Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [813]

A man stooped to obey. The cockney accent had disappeared; Winston suddenly realized whose voice it was that he had heard a few moments ago on the telescreen. Mr Charrington was still wearing his old velvet jacket, but his hair, which had been almost white, had turned black. Also he was not wearing his spectacles. He gave Winston a single sharp glance, as though verifying his identity, and then paid no more attention to him. He was still recognisable, but he was not the same person any longer. His body had straightened, and seemed to have grown bigger. His face had undergone only tiny changes that had nevertheless worked a complete transformation. The black eyebrows were less bushy, the wrinkles were gone, the whole lines of the face seemed to have altered; even the nose seemed shorter. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 813

Note

The unmasking of Charrington is done entirely through manufactured costume — hair dye, posture, the dropping of an accent — so that ‘identity’ itself is revealed as a performance the Thought Police don. The inventory of tiny changes (‘even the nose seemed shorter’) reads like a stage makeup checklist, literalizing the idea that the friendly antique dealer was never a person but a disguise.