All 3 Uses of
delirium
in
1984 by Orwell
- In the Two Minutes Hate he could not help sharing in the general delirium, but this sub-human chanting of 'B-B! … B-B!' always filled him with horror.
p. 17..0 (definition 1)delirium = intense excitement
- …the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces —
p. 180..3 (definition 1) *
- He was not any longer in the narrow white corridors in the Ministry of Love, he was in the enormous sunlit passage, a kilometre wide, down which he had seemed to walk in the delirium induced by drugs.
p. 279..9 (definition 2) *delirium = mental confusion
Definitions:
-
(1) (delirium as in: delirious with joy) a state of having been taken over by excitement or emotion
-
(2) (delirium as in: fever induced delirium) a usually brief state of mental confusion often accompanied by hallucinationseditor's notes: Delirium can result from high fever, intoxication, withdrawal, brain injury, and many other causes.