PODG #5

          At the beginning of Chapter Nine, Basil goes to find Dorian to console him but soon realizes that this is quite unnecessary, for Dorian seems to be completely unaffected. He is not in mourning or any bit sad really; he seems to be going about his life as if nothing has happened. However, in reading Dorian’s attitude towards the whole Sibyl situation, one cannot help but notice the similarity between his attitude and the attitude of the Party in 1984 by George Orwell. Dorian, addressing Basil about Sibyl’s death, says, “If one doesn’t talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression…that gives reality to things” (79). The idea that by ignoring a situation, one can make it go away is eerily similar to the policies of 1984’s Party. Big Brother rewrites history, so that events the government did not want to occur actually did not according to the books. Though the means of which Dorian and the Party go about forgetting the past are very different, the fact that they have the same goal of forgetting in mind is noteworthy. Moreover, Dorian goes on to say that “it is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion” (79) . Again, the idea that emotions make one weak is easily relatable to the beliefs of the Party, who did not allow the citizens of Oceania to express their emotions. In Dorian’s attempt to distance himself from the death of Sibyl, he has in turn created a monster, a monster that is remarkably similar to the Party depicted by Orwell in 1984, a government organization known for its ludicrous practices and cruelty.