Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1991. British and American Philologycal Studies (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 20)
József Hruby: Two "Last Men in Europe": A. Koestler's Darkness at Noon and G. Ornwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
64 In Orwell's totalitarian state, where everything has hardened into politics* society is the property of the state. In Oceania everything is crime that does not directly strengthens the State, like the life of contemplation and the joy of purposelessness. Sexual gratification is sternly frowned upon and is termed sexcrime. Instinctual lust and its polar opposite, pure reason, the basis of the state» are incompatible. Another major crime one can commit is the defence of private memory and of being against the uniformity of opinions. Winston has comitted both sexcrime and the heresy of individualism. Julia, the other main personage of the book, exhibits her contempt towards the regime by engaging in several love affairs. She is an average girl who enjoys her job in the Ministry of Truth and sports the red sash of the Anti-Sex League. She seems to share her vitality with the proles, she is a rather harsh, unfeeling sexual heretic. Since her past sexual activity is not part of a bigger, more elaborite pattern of rebellion, for her it is sex for sex, her particular "non-serviam". She is shrewd (she thinks that the bombs are in fact dropped by their own goverment). She only hates the system for sexual repression and frustration. She has no metaphysical notions of freedom. It is also through her that the reader finds out about the doublethink of the Inner Party members. She committed sexcrime with quite a number of leading Party members. In such circumstances having sex becomes a political act, an act transcending political reality. In Darkness at Noon Rubashov's clandestine affair with Arlova takes on political overtones only when Rubashov fails to testify on behalf of her. He saw clearly that the testimony would have cost him his life. Sexcrime is however, not enough for Winston. Ne needs somebody to trust, to belong to. It is through his search for a fellow revolter that the Thought Police tracks him down and, finally, catches him and Julia. The Thought Police is a "peculiar institution": Its function is not so much to detect crime after it his been committed, but to detect it in its latent, embryonic form. If somebody becomes suspicious, he is given the chance to get himself deeply into the "quagmire", then he is caught and purged. O'Brien, head of the Though Police, sniffs Winston's rebellious attitude towards the State and drags him down into the abyssO'Brien is the one who acts on behalf on the State. He does violence to man* mind, history, and the world. He is the "Tempter" and he is the executioner. He derives his main pleasure from the "corrective" treatment of the revolters. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of a book, written by the leader of some alleged Brotherhood, Emmanuel Goldstein, The Book of OligarchaI Collectivism . Goldstein's
