The Party’s Physical Control

Finally, the rats appear again as Winston arrives to the Room 101. Orwell uses the Room 101 to create a grisly feeling to the readers. Winston experiences the most horrific moment in his life, which O’Brien threatens him in front of a cage of rats. The rat is also appears in the early chapter when Winston and Julia are in the rented room. The rat foreshadows the torture that happens later on in the story, and it also keeps track of the theme of the novel, which is the physical control by the Party.

The Party is always surveils people’s movements. There are telescreens inside people’s house, and the Thought Police are all over the place. The Party will take action if someone has any attempt that shows the disloyalty to the Party, or commits Thought Crime. The Thought Police will always capture the people when they are sleeping deeply, then send them to the windowless cell. The Party will send the Inner Party member like O’Brien to interrogate, torture and brainwash the people until they are satisfied with the new, text bookish mind. During this process, the method they adopt is the physical torture, as Winston describes that nothing is more painful than physical pain. The Party controls Winston’s reality after he has been intimidated, manipulated and tortured physically. In the end, Winston “traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2=5” which shows that Winston accepts the Party’s manipulation.(text page 303).

This is how the Party controls people’s thoughts and reality through the physical torture. They make the people display complete allegiance to the Party, to Big Brother. As a result, people are unconscious and they are at the Party's beck and call.