Previous
Pathos
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Seven Commandments:
Perhaps the most intense moment of combined situational irony and satire in Animal Farm appears at the end of the novel, when it becomes clear that the pigs have altered the Seven Commandments. At the beginning of the novel, the “Commandments” read like this:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
Originally, the Seven Commandments of Animal Farm were meant to sum up the revolutionary ideas of equality and solidarity. They’re intended to ensure fairness and unity among all animals and to promote the principles of the uprising as Old Major intended them to work. They are also meant to stop the animals from slipping back into the old ways, which is why they include instructions about avoiding human behaviors. However, as the pigs consolidate power, they gradually and secretly rewrite these commandments to explain their own privileges. After several small changes, like qualifying the rule about beds to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,” they eventually erase all of the Commandments, replacing them with one that contradicts everything that came before it. After the pigs completely take over at the end of the novel and a jaded Clover and Benjamin return to the former site of the commandments to check them, they find instead only the following phrase:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
The nonsensical phrase "more equal than others" satirizes the absurdity of the pigs’ justification for seizing control. Through this, Orwell is mocking the illogical arguments that corrupt leaders have historically employed to rationalize their actions. This distortion of the original commandments reflects Orwell’s cynicism towards the outcomes of revolutionary movements. The situational irony of “MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” also can’t be overstated. In this context, “MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” makes it sound as if “equal” is a status that can be qualified. By declaring themselves “MORE EQUAL” than the other animals, the pigs are really justifying the farm’s return to totalitarian rule under Napoleon.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Windmills Again:
The animals abandoned the windmill project after Squealer “explained” to them why it was a wrong-headed idea, only to have Napoleon tell them they must begin it again a short while later. Here, Orwell employs satire to critique the way corrupt leaders manipulate political messaging to exploit loyal laborers:
On the third Sunday after Snowball’s expulsion, the animals were somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all. He did not give any reason for having changed his mind, but merely warned the animals that this extra task would mean very hard work, it might even be necessary to reduce their rations. The plans, however, had all been prepared, down to the last detail. A special committee of pigs had been at work upon them for the past three weeks. The building of the windmill, with various other improvements, was expected to take two years.
The satire in this scenario lies in Napoleon’s sudden endorsement of the windmill project, which he had previously criticized when Snowball proposed it. Initially, the windmill gets used as a political tool to demonize Snowball. Squealer and Napoleon call it a foolish idea, framing Snowball as a traitor and as an enemy of the farm's interests in order to justify exiling him. However, once Snowball is no longer a threat, Napoleon adopts the very same project, claiming it as necessary for the farm’s future. This shift not only exposes the self-serving nature of Napoleon’s leadership but also satirizes the way political leaders manipulate information to suit their needs.
Moreover, Napoleon’s announcement that the windmill will require hard work and possibly even reduced rations for the animals—which he does without providing a rationale for changing his mind—mirrors the deceitful tactics that Stalin used to exploit his workers under the guise of communal benefits. This mirrors historical events like the Soviet Union's push for industrialization under Stalin's Five-Year Plans. Napoleon’s introduction of these highly prepared plans, finished to “the last detail,” are very reminiscent of these grandiose and unrealistic projects. Like the windmill, the Five-Year Plans were designed to boost the Soviet state's power while the overworked people suffered and starved.
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—The Whip:
Describing Napoleon’s final, triumphant two-legged return to the farmyard, Orwell satirizes the way dictators often reproduce the cruelties of the systems that came before them. This depiction of Napoleon also calls attention to the allusion Orwell makes with the pig’s name:
And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him. He carried a whip in his trotter.
Napoleon, in this scene, is directly violating the very rules he and his companions used to build Animal Farm. By walking upright and carrying a whip (a symbol of human dominance over animals), Napoleon symbolically becomes indistinguishable from a human farmer. He’s carrying a weapon of control, something that has no purpose but to establish a hierarchy between himself and his fellow animals. This transformation satirizes the hypocrisy of political leaders like Joseph Stalin, who decried luxurious “bourgeois” practices but actually lived in luxury. Depicting Napoleon like this mocks the notion that power can be wielded without corrupting those who hold it. For all his elevated ideals, Napoleon has gone from wresting the whip away from the humans to holding it himself. He’s highlighting how easily revolutionary leaders can transform into the figures of authority they once despised.
Napoleon’s name itself is an allusion to the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was a famous French ruler and military leader, known as much for his many military accomplishments as for his short temper and catastrophic fall from grace. Through naming the chief pig “Napoleon,” Orwell is invoking the image of a leader who rose to power championing revolutionary ideals, only to become a dictatorial figure.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Seven Commandments:
Perhaps the most intense moment of combined situational irony and satire in Animal Farm appears at the end of the novel, when it becomes clear that the pigs have altered the Seven Commandments. At the beginning of the novel, the “Commandments” read like this:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
Originally, the Seven Commandments of Animal Farm were meant to sum up the revolutionary ideas of equality and solidarity. They’re intended to ensure fairness and unity among all animals and to promote the principles of the uprising as Old Major intended them to work. They are also meant to stop the animals from slipping back into the old ways, which is why they include instructions about avoiding human behaviors. However, as the pigs consolidate power, they gradually and secretly rewrite these commandments to explain their own privileges. After several small changes, like qualifying the rule about beds to “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,” they eventually erase all of the Commandments, replacing them with one that contradicts everything that came before it. After the pigs completely take over at the end of the novel and a jaded Clover and Benjamin return to the former site of the commandments to check them, they find instead only the following phrase:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
The nonsensical phrase "more equal than others" satirizes the absurdity of the pigs’ justification for seizing control. Through this, Orwell is mocking the illogical arguments that corrupt leaders have historically employed to rationalize their actions. This distortion of the original commandments reflects Orwell’s cynicism towards the outcomes of revolutionary movements. The situational irony of “MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” also can’t be overstated. In this context, “MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS” makes it sound as if “equal” is a status that can be qualified. By declaring themselves “MORE EQUAL” than the other animals, the pigs are really justifying the farm’s return to totalitarian rule under Napoleon.
Related Themes:
