ABSTRACT
In at least one sense George Orwell works within a major strand of English literary tradition. Like Defoe or Dickens before him, he assumes in his writing that there exists a social world external to and decisively impinging on our consciousness. Consequently he examines carefully social relations and status, for once he succeeds in showing ‘what happens’ to his characters within the social world, the reader may be able to surmise what is also happening inside the characters. It need hardly be added that the dominant strategy of modern writing, whether for ontological or internal literary considerations, is quite different from the one Orwell employs.
