At the end of
's novel , whenis sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he recalls meetingby
accident after their release from the Ministry of Love, "in the Park, on a vile, biting day
in March,...." Due to the psychological after-effects of his torture, culminating in his
"betrayal" of her when faced with the cage of rats, Winston Smith almost passes her by
without recognition, but at the last moment he turns to follow her. She is even more
unresponsive than he is, and merely tolerates his presence. She seems to have become physically
coarser as well as less responsive. Finally, they find seats and sit down to talk:
'I betrayed you,' she said baldly.
'I betrayed you,' he
said.
She gave him another quick look of dislike.
'Sometimes,' she said,
'they threaten you with something -- something you can't stand up to, can't even think
about.....'
It is plain that she has been treated the
same way that Winston Smith has been, and has also been sent to Room 101, though what her
ultimate fear was is never made plain. They admit to each other that their feelings are no
longer the same, and even though their last words are a promise to meet again, it is certain
that any future meeting will not be on their initiative. They have entirely lost interest in
each other.
Julia disappears in the crowd after this, and her ultimate fate
is not clear. However, since we know that Winston Smith is marked down for trial and execution
some time in the future (perhaps the very near future, since at the end of the novel he has
finally managed to love Big Brother), we can plausibly speculate that Julia is being preserved
to be a witness or a co-defendant at that future trial, and will be executed after it, just as
Winston Smith will be.
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