Understanding and Interpreting Entropy: A Case Study of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four

Abstract

Nineteen Eighty-four is a representative work of Orwell, a famous British writer, which successfully presents the persecution of authoritarianism to readers, while the characters in the novel have distinct characteristics and strong emotional colors. Various kinds of surveillance and control, real and false torture hit people’s hearts, revealing the dark side of authoritarianism. Based on the theory of entropy concerned with all types of disordered managements, this paper analyze the problems faced by the protagonist and the other characters. It discusses the characters’ efforts of overcoming the increase of entropy and their state of being restricted by authoritarianism through the political instruments, and examines different kinds of entropy under relative factors — Entropy under the creation of nothingness, entropy under the control of thoughts and the deprivation of emotion. This study hopes to provide new ideas for people to pay attention to their own existence, political phenomena, independent thinking and achieve transcendence.