(3) On the one side we have the free personality: by definition it is not neurotic, for it has neither conflict nor dream. The essay focused on political language, which, according to Orwell, 'is designed. George Orwell’s brilliant guide to writing well. This invasion of one's mind by ready-made phrases (lay the foundations, achieve a radical transformation) can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of one's brain. ' Politics and the English Language ' (1946) is an essay by George Orwell that criticised the 'ugly and inaccurate' written English of his time and examined the connection between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language.

I open it at random, and here is almost the first sentence I see: ' have an opportunity not only of achieving a radical transformation of Germany's social and political structure in such a way as to avoid a nationalistic reaction in Germany itself, but at the same time of laying the foundations of a co-operative and unified Europe.' You see, he 'feels impelled' to write - feels, presumably, that he has something new to say - and yet his words, like cavalry horses answering the bugle, group themselves automatically into the familiar dreary pattern. The author tells me that he 'felt impelled' to write it. By this morning's post I have received a pamphlet dealing with conditions in Germany. Look back through this essay, and for certain you will find that I have again and again committed the very faults I am protesting against. Phrases like a not unjustifiable assumption, leaves much to be desired, would serve no good purpose, a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind, are a continuous temptation, a packet of aspirins always at one's elbow. The debased language that I have been discussing is in some ways very convenient. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better. “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

Orwell language