O'Brien [1984]

O'Brien is a member of the Inner Party and, like Winston Smith, works in the Ministry of Truth. There, he holds an administrative position that is so distant that Winston has only a vague idea of its nature. Winston suspects that O'Brien secretly opposes the Party. Eventually O'Brien approaches Winston with some leading remarks which seem to confirm Winston's suspicions. O'Brien invites Winston (who then invites Julia) to his flat where, as a member of the Inner Party he lives in comparative luxury. Winston finds the courage to approach him candidly, declaring himself an enemy of the totalitarian state. At first, Winston's intuition seems to be correct: O'Brien presents himself as a member of the "Brotherhood" seeking to overthrow the Party and Ingsoc. Like Winston and Julia, O'Brien is not unfamiliar with smoking and drinking. However, as an Inner Party member, he has access to far better cigarettes and other goods than they do. Whilst visiting O'Brien at his home, Winston samples wine for the first time. O’Brien then extracts a series of pledges from the couple that they are prepared to do anything to serve the Brotherhood, except (at Julia's protest) to separate from each other. In truth, O'Brien is an undercover agent of the Thought Police, and is completely loyal to the Party and to Ingsoc. He is part of an elite false flag resistance movement whose main objective is to find thought-criminals (anyone who has ideas deemed to be unacceptable by the Party), lure them in by pretending to be on their side, then arrest and help them to become "sane" (ideologically conformant).

O'Brien is next seen after Winston is arrested by the Thought Police. He reveals himself as he enters the cell by responding to Winston's exclamation, "They've got you too!", by commenting, "They got me a long time ago." This may imply that O’Brien used to rebel against the party until he was indoctrinated.

Over several weeks or months, O'Brien tortures Winston to cure him of his "insanity", in particular his "false" notion that there exists a past and an external, self-evident reality independent of the Party; O'Brien explains that reality only exists within the human mind, and since the Party controls everyone's mind, it therefore controls reality. He is entirely honest about the brutal cynicism of the Party; the Party does not seek power to benefit themselves or their subjects, but simply to revel in that power: "Always, Winston, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

Even in the torture scenes, there is a strange intimacy that persists between Winston and O'Brien. O'Brien even states that Winston's mind appeals to him, and that it resembles his own mind, except that Winston happens to be "insane". Eventually, in Room 101, O'Brien tortures Winston into submission so that he embraces the philosophy of the Party.

Gender: Male Occupation: Inner Party member, agent of the Thought Police Affiliation: The Party Nationality: British or Irish O'Brien is estimated privately by Winston as being 48–50 years old (O'Brien notices and guesses that Winston is contemplating this despite him not speaking of it). This would mean that he was born about 1934 to 1936, that he was a young man at the time of the Revolution which brought the Party to power, and that unlike Winston he clearly remembers the world as it was before - though he does not share these reminiscences with his prisoner (except for demonstrating that he knows the full text of "Oranges and Lemons").

O'Brien is a large, burly Inner Party member with a thick neck and a "coarse, humorous, brutal face". Despite his intimidating physique, he possesses a charming and intellectual demeanor that tricks Winston, often wearing sleek, authoritative black overalls. He is about forty-eight or fifty years old. He wears the black overalls of an Inner Party member, marking him as distinct from the lower-ranking Outer Party members like Winston. Despite his brutal appearance, O'Brien is refined, intelligent, and capable of projecting a gentle, approachable charisma to manipulate Winston.

O'Brien’s appearance holds a contradiction; he looks intelligent and intellectual, yet he is the architect of brutal, physical, and psychological torture. Winston describes his face as having a certain brutality, which highlights the harsh reality of his role in the Party, even when he acts deceptively charming. Because he acts like a fellow conspirator against the Party (pretending to be in the Brotherhood), his brutal nature is initially hidden from Winston. He is a high-ranking official within Oceania, serving as an enigmatic and chilling antagonist who embodies the party's totalitarian control.

O'Brien in 1984 is a highly intelligent, manipulative, and sadistic Inner Party leader who embodies the totalitarian cruelty of Oceania. He is a charismatic, deceptive figure who poses as a rebel to entrap Winston, only to become his torturer, functioning as the ultimate, chilling agent of Power for its own sake.

He skillfully poses as a member of the "Brotherhood" resistance to gain Winston's trust before revealing himself as a loyal Thought Police agent. Unlike mindless brutes, O'Brien is a high-ranking intellectual who understands the philosophical underpinnings of Ingsoc and uses this to manipulate Winston's mind. He is completely devoted to the Party, believing in the absolute, control of power. He believes that humanity's future is "a boot stamping on a human face—for ever". He takes personal pleasure in torturing Winston in the Ministry of Love, acting as a "teacher" who breaks Winston’s spirit, which makes him a sadist. Despite his cruelty, Winston admires his intellect, intelligence, and understanding, finding him to be a "large,", "impressive" figure. O'Brien's role is to ensure that rebels are not just killed, but "cured" and completely converted to loving Big Brother before they die.

As the narrative opens on "April 4th, 1984", a date whose validity is questioned by the protagonist, Winston Smith, the world has been ravaged for decades by global war, civil conflict and revolution. What was formerly known as the island of Great Britain is "Airstrip One", a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the world. It is ruled by "The Party" under the ideology of "Ingsoc": a Newspeak shortening of "English Socialism". Also present is the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality. The Party brutally purges anyone who does not fully conform to their regime, using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras and hidden microphones. Those who fall out of favour with the Party become "unpersons", disappearing per damnatio memoriae with all evidence of their existence destroyed.

In London, the protagonist is a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history. Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes, which lead to an immense furnace. He secretly opposes the Party's rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a "thought-criminal" and is likely to be caught one day.

While in a prole neighbourhood, he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes criticisms of the Party and Big Brother. To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter, he discovers they have no political consciousness. As he works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy, and develops an intense hatred of her.

He vaguely suspects that O'Brien, a member of the Inner Party and a superior of his, is part of an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, formed by Big Brother's reviled political rival, Emmanuel Goldstein. One day, Julia discreetly hands Winston a love note, and the two begin a secret affair. Julia explains that she also loathes the Party, but Winston observes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime. Initially meeting in the country, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington's shop. During the affair, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his tense relationship with his estranged wife Katharine. Weeks later, O'Brien invites Winston to his flat, where he introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein.

Meanwhile, during the nation's Hate Week, Oceania's enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, which goes mostly unnoticed. Winston is recalled to the Ministry to assist in making the necessary revisions to the records. Winston and Julia read parts of Goldstein's book, which explains how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war. It argues that the Party can be overthrown if the proles rise against it. However, Winston never gets the opportunity to read the chapter that explains why the Party took power and is motivated to maintain it. Winston and Julia are captured when Mr. Charrington is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police agent, and they are separated and imprisoned at the Ministry of Love. O'Brien also shows himself to be a member of the Thought Police and a participant in a false flag operation that targets political dissidents within the Party.

Over several months, Winston is starved and relentlessly tortured to bring his beliefs in line with the Party. O'Brien tells Winston that he will never know whether the Brotherhood actually exists and that Goldstein's book was written collaboratively by him and other Party members; furthermore, O'Brien reveals to Winston that the Party sees power not as a means but as an end, and the ultimate purpose of the Party is to seek power entirely for its own sake. For the final stage of re-education, O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101, which contains each prisoner's worst fear. When confronted with rat torture, Winston begs for the method to be used on Julia instead of him.

Winston is released into public life and continues to frequent the Chestnut Tree café. He encounters Julia, and both reveal that they have betrayed each other and are no longer in love. Back in the café, a news alert celebrates Oceania's supposed massive victory over Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally accepts that he loves Big Brother.