Minions Of The Violence-A Study Of The Violence In Nineteen Eighty-Four And A Clockwork Orange

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a political satire and science fiction novel, created by Britishwriter, George Orwell, it is widely regarded as his masterpiece. A Clockwork Orange, whichrecognized to be the masterpiece of British writer, Anthony Burgess, is also a science fictionnovel with political irony. There are a few common denominators between the two novels thatneed to be addressed. Firstly, both of them are situated somewhere in the future, to somedegree, it can be argued that they are both science fiction novels; secondly, they are bothsituated in totalitarian states, and belong to Dystopian Novels; finally, both of them are filledwith extreme violence. This thesis is just from this point, to discuss how violence affects themain characters in Nineteen Eighty-Four and A Clockwork Orange; under the totalitarian rule,how does violence breed violence; what kinds of violence affect Winston and Alexrespectively, and what causes it. The thesis shall first go into the nature of violence more ingeneral, and find out what violence really is, then, it will present different perceptions ofviolence and discuss why violence prevails. Meantime, with these problems to cause thereaders to think: whether violence is an inborn human characteristic or a social construct? Thekey reason for doing this research is that violence, as an isolated phenomenon, is oftenneglected in scientific research, both with regards to historical as well as political studies,violence as a distinct phenomenon needs more attention.There are five chapters in this thesis. The first chapter is the introduction, in which thestories of Nineteen Eighty-Four and A Clockwork Orange are summarized firstly, secondly itreviews the present study of the two novels, and then gives the reason why this subject ischosen and the significance of the study. The second chapter makes detailed studies ofviolence, first of all, it analyses why violence prevails, then it presents different kinds ofviolence. Chapter three deals with what kinds of violence that Nineteen Eighty-Four is filledwith, how violence affects the main character Winston and what causes it. Chapter fourstudies on what kinds of violence prevail in A Clockwork Orange, how violence affects Alexand how violence breeds violence. In the last chapter, a conclusion of this thesis is drawn. Itshows the main finding of this thesis.