Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [544]

It struck him that when one lived with a woman this particular disappointment must be a normal, recurring event; and a deep tenderness, such as he had not felt for her before, suddenly took hold of him. He wished that they were a married couple of ten years’ standing. He wished that he were walking through the streets with her just as they were doing now, but openly and without fear, talking of trivialities and buying odds and ends for the household. He wished above all that they had some place where they could be alone together without feeling the obligation to make love every time they met. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 544

Note

The revolution here is domestic — the wish for ordinary married boredom, for triviality, for a room without the obligation of love. Orwell makes the ‘crime’ a radical normalcy, which Party life has rendered unattainable.