Rats symbolize Winston’s biggest fear. He has an unnatural terror of them. We first witness this in the “shabby little room” above Mr. Charrington’s shop. Julia casually mentions seeing a rat in the room. When Julia begins describing the way rats attack babies in the London streets, Winston cries “DON’T GO ON!” and says, “Of all the horrors in the world—a rat!” At the end of the novel, when O’Brien threatens to let a large, hungry brown rat devour his face, this is enough to cause Winston to betray (rat out?) his beloved, screaming to O’Brien, “Do it to Julia!”
Since Winston Smith symbolizes Everyman, or the ordinary person, the rats represent whatever deepest fear lurks inside a person's heart. Orwell undermines the heroic gesture by saying that our deepest fears are stronger than our deepest love or deepest loyalty. In the end, we can all be broken; we can all betray our deepest ideals. But at the same time, Orwell never condemns Winston and Julia for their violation of each other, seeming to understand that every human has a limit to what he or she can endure.
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