Room 101

This page is about the room in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. For the TV and radio series of the same name, see Room 101 (TV series) and Room 101 (Radio series) respectively.

Room 101 is a place introduced in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. He named it after a conference room at BBC Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings.

You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.

- O'Brien

Room 101 is a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love in which a prisoner is subjected to his or her own worst nightmare, i.e. his or her greatest fear or phobia. Such is the omniscience of the state in the society of Nineteen Eighty-Four that even a citizen's nightmares are known to the authorities. The nightmare—and therefore the threatened punishment—of the protagonist Winston Smith is to be attacked by rats. Smith saves himself by begging the authorities to let his lover, Julia, have her face gnawed out by the ferocious rodents instead. The torture—and what Winston does to escape it—breaks his last promise to himself and to Julia; never to betray her emotionally. The book suggests that Julia is likewise subjected to her own worst fear, when she and Winston later meet up in a park, he notices the scars on her cheeks. The original intent of threatening Winston with the rats was not necessarily to go through with the act, but to force him into betraying the only person he loved and therefore break his spirit.

Cultural impact

The novel's popularity has resulted in the term "Room 101" being referenced in many fictional works and use as a term to refer to a place where unpleasant things are kept. On the TV show Room 101, celebrities are interviewed and asked to list their pet hates, which are then condemned to the room at the discretion of the host.

References in popular culture include a locked room in the computer game Half Life 2 and multiple areas of this name in The Matrix. In the 2005 series of Big Brother (UK), a housemate was required to enter a Room 101 to complete tedious and unpleasant tasks, including sorting different colours of maggots. 101 is also the number of Bill's apartment in the final scene of the film Kill Bill: Vol. 2. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, the physical location of Room 101 (and the Ministry of Love) is given as the MI6 headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.

Erich Mielke, the last chairman of the State Security Service (Stasi) of the former GDR, moved his office into the Room 101 of the Stasi Building in the eastern part of Berlin. Mielke was a great admirer of Orwell's novel.