Living without fear of death: madness and panopticism in "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

This thesis is an examination of surveillance in George Orwell's dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Orwell's novel, the complete, encompassing nature of being watched creates an oppressively totalitarian government with very little room to be overthrown.The protagonist, Winston manages to create a space where his rebellion of the mind can prosper. This space is only possible because he is mad-only underscoring the futility of his actions. Because of this madness, defined in this piece of scholarship as his existence in his panoptic government without fear of death, Winston reacts contradictory to the social conditioning pushed upon him by Big Brother. Whether he could succeed in his rebellion is unimportant; the importance lies Winston creating rebellion in a government designed to allow none, and in readers' witnessing how Winston's madness manifests in his ability to see with clarity the power relationships present in the government. In such a position, Winston manages to reclaim power over his body that had been claimed by his government. By using Michel Foucault's theories on Jeremy Bentham's panopticon and madness, I aim to find the government's points of weakness where Winston managed to attack without losing his position of strength