But not by forcing each to betray the other (which no one could blame them for considering the torture they were threatened with).
It broke them by making them realize they WANTED to betray each other in order to avoid the threat of torture. It wasn't an unwilling response to pain, it was a desperate need to do so. Most of us realize that when faced with torture we'll talk, sooner or later(usually sooner). What we don't realize is that we'll not only confess to the inquisitor what he wants to know, but what he thinks he wants to know, anything to make the threat go away, even our own view of reality.
That is the ultimate victory of the Party. Not that you have been punished, but that you desired to be punished. After that, the bullet is nothing.
When faced with the rats, there is no objective reality, there is only fear.
Science Fiction » in reply to It definitely looks familiar.
The Party broke both Winston and Julia.
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- 1984 (spoilers)