In Chapter 1 of Book 1 of 1984, a glance between Winston and O’Brien assures Winston that he has found an ally. Is Winston’s perspective convincing?

Winston says he knows that O’Brien shares his contempt for the Party, but the reader may harbor doubts that O’Brien is really an ally. Readers do learn in Chapter 2 that Winston had a dream years prior in which O’Brien said to him, “We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness.” That dream and O’Brien’s statement in it have helped to convince Winston that O’Brien is an ally. The careful reader will wonder, however, if the image of the place where there is no darkness is a hopeful place or one of danger. Orwell may be giving the reader, and Winston, hope for the future. Or he may be foreshadowing a terrible fate.