George Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984 details the Party’s efforts to completely remake its citizens by destroying their ambitions and emotional attachments and replacing them with the Party’s goals. The main character, Winston Smith, realizes that the Party is destroying his individuality and tries, unsuccessfully, to rebel.
Orwell mentions a place called the “Ministry of Love” several times in the book before the reader ever actually sees what goes on there. Citizens suspect that it is a place where non-compliant citizens are taken for torture and interrogation for the purpose of punishment and information retrieval. They are correct about the torture and interrogation, but not about the reason for it.
A paradox is something that appears to contradict reason or expectation. The paradox here lies in the name “Ministry of Love.” Such a name implies that it should be a place that creates or administers love in some way, not a place that uses pain and humiliation to remake citizens. During Winston’s interrogation and brainwashing process, O’Brien reveals the true mission of the Ministry of Love:
By the time we had finished with them they were only the shells of men. There was nothing left in them except the sorrow for what they had done, and love of Big Brother.
Their goal is a bit of a paradox itself. To create this love of Big Brother, they must also eliminate love for anything else, so the Party goes to great pains to keep its people from forming loving relationships by stoking suspicion of others and blind adherence to Party goals.
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