Dystopian Societies: Characteristics and Examples
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society
- Propaganda is used to control citizens.
- Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
- A figurehead or concept is worshipped by citizens.
- Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
- Citizens have a fear of the outside world.
- Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
- The natural world is banished and distrusted.
- Citizens conform to uniform expectations; individuality and dissent are bad.
- The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
Themes of Dystopia
Themes include the mastery of nature, technological advances that enslave humans, the mandatory division of people into groups, and the collective loss of memory, making mankind easier to manipulate.
Utopia vs. Dystopia
Utopia: A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect.
Dystopia: A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate or totalitarian control.
The Dystopian Protagonist
- Often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
- Questions the existing social and political system.
- Believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which they live.
- Helps the audience recognize the negative aspects of the dystopian world through their perspective.
Types of Dystopian Controls
- Corporate Control: One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and the media. (Example: Running Man)
- Bureaucratic Control: Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials.
- Technological Control: Society is controlled by technology, such as computers, robots, and scientific means. (Examples: Matrix, Terminator, and I, Robot)
- Philosophical/Religious Control: Society is controlled by a philosophical or religious ideology, often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government.
Literary Modernism
Characteristics
- Sense of social breakdown
- No moral framework
- Alienation from society and loneliness
- Procrastination/inability to act
- Agonized recollection of the past (flashbacks)
- Fear of death and the appearance of death
Social Context
- Rise of cities
- Changing class structure
- Advancing technology
- Politics: revolutions, wars
- Science: physics, Einstein
- Religion: “God is dead”; everything is meaningless
George Orwell’s 1984
Author: George Orwell describes Oceania. The major character is Winston Smith.
Parts of Society: Masses, Outer Party (outer hands), Inner Party (inner brains), Big Brother
Vocabulary from 1984
Crimestop: The faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought (protective stupidity).
Blackwhite: The ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.
- Applied to an opponent: It means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts.
- Applied to a Party member: It means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this.
Doublethink: The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting both of them.
Other Literary Works
- Beowulf
- The Pardoner’s Tale (Three men looking for death)
- The Canterbury Tales: About the pilgrims (the knight, yeoman, squire, nun, parson, pardoner)
- Utopia: Ideal society; some people working on farms
- The Faerie Queene: There is a red knight, a dragon, and a dwarf; the moral lesson is that the monster represents error.
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: King Arthur, Gawain, and an axe versus the Green Knight
- Morte d’Arthur: King Arthur dies, and Bedivere does not want to throw the sword in the water, committing two sins.
- Robinson Crusoe
- Paradise Lost: Adam and Eve
- Macbeth
- The Lagoon: White man, Diamelen
- His Last Bow: Conan Doyle, Sherlock, Watson