Talk:Winston Smith (Nineteen Eighty-Four)/Archive 1

Class
Don't the names "Winston" and "Smith" have conflicting class associations in England? Doesn't that tend to make the name sound incongruous and unlikely to British ears? 206.106.76.55 22:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Not as far as I'm aware. Smith is an exceedingly common name. Aim Here 22:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

is there any sort of source whatsoever that he was probably named after Winston Churchill? I mean, could be I'm not denying it, but you can't just write "probably x" without any evidenceOreo man 17:26, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

I've re-worded it. Winston is from Winston Churchill, but Smith is just because it is one (if not, the) most common surnames in Britain. This is just to provide a juxtaposition of hero and normality. Greggykins 18:52, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I've re-reworded it to say that the name Winston is commonly assumed to be inspired by Churchill. I don't think Orwell ever confirmed that that's where he got the name, and the current reference certainly doesn't prove anything. risk (talk) 11:24, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Category:Fictional traitors
any objection to adding this category? --Spencer &quot;The Belldog&quot; Bermudez |  (Complain here) 11:27, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Category:Fictional Anarchists?
Although Orwell himself could arguably have sympathized with anarchism at some point in his life, I know of no evidence that he intended for Winston Smith to be an anarchist, overtly or covertly. Evidence for this should be provided within this article, or it should be removed from the category. Cast 1:01, 9 Decemer 2006

Spoiler warning?
Would a spoiler warning be appropriate for this page, as below?

In the novel, Winston is lured in joining a secret organisation whose aim is to undermine the dictatorship of "Big Brother". He does not realize that he is being set up by O'Brien, a government agent. When captured and tortured, he eventually betrays his only accomplice, Julia, the woman he loves, and discovers that the underground movement, the Brotherhood, which they believed themselves to have joined may not, in fact, exist.

The paragraph practically gives away the entire story. However, WP:SPOILER says that spoiler tags should never be used for "classical works of literature". Does Nineteen Eighty Four qualify? --saxsux 15:04, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

This page definitely needs a spoiler warning. Doomgrr 18:01, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Last time I checked, this is a classic. Though I wish I didn't know the ending...


 * DarkestMoonlight (talk) 20:15, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

PLOT SUMMARY? . . . WFT?
This page is nothing more than a plot summary of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Needs improvement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.58.96.135 (talk) 21:06, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Merge discussion
So the talk section has been disappeared, but there's little value to having this as an independent page when most of the info is copied over from 1984's entry. This isn't Wikia or fandom.

Edit by Orangemike
I find it hard to believe there was nothing salvageable in those 12 paragraphs you removed. And edit summaries like "O RLY" are not conducive to collaboration. Can you explain why you made the changes you did? --Pixelface (talk) 02:02, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
 * The edit summary was silly, you are right. I apologize. What I deleted was not encyclopedic content, but rather a massive plot summary of the entire novel, with long passages about other characters from the book. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  01:21, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Inaccurate Reference/Description
The article states his name has become a metaphor for the man in the street,[1] the unwitting and innocent victim of political machination. And Catchpole has added Erika Gottlieb's tyext as a reference. However, this is what she writes: Finally, probably the most significant aesthetic and psychological difference between the two novels is the introduction in 1984 of the central eye, the central consciousness of Winston Smith as Everyman, a human consciousness we can readily identify with. The psychological distance between the reader and the chancter, appropriate to the animal fable, has been eliminated.

Gottlieb is referring to Smith as an Everyman in the context of the novel, not as a metaphor for the average man in the streets. And actually, that is incorrect use of the word "metaphor" anyway. I will rewrite the lede quoting directly Gottlieb and removing the silliness of the current phrasing. Eusebeus (talk) 16:18, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Does Winston Smith die at the end of "1984"?
There seems to be some disagreement about the end of the book. Was Winston Smith shot? Did George Orwell ever confirm it?108.23.147.17 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:43, 5 March 2012 (UTC).

Maybe it's a open ending. In my translated book version, Big Brother wins. Heh Mariogoods (talk) 03:28, 24 July 2018 (UTC)