抄録
George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty Four (1949) is still considered one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century, even after the passing of 1984, the fictional year in which the story is set. The work originally gained acceptance as a near-future novel with some dreadful prophecies about the human race, but now it has become a ‘near-past’ novel. However, it has never lost its main feature: a universal warning to the human race. It is Orwell’s warning to us not only in respect to politics, but to the whole of society. In this essay sight and observation are focused upon, among other aspects of the work, because these factors related to eyes are frequently found throughout the story. Furthermore, visual literary devices highlight different features, depending on the character involved, the central characters being Winston Smith and Big Brother: the object to be watched and the watcher. Drawing on thoughts from Michel Foulcault, Jeremy Bentham and Jonathan Crary, this study on sight-related issues and observation in Orwell’s work leads inevitably to questions surrounding the concept of humanness and the future of our modern societies enveloped by surveillance brought to bear through present visual technologies.
