O'Brien

O’Brien is a mysterious figure at the beginning of the book.

His outer characterisation describes him as a “[...] large, burly man with a thick neck and a coarse, humorous brutal face”, but also notes that he has “a certain charm of manner” (p. 12). In particular, the narrator refers to O’Brien’s “trick of re-settling his spectacles on his nose which was curiously disarming – in some indefinable way, curiously civilised” (p. 12).

He is a member of the Inner Party, which means he enjoys a level of luxury unknown to the majority of citizens in Oceania. The description of his neighbourhood and home marks a stark contrast to the residential areas described in the rest of the book:

[...] the huge block of flats, the richness and spaciousness of everything, the unfamiliar smells of good food and good tobacco, the silent and incredibly rapid lifts sliding up and down, the white-jacketed servants hurrying to and fro… (p. 175)

O’Brien’s true inner characterisation is k...