1984/ Metropolis Comparative

study:
Comparing Metropolis and Nineteen Eighty-Four

1984 (GEORGE ORWELL)

SET IN 1984, IN THE SUPERSTATE OCEANIA

READERS WITNESS THE STRUGGLES HE FACES

AGAINST THE INNER PARTY

WINSTON SMITH A MEMBER OF THE OUT PARTY WORKS AT THE

AS HE WISHES TO REBEL

MINISTRY OF TRUTH

METROPOLIS (1927)

SILENT FILM ABOUT A UTOPIAN SOCIETY

FREDER THE SON OF FREDERSON FALLS IN LOVE WITH A WORKER
MARIA
MUST RESCUE MARIA FROM ROWTANG AS HE TRIES TO GAIN REVENGE
MUST BECOME THE LINK BETWEEN THE WORKING CLASS AND THE
UPPER CLASS

HOW

DOES IT SHOW A

MARXISM

PERSPECTIVE ?

MARXISM WAS FOUNDED BY KARL MARX

METROPOLIS SHOWS THIS THROUGHOUT THE

SILENT FILM THROUGH

THE FOCUS ON CLASS STRUCTURE AND THE STRUGGLES FACED

BETWEEN THEM
THIS IS SHOWN THROUGH THE INNER PARTY VS THE

LIKE LIBERALS

VS

LABOUR

OUTER

PARTY

IN MODERN TIMES

PROMINENT THEMES:

TECHNOLOGY
POWER
MUSIC

COMPARISONS:
LITERARY

DEVICES

WITHIN THE BOOK

VERBAL IRONYMINISTRIES
FLASHBACKS
FORESHADOWING

CAMERA ANGLES AND

MUSIC
CONSIDERING
METROPOLIS IS A
SILENT FILM CAMERA ANGELS

REALITY

OF TRUTH

WINSTON

WORKS

ON THE MINISTRY

OF TRUTH
THE ROBOT

MARIA

AND MUSIC PLAY A

VERSION OF

KEY ROLE
NEEDS TO DISPLAY

CAUSES HAVOC

STRONG VISUAL
MESSAGES AND
SHOW A POWERFUL
PICTORIAL IMAGE

SIMILARITIESIdeas/ Issues raised in the texts:

The Totalitarian state controls the people to maintain the power and
authority
Values:
Core human values are compromised e.g. love, compassion, truth,
connection, empathy
Characterisation:
Protagonists rebel against social controls
Setting:
Futuristic urban settings where class structure are central to political
and economic power
Language forms and features/ film techniques:
Use of satire and allegory, of speculative techniques to warn of a
possible future
Context:
Both texts written in contexts of political turmoil and instability. Both
texts, ides and values reflect context

o
o

DIFFERENCESMetropolis

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Capitalist tyrant focused on

economic gain

Ruling Party values power for

the sake of power

Workers are ground down

by physical labour
physically and
psychologically empty

Party members are

conditioned to disconnect
Two Minutes Hate, sexfor the
state, marriage without love or
attraction

Fredersen engages with

workers through his son as
mediator

Winstons unorthodoxy is
crushed by torture

Futuristic mega-city with

vertical stratification rich
on top, poor below

Recognisable, crumbling
version of London in the nearfuture

Science fiction and German

expressionism in filmmaking. Gothic/noir style.
Futuristic sets.

Darkly satirical prose uses

imagery to create a very
recognisable future. A limited
third person narrator presents
Winstons perspective of
events.

Weimar Republic in
Germany. Concerns:
economic instability, rising
capitalism, class division,
modernisation,
industrialisation and
technology, sexual
freedom, education for the
masses

UK in context of Europe.
Orwells personal experiences
of Spanish Civil War, rise of
fascism and communism
totalitarianism, global powers,
rewriting of history

THEMES

IN

1984-

Totalitarianism and Communism

published 1949 to warn the world against what he feared would be the
fate of humanity if totalitarian regimes were allowed to seize power as
they had done recently in Germany under Hitler and in the Soviet Union
under Stalin
In the aftermath of World War II, Anglo-American intellectuals were
reluctant to criticize the Soviet regime, despite evidence of Stalin's
despotism, because Russia had been an ally against Germany and Japan
For the rest of his life he worked tirelessly to expose the evils of
totalitarianism and to promote what he called "democratic socialism.
The Party's ultimate ambition is to control the minds as well as the
bodies of its citizenry, and therefore control reality itself.
Totalitarianism is considered an extension of Socialism, which arose as a
response to industrialization, and sought to create more equitable
societies by centralizing production and abolishing private property in
favor of collective ownership.
Emmanuel Goldstein's book, parts of which Winston reads in Book II,
outlines the methods by which a totalitarian regime consolidates and
extends its power.
The Individual vs. Collective Identity
One way a totalitarian regime seeks to stay in power is by denying human
beings their individuality, eradicating independent thought through the
use of propaganda and terror.
Throughout Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston tries to assert his individual
nature against the collective identity the Party wishes him to adopt

 He keeps a private diary, engages in a forbidden sexual relationship, and

insists that his version of reality is the truth, as opposed to what the Party
says it is.
Instead of going to the Community Center or participating in social groups,
he wanders the prole neighborhoods alone and seeks solitude in his
apartment, engaging in behavior the Party calls own life and considers
dangerous.
After Winston is caught, the seven years of torture to which O'Brien
subjects him are designed to destroy Winston's ability to think unorthodox
thoughts.
Before he enters Room 101, Winston is able to see that to die hating the
Party is freedom, but by the end of the novel he is no longer capable of
this.
In order to save himself from O'Brien's rats, Winston does the one thing he
can never forgive himself forhe betrays Julia and in doing so relinquishes
his own morality and self-respect.
Reality Control
The Party controls the citizens of Oceania through a combination of
surveillance, terror, and propaganda.
Although there are no laws to punish crime, the party can indiscriminately
use torture, imprisonment, or vaporization on anyone whose thoughts or
actions indicate that they may commit a crime in the future.
The presence of telescreens in every room reminds citizens that they are
constantly being observed, and all live in fear that their neighbors,
coworkers, or even family members will report them to the Thought Police.
Another way the Party controls the minds of the people is by destroying
historical evidence that contradicts what the Party wishes the people to
believe: for instance, when the Party reduces the chocolate ration, it also
eliminates any information that would make it possible for anyone to verify
that the chocolate ration had once been larger.
Winston and his fellow employees in the Records Department are given
the task of rewriting news articles and other literature in order to bring the
written record into compliance with the version of history supported by the
Party, a never ending job, since the Party constantly changes facts in order
to support its policies.
Books that describe the past in a way that does not conform to Party
ideology are destroyed or translated into Newspeak, a form of English
designed by the Party to lack words that are considered unnecessary or
dangerous, and which thereby prevents revolutionary thoughts.
Sex, Love, and Loyalty
As Julia observes, the Party polices sexual relationships because it realizes
that the hysteria caused by sexual frustration can be harnessed into war
fever and leader-worship.
Because of this, when Winston and Julia make love they think of it as a
political act, "a blow struck against the Party.
"The sadistic fantasies Winston has about Julia before they begin their
affair indicate the strong link between sexual repression and violence.

 The red sash Julia wears and her voluptuous appearance arouses feelings
of hatred and resentment that only dissipate when he learns that he can
possess her physically.
Winston makes love with Julia, he realizes that it is "the force that would
tear the Party to pieces."
In place of heterosexual love, the Party substitutes leader-worship and
patriotic feeling: thus, when Winston betrays Julia under torture, he learns
to revere O'Brien and worship Big Brother.
Class Struggle
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, society is made up of three distinct social classes:
the elite Inner Party, the industrious Outer Party, and vast numbers of
uneducated proles.
When Winston reads Goldstein's book, he learns that the history of
humankind has been a cyclical struggle between competing social groups:
the High, the Middle, and the Low.
This theory was originated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 19th
century and became known as Marxism.
Marxists believe that the aim of the Middle group is to change places with
the High, which they do by enlisting the support of the Low group.
After the Middle group seizes power in a revolution, they become the High
and thrust the Low back into servitude.
Eventually a new Middle group splits off and the cycle begins again.
At various points in the narrative, Winston entertains the hope that the
proles will become conscious of their oppressed state and initiate a
revolution.
At other times, he despairs that since the proles cannot rebel until they
become conscious, and cannot become conscious until only after they
have rebelled, such a development is extremely unlikely.

THEMES IN METROPOLIS
The Individual vs. Collective Identity
One of the most impressive scenes features the flooding of the
underground workers' city. The film contains a scene where Maria retells a
variation of the story of the Tower of Babel from the Biblical book of
Genesis, but in a way that connects it to the situation she and her fellow
workers face.
The scene changes from Maria to creative men of antiquity deciding to
build a monument to the greatness of humanity and the creator of the
world, high enough to reach the stars.
Since they cannot build their monument by themselves, they concentrate
workers to build it for them for wages.
The camera focuses on armies of workers led to the construction site of
the monument. They work hard but cannot understand the dreams of the
Tower's designers, and the designers don't concern themselves with the
mind of their workers.
As the film explains, "The dreams of a few had turned to the curses of
many". It then ironically inverts the original story's conclusion, noting that

the planners and the workers spoke the same language but didn't
understand each other.
The workers revolt and in their fury destroy the monument.
As the scene ends and the camera returns to Maria, only ruins remain of
the Tower of Babel.
This retelling is notable in keeping the theme of the lack of communication
from the original story but placing it in the context of relations between
social classes and eliminating the presence of God.
Technology and its Effect on Humanity
The entire film is dominated by technology, with Lang using a mixture of
both 1920s and futuristic devices. Much of the technology portrayed in the
film is unexplained and appears bizarresuch as the enormous "MMachine" and the "Heart Machine".
Whilst the Heart Machine is implied to be the electrical power station of
the city and appears to be a kind of Wimshurst machine, the purpose of
the M-Machine is never revealed, despite it playing a significant part in the
film.
Early in the film there is a shot showing two unfamiliar types of clock: a 10
hour or metric clock and a clock with a 24 hour analog dial.
While Freder is in the subterranean factories, he swaps places with an
exhausted worker and takes over his seemingly pointless taskmoving
the dials of a gigantic clock-like device in accordance with flashing light
bulbs.
It is possible that the pointlessness of the task was purposeful in the
movie, yet the novel reveals that it runs the massive system of
Paternoster-lifts in the New Tower of Babel.
If so, the machine expresses an explicity Marxist idea of workers alienated
from their produce.
However, other machines featured in the film anticipate future inventions:
Joh Fredersen's office has a television-like device which allows him to
contact his overseers in the factories, and built into his desk is an
electronic console which allows him to remotely open doors, etc.
Also in his office is an automated electronic ticker-tape, with a weary and
frustrated clerk constantly writing down the latest stock market prices?
In the city itself, we see a mixture of futuristic monorails and airships
combined with 1920s-style cars and aircraft.
The ultimate expression of technology in the entire film is the female robot
built by Rotwang, referred to as the Maschinenmensch or "Machine
Human" although it is often translated as "Machine Man" in the US version.
In the original German version Rotwang's creation is a reconstruction of
his dead lover, a woman called Hel (a reference to the Norse goddess Hel).
Both Rotwang and Joh Fredersen were in love with her. She chose
Fredersen and became Freder's mother, though she died in childbirth.
Rotwang, insanely jealous and angry about her death, creates the
Maschinenmensch Hel.
In the US version, The Machine Man is merely a fully functioning
automaton which can be programmed to perform a variety of human
tasks, whilst its appearance can be synthesised to resemble any human
being.

Class Struggle
Dualism is a running theme amongst many of the characters, who
demonstrate that they cannot be confined to the rigid class system of the
city.
The workers are dehumanised, existing either as part of a mob or as workunits, almost part of the machines themselves (the shots of them working
do not let the viewer see their faces), and yet they are also human beings
who are being exploited.
Rotwang is an intelligent philosopher, in many ways far more prescient
than Joh Frederson, but also a crazed and selfish man who uses his skills
for his own purposes.
Joh Frederson cannot reconcile his role as leader of the city and as a
father, which leads him to make rash and damaging decisions.
Meanwhile, Maria expresses this theme most literally of all by being
physically replicated as a robot.
As such, the naive ideal of creating a simple and rigid system of life where
everyone fits neatly into their role is shown to be a fallacy.

Significant 1984 quotes:

"We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness." Part 1, Chapter 2,
pg. 27
"The past was dead, the future was unimaginable." Part 1, Chapter 2, pg.
28
"Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any
moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some
visible symptom." Part 1, Chapter 6, pg. 64
"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they
have rebelled they cannot become conscious." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 74
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is
granted, all else follows." Part 1, Chapter 7, pg. 84
"At the sight of the words I love you the desire to stay alive had welled up
in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid." Part 2,
Chapter 1, pg. 110-11
Quote 23: "to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under
the impression that they were buying something illegal." Part 2, Chapter 3,
pg. 132
"The proles, normally apathetic about the war, were being lashed into one
of their periodical frenzies of patriotism." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 150
"So long as they were actually in this room, they both felt, no harm could
come to them." Part 2, Chapter 5, pg. 152
"We control matter because we control the mind. Reality is inside the
skull." Part 3, Chapter 3, pg. 268
"Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don't care what you do to her.
Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!" Part 3,
Chapter 5, pg. 289
"But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He
had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." Part 3, Chapter 6,
pg. 300