This is an appendix to my series of posts looking at the plausibility of Orwell’s Oceania and the merits of the novel it features in, 1984. Here is a timeline I worked out for Orwell’s invented world, based on clues and cues in the novel itself.
But first, here are the links to the series:
1984 by George Orwell:
The Darkest Timeline: Oceania 1945-1984
1945
- End of Second World War
- Birth of Winston Smith
c. 1945-1952
- ‘a long interval of peace in [Winston Smith’s] childhood’
c. 1950-1952
- Surprise air raid alarm in London; this is likely a surprise attack by Eastasia, probably with atomic bombs
- From this date, world war is continuous
- 1950s: Atomic warfare causes huge destruction. Hundreds of cities, mostly in North America, European Russia and Western Europe destroyed (the only named city is Colchester)
- By ‘the middle of the twentieth century’, Russia absorbs Europe, USA absorbs British Empire.
1950s:
- In England, an underground struggle by socialist revolutionaries, a revolution and a civil war
- Street fighting in London for several months
- ‘one of the first great purges’
1954:
- Disappearance of Winston’s father
c. 1955-57:
- A time of air raids and civil conflicts, of political youth gangs wearing shirts of the same colour, proclamations, severe food shortages
- Political ‘disappearances’ are already commonplace
- Disappearance of Winston’s mother and sister
- Winston enters state institutions
- Birth of Julia in 1957
By 1960:
- Eastasia has emerged as a unified state from ‘a decade of confused fighting’
Around 1960:
- Ingsoc becomes a widely-used term
1960s:
- Big Brother becomes a household name
c. 1962-4
- Revolutionary leaders Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford are photographed in prominent roles at some important Party function in New York
Around 1965:
- Goldstein flees
- ‘in the middle ‘sixties’, ‘the old, discredited leaders of the party’ were ‘purged’ – ‘wiped out once and for all.’
1965:
- Oceania currently at war with Eurasia
- Julia’s grandfather disappears
- Jones, Aaronson, Rutherford disappear
1966 or 7:
- Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford confess in a show trial and, around a year later, disappear
1970:
- The older generation of Party leaders is wiped out. Only Big Brother remains
Around 1973:
- Winston is married to Katharine for 15 months
1977:
- Winston has a strange dream involving O’Brien
- O’Brien later says that he has been working on Winston’s case since this date
1980:
- Oceania is now at war with Eurasia
1981:
- Winston seeks out a sex worker
1984:
- Ninth Three-Year Plan under way
- Oceania conquers large parts of India
- From Hate Week on, Oceania is now at war with Eastasia
- Winston and Julia are arrested
At least one year later:
- Oceania, now at war with Eurasia, first suffers defeat in Africa then wins a significant victory
1984 by George Orwell:
The 1919 Review 