Winston is a 39-year-old Outer Party member who works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where he alters historical documents to match current propaganda. He suffers from a persistent varicose ulcer on his ankle and harbors a deep, private hatred for Oceania's oppressive regime. Despite knowing the deadly risks, he secretly documents his unorthodox thoughts in a diary, longing for intellectual freedom and a connection to the pre-revolutionary past.

Julia is a 26-year-old Outer Party member who works in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. She wears the red sash of the Junior Anti-Sex League, presenting an outward adherence to Party expectations. Beneath her zealous public persona, she harbors a practical rebelliousness and actively seeks out illicit affairs as a form of personal defiance against the Party's strict rules.

O’Brien is a high-ranking Inner Party member, granting him access to privileges like better living conditions, actual wine, and the ability to turn off his telescreen. He carries himself with a certain grace and has a habit of gently adjusting his spectacles. His vague but imposing presence causes Winston to project his own hopes of an anti-Party conspiracy onto him.

Big Brother is the symbolic figurehead and supreme leader of Oceania's ruling Party. Described as a roughly 45-year-old man with a heavy black mustache and ruggedly handsome features, his image is ubiquitous across London. He never makes a physical appearance, functioning instead as the omnipresent focal point for the citizens' mandated devotion.

Mr. Charrington is a seemingly harmless elderly man who runs a secondhand store in the proletariat sector of London. He shares Winston's appreciation for pre-revolutionary history and antique objects, specifically a glass paperweight enclosing a piece of coral. He offers Winston a room above his shop to rent, providing a rare space without a visible telescreen.

Syme is an enthusiastic philologist and coworker of Winston at the Ministry of Truth. He specializes in creating the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak Dictionary, a project dedicated to shrinking the language to eliminate the possibility of unorthodox thought. He is highly intelligent and speaks plainly about the Party's goals regarding language destruction.

Parsons is an Outer Party member who lives in the same apartment building as Winston and works at the Ministry of Truth. He is a dull, sweaty, and entirely uncritical man who accepts all Party propaganda without question. He takes immense pride in his children's involvement in the Spies organization and their fierce loyalty to the Party.

Mrs. Parsons is Winston's neighbor in Victory Mansions. She is a tired, frightened woman who lives in a rundown apartment. Her daily life is characterized by an underlying fear of her own children, who have been heavily indoctrinated by the Party to report any suspicious behavior to the authorities.

Katharine is Winston's estranged wife, whom he has not seen for roughly a decade. She is a highly orthodox Party member who parrots Ingsoc slogans and lacks the capacity for independent thought. She viewed marriage and physical intimacy purely as an uncomfortable duty required by the Party to produce children.

Emmanuel Goldstein is the principal enemy of the state in Oceania and the alleged leader of the Brotherhood, a shadowy underground resistance movement. He is the purported author of a banned manifesto that explains the systemic nature of the global totalitarian regimes. His face is broadcast daily to incite rage among the populace.