In 1984, Winston's dreams are significant in the fact that they reveal facts that are otherwise impossible to discern. One of the first things he dreams about are his are the death of his mother, which he remembers to be a tragedy of kind that was no longer possible. Then he dreams about the dark haired girl and fantasizes having sex with her in the countryside, which actually does come to pass. In this chapter, we discover that Winston has been having another dream, a nightmare, that he directly associates with rats. In his dream "He was standing in front of a wall of darkness, and on the other side of it there was something unendurable, something to dreadful to be faced" (Orwell). The wall of darkness could represent some aspect of the party which Winston does not full understand simply because he is too terrified by the truth. Behind the darkness could be "the place without darkness" that O'Brian told him about in a dream, possibly foreshadowing some terrible meeting with O'Brian.
Winston's fear of rats may be linked to his indoctrination by the party. Going out in secret and disobeying some of the party's most sacred rules makes him feel as if he is moving through the underside of society and has become an unclean vermin like a rat. The terror of his dream may be derived from the fact that he believes that he is leaving the darkness and will face the same fate as a rat that comes out into the light.
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