Comparing Orwells 1984 and Machiavellis The Prince...

When examining the totalitarian government of 1984 by George Orwell, a direct connection can be drawn to the motives and ideals associated with Niccolà ³ Machiavelli’s The Prince. Machiavelli’s support of the political necessity as a means to remain in power resonate with the government whose aim is to â€Å"extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought† as a way to ensure complete political orthodoxy within the country (193). Specifically, Machiavellian thought plays an important part in 1984 as its ideas on reputation, revolution, avoiding hatred, and the use of fear to control a populace are used by INGSOC in order to maintain complete control throughout the story. In the following paragraphs, the connections between these†¦show more content†¦One of these policies is described when Orwell states â€Å"It is deliberate policy to keep even the favored groups somewhere near the brink of hardship, because a general state of scarcit y increase the importance of small privileges† (191). This idea of maintaining constant hardship in order to increase the importance of small actions is an important tool used by the government in the book. It allows them to garner public support incredibly easily by means of very small or near inconsequential actions, thus reducing the chance of revolution. Revolution against the government is further prevented by the society present in the story. This is due to the fact that although some citizens decidedly are against the Party, the restrictive atmosphere prevents them from networking with other like-minded individuals. This idea is characterized well by Winston when he explains that, â€Å"they talked of engaging in active rebellion against the Party, but with no notion of how to take the first step†. Thus, the difficulty in creating a popular revolutionary movement is exponentially more difficult. A final obstacle facing revolutionaries in 1984 is that they do not know whether or not their ideas represent the majority in the society. Its an incredibly important point because as Machiavelli points out, â€Å"whoever conspires always believes that he will satisfy the people with the death of the prince, but if he believes he