Happiness

Orwell had mixed views on happiness. He cast it as the fundamental goal of socialism, but he also denied that socialism had anything to do with happiness. This chapter studies the grounds for such ambivalence. The misgivings stemmed in part from the basic psychology of happiness—in Orwell’s mind, at least, it often appeared to be too subjective, too ephemeral, and too contingent to serve as a viable public end. He believed, moreover, that its pursuit was self-undermining: the best means of eroding happiness was to make it the be-all and end-all of everything. Orwell also worried that happiness was incompatible with virtue. The chapter explores his moral and political criticisms of hedonism, but it also considers his conviction that pleasure had a key role to play in the good life. How these theories may have shaped his own colourful life is the concluding concern of the chapter.