the ideas of the Party. When Winston tells O'Brien that the tyrannical rule of the Party cannot continue forever, O'Brien sneers at him. O'Brien announces that the Party will always reign supreme, and anyone who dares to question it will be destroyed.

When Winston argues about the natural rights of men, O'Brien tells him that there will be no more natural men. In other words, the party will exterminate any one who thinks for himself. Only those who accept the Party's ideas unquestionably and mechanically will be allowed to live. Although Winston is made to confess his sins against the Party, he still believes that he cannot be made to stop loving Julia.

Notes

This chapter fills the reader with horror. The graphic description of Winston's tortured and emaciated body evokes both anger and fear in the reader. It shows the helplessness of an individual, a thinking, sensitive person, against the brute force of totalitarianism. O'Brien epitomizes all that is evil, fanatical, and sadistic in the Party Ingsoc. He also reveals to Winston that the true motive of the party is to have "Power, power over all men". It is power for its own sake and nothing more noble.

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