<P> You asked me once, what was in Room 101 . I told you that you knew the answer already . Everyone knows it . The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world . </P> <P> Such is the purported omniscience of the state in the society of Nineteen Eighty - Four that even a citizen's nightmares are known to the Party . The nightmare, and therefore the threatened punishment, of the protagonist Winston Smith is to be attacked by rats . This is manifested in Room 101 by confronting Smith with a wire cage that contains two large rats . The front of the cage is shaped so that it can fit over a person's face . A trap - door is then opened, allowing the rats to devour the victim's face . This cage is fitted over Smith's face, but he saves himself by begging the authorities to let his lover, Julia, suffer this torture instead of him . The threatened torture, and what Winston does to escape it, breaks his last promise to himself and to Julia: never to betray her . The book suggests that Julia is likewise subjected to her own worst fear (although it is not revealed what that fear is), and when she and Winston later meet in a park, he notices a scar on her forehead . The intent of threatening Winston with the rats was to force him into betraying the only person he loved and therefore to break his spirit . </P> <P> Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at Broadcasting House where he used to sit through tedious meetings . When the original room 101 at the BBC was due to be demolished, a plaster cast of it was made by artist Rachel Whiteread and displayed in the cast courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum from November 2003 until June 2004 . </P> <P> The Ministry of Peace (Newspeak: Minipax) serves as the war ministry of Oceania's government, and is in charge of the armed forces, mostly the navy and army . The Ministry of Peace may be the most vital organ of Oceania, seeing as the nation is supposedly at war continuously with either Eurasia or Eastasia and requires just the right force to not win the war, but keep it in a state of equilibrium . </P>

Where did the name room 101 come from