Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [720]

As Winston stood up O’Brien held out a hand. His powerful grip crushed the bones of Winston’s palm. At the door Winston looked back, but O’Brien seemed already to be in process of putting him out of mind. He was waiting with his hand on the switch that controlled the telescreen. Beyond him Winston could see the writing-table with its green-shaded lamp and the speakwrite and the wire baskets deep-laden with papers. The incident was closed. Within thirty seconds, it occurred to him, O’Brien would be back at his interrupted and important work on behalf of the Party. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 720

Note

Closing image: the ritual handshake (‘crushed the bones’) followed instantly by O’Brien’s hand moving to the switch that restores the telescreen, re-absorbing him into Party work ‘within thirty seconds.’ The ambivalence—Winston’s devotion to O’Brien set against the cold resumption of official duties—is a compressed premonition of the novel’s end.