The Brotherhood is a fictitious organization in George Orwell's
novel, Nineteen-Eighty Four
The Brotherhood is a fictitious organization in George Orwell's
novel, Nineteen-Eighty Four. It is mysterious in origin and
operations, working to bring down the The Party.
The Brotherhood was supposedly founded by a man named Emmanuel
Goldstein, one of the members of the original inner circle of the
Party just below Big Brother himself. Like most leaders of the
revolution, Goldstein turned on Big Brother but, unlike the others,
he was somehow able to escape, and founded the Brotherhood. It
remains unknown as to whether or not Goldstein exists and is still
active, but if so, his location is unknown.
The Brotherhood cannot be said to be an "active" resistance
movement, because its main goal is simply increasing in size
slowly, in the hopes that generations in the future they might pose
a threat to the party. In the film of the same name, O'Brien
implies that perhaps in "A thousand years" there might be an attack
on the party by The Brotherhood. However, in the present day, even
if they are not active enough to actually cause any damage, the
Party's propaganda blames virtually anything that goes wrong on
sabotage by Brotherhood spies.
Supposedly, Brotherhood members do not even know one another.
All Brotherhood members are expected to be captured, and when they
are, they will not be rescued, as to protect the secrecy of the
mysterious organization most attempt suicide when captured if it is
possible. As a result of their extreme likelihood of capture,
Brotherhood members do not know more than 3-4 other members of the
party, and if captured they consequently cannot betray any
significant number of other members.
Very little information is given as to whether the Brotherhood,
or anything like it, actually exists. O'Brien heavily implies to
Smith that all of the details of the Brotherhood and the very
existence of Emmanuel Goldstein are just fabrications that the
Party invented in order to lure out thought criminals. O'Brien does
analyze that there might, hypothetically, be a real resistance
movement similar to the fake Brotherhood, but if so, it has hidden
itself so well that the Party has never detected it. It is known
however, that there is a fake Brotherhood operated by the Thought
Police in order to lure in disloyal Party Members, and that Winston
was lured in by it.
The Brotherhood is, however, frequently used by the Party as a
trap for potential thought criminals. Winston Smith, the novel's
protagonist, is contacted discreetly by O'Brien. O'Brien pretends
to be a member of the Brotherhood, however, he is really working
for the Party, lying to gain Winston's trust and denounce him as a
thought criminal. When Winston is captured and tortured inside the
Ministry of Love, he asks O'Brien if the Brotherhood does exist. He
tells Winston that that is a question he will never get an answer
to, so it is unknown as to whether it really exists or is merely an
illusion by the party.
The Brotherhood bears some resemblance a real OGPU operation
known as the Trust Operation, which was a fake anti-communist front
group established to lure enemies of the Bolsheviks back from
exile.
