"...anyone who should suggest..." — does "should" differ from "would"?

Question

The following piece is from 1984:

For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it fanatically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down, denounce, and vaporize anyone who should suggest that last week the ration had been thirty grammes.

What does should suggest exactly mean here? If we were to replace should with would, would the meaning of the sentence change in any way?

Answer 1

In this context, "should" is also a hypothetical that means "would dare to". It's frequently used in a negative way, to suggest some action is unreasonable or unthinkable. For example:

It's absurd that anyone should claim my client did anything wrong.

"Would" does fit the context, but has a different meaning. "Would expresses a simple hypothetical that, in this case suggests something like:

If anyone questioned the news story, the "eyeless creature" would viciously attack them.

"Should" is a stronger statement that suggests if anyone dared to question the story, the man would want to attack them.

Although I have no numbers to prove it, this use of "should" sounds more British than American. Americans tend to use "should" only in its meaning of obligation or requirement, such as "You should do your homework before you go out and play."

As an example, Cambridge dictionary lists, "I should think so/not!" as a UK expression.

Answer 2

In this usage, should is acting to indicate a hypothetical. A common phrase that uses this usage is "if you should happen to".

"I'm going to the shops. Do you want anything?"
"Yes, we need some vegetables for dinner. If you should happen to see any spinach, that would be perfect."

In a sense, it is acting in a subjunctive manner, though people can debate a lot about what counts as a subjunctive in English - because we don't actually have true subjunctive forms.

In this case, it means that if anyone were to suggest that the ration had previously been thirty grammes[sic], the "eyeless creature" would vaporise them.