Chapter III
Winston drifts into a vivid dream in which his mother—tall, statuesque, silent, with fair hair—and his infant sister are trapped in a sinking, water‑filled saloon beneath him. He perceives their death as a sacrificial act that allowed his own survival, noting the absence of reproach in their faces. The dream shifts to a sun‑lit meadow he later names the “Golden Country,” an old rabbit‑bitten pasture with a stream, elms, and a dark‑haired girl who strips off her clothes in a gesture that seems to annihilate the Party’s power. He awakens with the word “Shakespeare” on his lips as the telescreen blares a whistle at 07:15, announcing the start of the Physical Jerks. Naked, he scrambles for a singlet and shorts, then endures a violent coughing fit that leaves his lungs empty and his varicose ulcer itching. The drill instructor, a scrawny but muscular woman in a tunic, commands the “Thirty to forty” group through arm‑bending exercises, pushing Winston to touch his toes despite his pain.
While exercising, Winston struggles to retrieve memories of his early childhood beyond the late 1950s. He recalls a vague period of peace, a sudden air raid that surprised everyone—perhaps an atomic bomb over Colchester—and a frantic escape with his father’s hand gripping his as they descended a spiral staircase into a tube station. There his mother, carrying a bundle that may have been his baby sister, joins them. In the crowded station he notices an old man in a dark suit, white hair, blue tear‑filled eyes, reeking of gin, repeatedly lamenting that they “shouldn’t have trusted ’em.” An old woman sits beside the man. The scene leaves Winston with the impression of an unspeakable tragedy.
Later, in the exercise hall, Winston reflects on the Party’s ever‑shifting wartime alliances—Oceania’s current war with Eurasia, its recent switch from an alliance with Eurasia to one with Eastasia, and the Party’s denial of any past changes. He contemplates the slogan “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,” realizing that the Party’s power to rewrite history is a terror greater than torture. This leads him into a deep analysis of doublethink, the conscious induction of unconsciousness, and the paradox of simultaneously holding contradictory beliefs. The chapter ends with the instructor urging the troops to touch their toes, praising her own fitness as a mother of four, and Winston, exhausted and sweating, succeeding for the first time in years.