Orwell, George — Nineteen eighty-four [893]

It was O’Brien who was directing everything. It was he who set the guards onto Winston and who prevented them from killing him. It was he who decided when Winston should scream with pain, when he should have a respite, when he should be fed, when he should sleep, when the drugs should be pumped into his arm. It was he who asked the questions and suggested the answers. He was the tormentor, he was the protector, he was the inquisitor, he was the friend. — Orwell, George, Nineteen eighty-four, 893

Note

The anaphoric syntax (‘It was he who…’) binds every impulse of the body and mind to a single unseen director, collapsing the distinct roles of persecutor and savior — foreshadowing how the interrogator both internalizes and embodies the panoptic watcher.