In 1984, does Julia truly love Winston?

This is an
interesting question.  is told from 's point of view so that we never
really get inside 's head. How do we even know what love means to her? What we know is that she
is a down-to-earth, pragmatic person who wants to have a good time. She doesn't care about
politics and doesn't share Winston's passionate interest in history. So it would be easy for to
her to see her affair with Winston as just another in a long line of casual flings that perk up
her life. We would also be suspicious of her love if we heard about it secondhand from Winston:
after it, it would be what he most wanted to believe--and Julia would have an interest in having
him believe it as well.

Yet the novel offers evidence that Julia is indeed in
love with Winston. First, when the two of them go to 's apartment to talk about rebelling,
O'Brien asks them a series of questions about what they are willing to do to overthrow the
state. They easily say yes to a list of questions that include murder and throwing acid in a
child's face. However, when it comes to being torn apart from Winston, Julia's response suddenly
changes:

€˜You are prepared, the two of you, to separate
and never see one another again?

€˜No! broke in Julia.

The vehemence of her refusal to be separated from Winston suggests
that she really is in love with him. At the end of the book, another strong hint emerges that
Julia was once in love with Winston. She alludes to her torture when they run into each other
and says that when faced with her ultimate fear she wanted to betray Winston:

You WANT it to happen to the other person. You dont give a damn what
they suffer. All you care about is yourself.

€˜All you care about is
yourself, he echoed.

€˜And after that, you dont feel the same towards the
other person any longer.

€˜No, he said, €˜you dont feel the same.

Her words, "you don't feel the same" indicate that she
was once in love, but after her betrayal of Winston, a deep shock to her, she can't be anymore.
The Party has broken that most intimate of bonds, the love they shared, and that has helped to
destroy them both.