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List of Animal Farm characters
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This is a list of characters in the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell. Major Animals Snowball Snowball is a fictional pig in the book Animal Farm written by George Orwell. He is based on Leon Trotsky. Snowball believes in a continued revolution: he argues that in order to defend Animal Farm and strengthen the reality of Old Major's dream of an England without humans, the animals should stir up rebellions in other farms throughout England, and ultimately the world. He continues striving for the betterment of the Animal Farm. He tries to accomplish this through many failed committees, like the Clean Tails League for the cows. Napoleon is shown to have been Snowball's enemy from the very start of the revolution, disagreeing with almost all of Snowball's ideas. For example, when Snowball proposes inspiring more revolutions on other farms in order to protect Animal Farm (similar to Trotsky's idea of Permanent Revolution), Napoleon proposes learning to use firearms and other more advanced weapons. When Snowball actively organizes the animals into groups of committees, Napoleon simply states that the education of the young is all that was needed. This creates conflict between each other. Snowball also writes the first version of the Seven Commandments. These are later altered by Squealer under the orders of Napoleon to accommodate the actions of the pigs. For example, the commandment stating "No animal shall drink alcohol" is changed to "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess," and was later removed. Old Major Old Major (also called Willingdon Beauty, his name used when showing) is the first major character described by George Orwell in Animal Farm. This "purebred" of pigs is a kind, grandfatherly philosopher of change. According to Christopher Hitchens: "the persons of Lenin and Trotsky are combined into one , or, it might even be truer to say, there is no Lenin-pig at all". Old Major proposes a solution to the animals' desperate plight on Manor Farm under the Jones administration (representing the czar and autocracy) and he inspires thoughts of a rebellion of sorts among the animals or calls them comrades. The actual time of the revolt is unsaid; it could be tomorrow or several generations down the road. Old Major's "Barn-Yard Speech" at the very onset of the story could be a reference to the Communist Manifesto. Old Major dies shortly after delivering his speech and the animals, stirred up by this speech, set to work immediately on the bringing about of the Rebellion. Shortly after his death, the animals rise in revolt and oust the humans from power. This rebellious act is so quick that many don't realize it happened until it is over. The animals drive Jones and the farmhands off of the farm and remove many of the implements of his rule. The Seven Commandments that Snowball had transcribed, that were supposed to encompass Old Major's general philosophy, are gradually altered and deformed under Napoleon until they come to entirely different meanings than were originally intended. Also, "Beasts of England", the song that came to Old Major in his dream, was later banned on Animal Farm by Napoleon, at which time it was replaced by "Comrade Napoleon", a hymn composed by Minimus the pig that pledges allegiance to Animal Farm and to work to protect it. In both film adaptations, Major dies while provoking the animals into rebelling. In the 1954 adaption, he dies suddenly while the animals are singing. The 1999 version is even more unfaithful- Jones slips in mud while investigating the sounds coming from the barn, fires his shotgun, and indirectly hits Major in his backside, killing him. With Animal Farm being parallel to the formation of the Soviet Union, Old Major was based on both Lenin and Marx. The animals hold him in high esteem, and dig up his skull and walk past it and salute it every day, much as Lenin's body was preserved and is kept on display in Moscow. Towards the end of the story Napoleon announces that he had buried the skull. Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto, died before the first communist revolution, much as Old Major, founder of Animalism, dies before the Animal Farm revolution. His body was saluted by the soldiers every day, even after the rebellion. This show of respect was a sign that the animals remembered their roots and the roots of the Rebellion. Old Major was very much honored in this way because he was the idealist behind the Rebellion and initiated the work towards it. Napoleon Napoleon is a fictional character and the main antagonist in George Orwell's Animal Farm. While he is at first a common farm pig, he gets rid of Snowball, another pig which shares the power. He then takes advantage of the animals' uprising against their masters to eventually become the tyrannical "President of Animal Farm," which he turns into a dictatorship. Eventually, he becomes a corrupted dictator and exploits the other animals through violence and tyranny. Napoleon was based on Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years. However, his name comes from that of the French general Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Orwell considered to be a repressive powerseeker and dictator. In the French version of the book, he was renamed César (Caesar). He was a Berkshire pig. From the start, he is made out to be a villain. Napoleon fights along with fellow pig Snowball to free the farm from human control, but afterwards is shown engaging in suspicious activity, such as drinking the milk the animals had gathered, and taking Bluebell and Jessie's puppies for himself. Napoleon chooses the date of the meeting concerning the farm's new windmill to turn on his former comrade and seize control of the farm; this mirrors the relationship between Stalin and Leon Trotsky. Trotsky supported Permanent Revolution (just as Snowball advocated overthrowing other farm owners), while Stalin supported Socialism in One Country (similar to Napoleon's idea of teaching the animals to use firearms). Later on, after ostracizing Snowball, Napoleon ordered the construction of the windmill, which had been designed by Snowball and which he had opposed vigorously (just as Stalin opposed Trotsky's push for large scale industrialization, then adopted it as a policy when Trotsky was in exile), so as to show the animals that he could be just as inventive as Snowball. When the primitive windmill collapses due to Napoleon's poor planning, a reference to Stalin's backward approach to the Five-Year Plans, he blames Snowball and starts a wave of terror. During this period he orders the execution of several of the animals after coercing their "confessions" of wrongdoing. He also changes the Seven Commandments' prohibition against killing, drinking, and sleeping in beds. He then commands the building of a second, stronger windmill while severely cutting rations to all of the animals — except the pigs and dogs. He later makes a deal with Frederick (similar to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact shortly before World War II); Frederick tricks Napoleon by paying him for the timber with counterfeit money and then invading the farm, much as Germany broke its pact with the Soviet Union and invaded. During the Battle of the Windmill, the windmill is destroyed, but the animals win, although they pay a high price. Napoleon attempts to cover the losses by stating it was a grand victory for the animals. While Napoleon exhorts the other animals to fight and die for the good of the farm, he himself is a coward and a lazy one at that, in contrast to Snowball, who was more concerned with the welfare of his animal friends rather than his power. Nonetheless, Napoleon's corrupt historical revisionism rewrites himself as a hero, claiming responsibility for the animal's victory during the Battle of the Cowshed when in reality it was Snowball who had performed heroic acts in this battle, though his acts are denigrated to bold-faced lies of him collaborating with Jones all along. Ultimately, Napoleon becomes a tyrannical, oppressive dictator and seems to become one of the cruel humans through his adoption of human ways. At the end of the novel he has decided to abolish the use of 'comrade,' and declares that the farm shall revert to its original name of Manor Farm, reflecting the farm's change of status going back to the beginning. In the end of the 1954 film, Napoleon wears dictator-like clothing and pictures of him are put up. On top of this, it seems that he is ultimately defeated by a horde of animals who destroy the farmhouse's dining room, where he and the other pigs are having a meeting. The animals looked from man to pig, pig to man and from man to pig again finding no difference what so ever. However, in the book, the novel ends with Napoleon meeting with Pilkington of Foxwood farm. The pigs have become so much like humans, both in behavior and appearance, that the animals watching through a window from the outside cannot tell man and pig apart. Squeaker Squealer is a fictional pig from George Orwell's Animal Farm. He is described in the book to be an effective and very convincing orator. Squealer, a persuasive pig, uses propaganda throughout the novel, and he displays it to all of the animals and to comrade Napoleon. In Animal Farm, the pigs could be identified with Soviet leaders of the time. Napoleon symbolizes Stalin and Snowball may symbolize Trotsky. Squealer's human counterpart may be obscure. Squealer may represent propaganda overall, as he was the key spokesman for the pigs. His persuasive language and demeanor and re-interpretations of facts illustrates the power of propaganda to control under- and un-educated people. Squealer may specifically represent the state-run newspaper Pravda. This interpretation fails to associate Squealer with a specific figure in Stalin's inner circle. He could represent Molotov, fitting with Orwell's description of and central role given to Squealer. Squealer is a close companion and protégé of Napoleon; Molotov was a close companion and protégé of Stalin. Squealer serves mainly as Napoleon's "propaganda minister"; Molotov was Stalin's Prime Minister (1930-1939) and Foreign Minister (1939-1949) and frequent spokesman. When the animals suspect the pigs are breaking the Seven Commandments, Squealer justifies their actions. For instance, when the other animals question the pigs' taking the milk and apples, Squealer reassures them that milk and apples are vital to pigs' health, that the pigs are not acting out of selfishness, and that Mr. Jones may return if the pigs didn't hog the milk and apples. In a similar vein, Molotov was an apologist for Stalin, rationalizing Stalin's tyranny as being in the best interests of the people. Throughout the book, Squealer justifies his arguments using his great powers of persuasion, his eloquent words, and his charismatic intellect. His foundation for many of his arguments is that the animals do not want Mr. Jones back in power in the farm, and therefore must support Napoleon. He devises various other reasons to convince the other animals of the farm to believe him, backing them up with claims of scientific evidence (for example, apples and milk), recently discovered "documentary evidence" (proving the complicity of Snowball in working with the enemy) and using difficult reasoning, which confused the other animals. Squealer takes the central role in making announcements to the animals, as Napoleon appears less and less often as the book progresses. Throughout the book, Napoleon and Squealer break the Seven Commandments, the tenets on which governance of the farm is based. To prevent the animals from suspecting them, Squealer preys on the animals' stupidity and alters the Commandments from time to time as the need arises. This is proven on page 73 of the British version when Squealer falls off the ladder while trying to change the commandments in the night. A few days later it is discovered that Squealer was altering the commandment regarding alcohol which suggests the reason he fell off the ladder was because he was drunk at the time. Orwell uses Squealer to mainly show how some governments and politicians use propaganda to get their ideas accepted and implemented by the people. In the end, Squealer reduces the Seven Commandments into one commandment, that "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Boxer Boxer is a fictional character, a horse, present in George Orwell's Animal Farm. He is the farm's most hard-working and loyal worker. Boxer serves as an allegory for the Russian working class who helped to oust the Tsar and establish the Soviet Union, but were eventually betrayed by the Stalinists. Boxer fights very bravely in the Battle of the Cowshed, and the Battle of the Windmill, but is upset when he thinks he has killed a stable lad when, in fact, he had only stunned him. When Boxer defends Snowball's reputation from revisionism, the pigs designate the workhorse as a target for the Great Purge, but he easily outmuscles the dog executioners, sparing them at Napoleon's request. His death shows how far the pigs are willing to go — when he collapses from overwork, the pigs say they have sent him to a veterinarian, when they sent him to the knacker's yard to be slaughtered, in exchange for money to buy a case of whiskey for the pigs. A strong and loyal draft horse, Boxer played a huge part in keeping the Farm together prior to his death, and was the only close friend of Benjamin, the cynical donkey. During Old Major's speech, which inspired the principles of Animalism, a specific reference is made to how he would be turned into glue under Jones' rule, thus implying that it would not happen to him under Animalism. This is possibly a further decline from Animalism to Napoleon's government. Boxer is quite dim; he can only remember the first four letters of the alphabet; he is partly illiterate. He represents the working-class citizens who were fooled and tricked into thinking that their life would be a Utopia. Boxer is a loyal supporter of Napoleon; he listens to everything he says, and assumes, sometimes with doubt, that everything Napoleon tells the farm animals is true: "If Napoleon says it, it must be right." Benjamin Benjamin is a fictional donkey in George Orwell's novella Animal Farm. He is the oldest of the animals and is alive in the last scene of the novel. He is less straightforward than most characters in the novel and a number of interpretations have been put forward. It has been suggested that he represents the aged population of Russia, or that he represents the Menshevik intelligentsia: as intelligent, if not more so, than the novel's pigs. He is very cynical about the Revolution and life in general. For the most part he represents the skeptical people in and out of Russia who believed that Communism would not help the people of Russia, but who did not criticise it fervently enough to lose their lives or approve of a gradualist alternative. He is also quite significant in that he is not quite a horse (the working peasantry) and yet definitely not a leader like the pigs—even if his intellect is equal to theirs. The fact that he also has a Biblical name could also imply that he also represents the Jewish populace of Russia whose lives were not remotely improved under Stalin's leadership. In fact, when asked if he was happier post-Revolution than before the Revolution, he simply remarks, "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." He is one of the wisest animals on the farm, and is able to "read as well as any pig". However, this is an ability he does not exercise until the end of the book, when Boxer is sent off to the Knackers and Benjamin reads the side of the truck and one more time when an illiterate friend asks him to read the public display of the Seven Commandments, as they seem to have changed (because of years of revisions by the pigs); Benjamin reveals that the Commandments now consist entirely of the message "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". For all his age, he is never given the option of retirement. The only outrage that inspires him into action is the pigs' betrayal of Benjamin's best friend, Boxer, after which he becomes more cynical than ever. Benjamin is revisited in John Reed's follow up Snowball's Chance where he states "hard life goes on," and dies a heroic death. Seen from a wider perspective, Benjamin is a symbol of intelligence that during the times of revolution and its aftermath is very much aware about what is going on, but does nothing about it. The general (manipulated) masses are represented by the sheep, who are not aware about their misuse, but it is Benjamin who can see how the basic rules of their society are changing and does not get in any way involved. He also is one of the most commonsensical characters, understanding that the pigs are altering the Seven Commandments, and that Boxer was killed instead of dying in a hospital. Other animals ; Muriel : A wise old goat who is friends with all of the animals on the farm. She, like Benjamin and Snowball, is one of the few animals on the farm who can read (with some difficulty as she has to spell the words out first) and helps Clover discover that the Seven Commandments have been continually changed. ; The Puppies : Offspring of Jessie and Bluebell, taken away from them by Napoleon at birth and reared by Napoleon to be his security force. These dogs are trained to be vicious, going so far as to rip many of the animals to shreds including the four young pigs, a sheep and various hens. They attempt to do the same to Boxer, who halts one of the puppies under his hoof. The puppy begs for mercy and through Napoleon's orders, Boxer sets the puppy free. ; Moses the Raven : An old crow who occasionally visits the farm, regaling its denizens with tales of a wondrous place beyond the clouds called Sugarcandy Mountain, where he avers that all animals go when they die—but only if they work hard. He is interpreted as symbolising the Russian Orthodox Church, with Sugarcandy Mountain an allusion to Heaven for the animals. He spends his time turning the animals' minds to thoughts of Sugarcandy Mountain (rather than their work) and yet does no work himself. He feels unequal in comparison to the other animals, so he leaves after the rebellion, for all animals were supposed to be equal. However, much later in the novel he returns to the farm and continues to proclaim the existence of Sugarcandy Mountain. The other animals are confused by the pigs' attitude towards Moses; they denounce his claims as nonsense, but allow him to remain on the farm. The pigs do this to keep any doubting animals in line with the hope of a happy afterlife, keeping their minds on Sugarcandy Mountain and not on possible uprisings. In the end, Moses is one of the few animals to remember The Rebellion, along with Clover, Benjamin, and the pigs. ; The Sheep : They show limited understanding of the situations but nonetheless blindly support Napoleon's ideals. They are regularly shown repeating the phrase "four legs good, two legs bad". At the end of the novel, one of the Seven Commandments is changed after the pigs learn to walk on two legs and their shout changes to "four legs good, two legs better". They can be relied on by the pigs to shout down any dissent from the others. ; The Hens : The hens are among the first to rebel against Napoleon: in response to their being forced to give more eggs, they destroy their eggs instead of handing them to the higher powers (the pigs), who want to sell them to humans. Napoleon then uses fear and starves them until the pigs get what they want. They represent the some peasants and the more wealthy Kulaks who destroyed their stock rather than handing them over during Stalin's Collectivisation policy. ; The Cows : Their milk is stolen by the pigs, who learn to milk them, and is stirred into the pigs' mash every day while the other animals are not given any such luxuries. ; The Cat : Never seen to carry out any work, the cat is absent for long periods, and is forgiven because her excuses are so convincing and she "purred so affectionately that is was impossible not to believe in her good intentions". She has no interest in the politics of the farm, and the only time she is recorded as having participated in an election she was found to have actually "voted on both sides".. 
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