The goal of a totalitarian state is "to fabricate something that does not exist, namely, a kind of human species resembling other animal species whose only 'freedom' would consist in 'preserving the species'" (Arendt 438). Orwell's work exemplifies Arendt's thesis, as according to critic Martin Kessler, "It [1984] is merely the twentieth-century totalitarian state made absolute by carrying the political principles of twentieth-century totalitarianism to their logical conclusion" (305). Orwell's work describes a nightmarish view of the future, one in which the world has come to be ruled by three totalitarian nation-states. The world of 1984 is bleak: individualism is utterly suppressed under the reign of terror of the Thought Police. In this setting, Orwell's work details the efforts of one individual, Winston Smith, to resist, to retain a personal sense of uniqueness. In keeping with this goal, Smith places his trust in the hands of O'Brien, a mysterious Inner Party member who ultimately proves Winston's nemesis as an agent of the Thought Police. In the end, Winston is crushed by the state, tortured to the point that he ceases to have any unique consciousness, and becomes a shell of a man before his execution. .
The first "essential step on the road to total domination" (Arendt 447) of Arendt's progression involves the destruction of the "juridical person" in a man. This involves a complete annihilation of the concept of rights, in effect making individuals stateless persons. According to Arendt, .
The aim of an arbitrary system is to destroy the civil rights of the whole population, who ultimately become just as .
outlawed in their own country as the stateless and homeless. The destruction of a man's rights. . .is a prerequisite .
for dominating him entirely (451). .
This elimination of rights is accomplished in part through the imprisonment of innocents alongside criminals, for to imprison only criminals would imply a logical, clearly defined system of right and wrong, of crime and punishment.
