Historical Context

There aren’t a whole bunch of obvious allusions (Or things mentioned from other places) but I found a few big enough to share. For example, the mention of Julius Caesar and Charlemagne directly. I found the quote interesting because of this. “Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.” (47-48) (The link is to a site explaining mainly about the proles and rome). There’s also the “proles” referencing the proletariat which is the lowest class of citizens in rome. Then another allusion is Shakespeare in the quote “The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare…” (47) I haven’t found any real sites about this quote but it’s pretty self explanatory. Everything in this world is being translated to “Newspeak” which would change the literature. These are the main allusions in 1984 that I’ve found that people would recognize.