ransmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end. Every citizen, or at least every citizen important enough to be worth watching, could be kept for twenty-four hours a day under the eyes of the police and in the sound of official propaganda, with all other channels of communication closed. The possibility of enforcing not only complete obedience to the will of the State, but complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects, now existed for the first time.With that development, the totalization of surveillance of Party members, not only does private life come to an end, but so does the possibility of sexual desire as truly liberating. Julia and Winston do manage to steal their moments together away from the Party. But the Party’s enforcers, the Thought Police, are watching even when the lovers are convinced they are safe, and the revenge they exact for this transgression of Party control is enormous. It is significant that the instrument of this totalized surveillance is the “telescreen,” Orwell’s projection of the future of television. As Orwell was writing 1984 in 1948, television was just emerging from the developmental hiatus forced upon the broadcasting industry by World War II. Many people were worried, in the late 1940's and early 1950's, about what this new medium would be, how it would function, how much control over its watchers it would create. Orwell’s own concerns about the future development of television are reflected in 1984's telescreens, which on the one hand, broadcast an endless barrage of Party propaganda, and on the other hand, act as transmitters as well, enabling the Party to exercise the total surveillance it required.Martin Esslin has claimed in his essay “Televison and Telescreen,” however, that Orwell’s fears about television missed the mark on two counts. First, Orwell was evidently more concerned about the potential for televisio...
