Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [801]

It was starting, it was starting at last! They could do nothing except stand gazing into one another’s eyes. To run for life, to get out of the house before it was too late – no such thought occurred to them. Unthinkable to disobey the iron voice from the wall. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 801

Note

The repetition of ‘it was starting’ converts the moment of capture from tragedy into something nearer relief — the doom finally arriving. The factual flatness of ‘no such thought occurred to them’ followed by ‘Unthinkable to disobey the iron voice’ dramatizes the internalized panopticon: the watcher need do nothing but speak, and the watched render themselves immobile.