1984

Were Julia and Winston truly in love as they profess in the book?   In our generation and for all previous generations this particular question must come up with many people and the idea of ‘love’ has no class discrimination what so ever.
First of all I think that both Winston and Julia are both looking for a physical relationship and seeing how this is ‘illegal’ they are both quite smitten and exhilarated with the idea that they are able to get away with this. This relationship started with Julia giving Winston the note “while he was helping her up the girl slipped something into his hand. There was no question that she had done it intentionally.” This was the start of their physical and very secretive relationship. As Orwell writes, “I’m thirty-nine years old. I’ve got a wife that I can’t get rid of. I’ve got varicose veins. I’ve got five false teeth. I couldn’t care less, said the girl.” Given that their physical appearances and age were very different from one another they were still willing to start some type of relationship and risk the Party.
Winston and Julia have a sexual relationship that is quite active and both see the reasons for this type of pleasure differently. When Julia is discussing her previous sexual affairs with many men she admits freely that she is ‘corrupt’ and she feels the idea of a sexual relationship with Winston has to do with ‘animal instinct’s’ whereas Winston see their sexual relationship as an act of rebellion against the party. Orwell writes “Its real, undeclared purpose was to remove all pleasure from the sexual act. Not love so much as eroticism was the enemy, inside of marriage as well as outside it.”
Winston and Julia both needed to be able to express freely their feelings about the Party and the Brotherhood movement or if indeed there was one. Julia was attracted to Winston because she believed he was something that she could trust and that he was against the Party and that was important to her.