What is a telescreen?

A telescreen in 1984 is a wall-mounted surveillance and propaganda device that lets the Party speak to citizens while giving the Thought Police the power to watch and listen to them.

Winston’s telescreen is embedded in the wall of his flat and cannot be shut off, though its sound can be lowered. When he enters his apartment, it is already broadcasting production figures about pig iron. Because Winston knows the device may be monitoring him, he keeps his back turned to it and carefully controls his facial expression. The uncertainty is part of its power: “It was conceivable that they watched everybody all the time.” Citizens have to behave as if they are always under observation, since “every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”

The telescreen also spreads Party propaganda. During the Two Minutes Hate, it broadcasts Emmanuel Goldstein as an enemy figure, then shows Big Brother and the Party slogans. Later, it announces military victories and changes in rations, helping the Party impose its version of reality on the public.

The apparent absence of a telescreen in the room above Mr. Charrington’s shop makes that room seem private to Winston and Julia, which is why it becomes their hiding place. That sense of privacy is false, however: the picture of the church conceals a telescreen, and the lovers are arrested after a voice speaks from behind it. The telescreen is therefore one of the clearest instruments of the Party’s rule in 1984: it enforces propaganda, fear, and surveillance so completely that private life itself becomes nearly impossible.