Objective Correlative in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: Winston’s Varicose Ulcer

Abstract

On the cusp of the mid-twentieth century, specifically in 1949, the world witnessed an unparalleled literary novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, embodying the scourge of totalitarian dictatorships and anticipating postmodernism despite its distance from postmodern narrative techniques. Orwell’s literary gem imbued with the hallmarks of modernism is distinguished by that it is infused with a pattern of characters, chains of events, actions, images, and objects that articulate the emotions of characters by presenting rather than describing the convoluted association and intricate interaction of emotions, or by what T. S. Eliot proposes in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems,” namely, the objective correlative. One of the most notable objects embodying the objective correlative in Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is Winston’s varicose ulcer, not to mention the accompanying degrees of pain and the ulcer’s shape. This article aims to investigate the objective correlative from a theoretical point of view. Moreover, it addresses how Winston’s varicose ulcer, its accompanying pain, and its shape systematically represent Winston’s rebellious emotions. George Orwell’s embodiment of the varicose ulcer in his novel significantly contributes to the portrayal of Winston’s rebellious emotions and motives by providing a remarkable composite of emotional and sensory stimuli, which are congruous with the objective correlative involving the expression of emotions through definite objects to portray them vividly, precisely, and complexly. The findings suggest that there is a close relationship between Winston’s rebellious emotions and motives and the objective correlative in a way that would provide a unified experience of the novel.

Keywords

• Objective Correlative
• Nineteen Eighty-Four
• Winston’s Varicose Ulcer
• George Orwell
• T. S. Eliot

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