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How would you evaluate Winston's tryst with Julia in regard to his dream of the golden country in 1984 by George Orwell?

In some ways, Winston's dream of the golden country mirrors his tryst with Julia. In the dream, just as in reality, Winston finds himself in a rabbit-bitten pasture with molehills here and there, and a dark haired girl comes toward him. As he dreams, she rips off her clothes in what Winston calls a gesture that seems to "annihilate" the whole Party system of Big Brother. In the real tryst, although they have moved to...

In some ways, Winston's dream of the golden country mirrors his tryst with Julia. In the dream, just as in reality, Winston finds himself in a rabbit-bitten pasture with molehills here and there, and a dark haired girl comes toward him. As he dreams, she rips off her clothes in what Winston calls a gesture that seems to "annihilate" the whole Party system of Big Brother. In the real tryst, although they have moved to a more secluded spot than in the dream, Julia still rips off her clothes in what Winston sees as a "magnificent" gesture that again annihilates a whole culture. 


While dreaming, Winston feels no sexual desire for the dark-haired girl, but in the real encounter, he does desire her, all the more so because Julia has had affairs with "scores of" men, a symbol of her rejection of the Party's values. In the dream, Winston wakes up with the word "Shakespeare" on his lips, but in the real encounter, he feels arising in him a feeling of tenderness and protectiveness towards Julia that he doesn't experience in the dream.


Since Winston had seen Julia before their tryst, it seems likely she is the dark-haired girl of his dream, whether he knows it or not. It is a bit uncanny that his real first encounter with her follows the dream so closely, but the significant difference is that the real encounter awakens human feelings in him that the Party has worked to eradicate. Winston's dream is just a dream, but his real encounter begins to change him.

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