Why the wait?

[Walter White]

If Winston and Julia had the telescreen watching them the whole time, and were truly caught from the beginning of their relationship, why do the Thought Police wait so long to arrest them? :piggy:

[kev67]

Could be that there was no great urgency. Winston & Julia weren't going anywhere. They weren't actually doing anything dangerous to the state as yet. O'Brien may have been finishing off interrogating some other poor wretch. Another possibility is that the thought police wanted Winston & Julia to incriminate themselves thoroughly before the interrogation. Maybe they even wanted their love for each other to develop so that they could traumatise them more by turning them against each other. The inner party was very cynical. It may have appealed to them to be able to explain to Winston exactly what was wrong with the party, which they did by passing him that secret book, before breaking his mind so that he cannot think it any more,

The thought police have some discretion. They seemed to have rewarded Winston by allowing him a table at The Chestnut Cafe, maybe because he put up such a good show, maybe as an example to others. Not everyone seems to have been awarded a place, his colleague Symes for example. However there are only so many tables at the cafe, so they are allowing him to drink himself to death.

[The Atheist]

The reason for the wait is to enable the Thought Police to know everything about W & J, especially their fears. Had they captured the pair at the start of the relationship, they might not have known about Winston's phobic reaction to rats.

[The Atheist]

The thought police have some discretion. They seemed to have rewarded Winston by allowing him a table at The Chestnut Cafe, maybe because he put up such a good show, maybe as an example to others. Not everyone seems to have been awarded a place, his colleague Symes for example. However there are only so many tables at the cafe, so they are allowing him to drink himself to death.

We never know what happened to Syme, other than he's an unperson, which is presumably what Winston is as well at the end.

O'Brien puts it neatly when he explains to Winston that having him killed straight off would be a blemish in the perfection of the Party, so he must love BB to be able to be vaporised. I think the logical assumption is that Winston is indeed killed shortly after the end of the book, once he has realised his goal of unconditional love of BB.