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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Cycles of Power:
Animal Farm revolves around a central situational irony: that even though the animal revolutionaries who overthrow the cruel Mr. Jones have the best intentions, they end up in an almost identical system of oppression. What’s worse, this new regime is led by one of their own, their former revolutionary leader Comrade Napoleon. Through this, Orwell implies that gaining power brings out the selfishness and tendency to exploit others in even the most well-meaning of leaders.
Initially, the animals seek freedom and equality based on the stirring, philosophical speeches of the philosophical boar Old Major. Following this, the pigs of Manor Farm assure the other animals that a rebellion against Mr. Jones will lead to a better life. The animals collectively dream of a new living situation, one in which they control their destiny and enjoy the fruits of their labor without any human interventions. However, as the story progresses, the animals' situation deteriorates under Napoleon's leadership. Snowball is brutally ousted and quickly turned into a scapegoat, although he and Napoleon crafted the tenets of “Animalism” together.
With Snowball out of the way, Napoleon gradually consolidates power, manipulating the other animals and rewriting the “Seven Commandments” to suit the needs of the pigs. The situational irony that runs through the latter part of the novel revolves around the reversal of the animals' circumstances. Instead of gaining their freedom, Animal Farm merely exchanges one dictator for another: Napoleon is the new Mr. Jones. The pigs quickly start to adopt human behaviors, such as walking on two legs, sleeping in beds, selecting who receives special treatment and educational benefits, and engaging in trade with the human farmers they swore to overthrow. They force the other animals to perform grueling physical tasks, including the years-long effort to build the windmill that provides the farm’s electricity. The other animals—who wanted to eliminate human influence completely—soon find their leaders indistinguishable from Mr. Jones and his family. They’re being ruled (again) by people who do no work themselves and who benefit enormously from their efforts.
The animals' quest for liberation only results in greater tyranny, as Napoleon and his companions eventually exploit them more ruthlessly and dishonestly than Mr. Jones ever did. To add insult to injury, the usually cruel conditions and low food rations that Napoleon mandates actually inspire the other human farmers to treat their own animals less generously. This painful irony is part of Orwell’s commentary on power's corrupting influence and the often cyclical nature of oppression.
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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Growing Humanity:
There’s a brutal situational irony to the changes the pigs undergo in Animal Farm. At the start of the novel, the animals, led by these same pigs, overthrow Mr. Jones with the promise of creating an equal and fair society free from human exploitation. They establish the “Seven Commandments,” which mandate animal equality and explicitly prohibit any behaviors deemed to be too human. A key tenet of the founding of the new “Animal Farm” is that the era of humans has ended and further revolutions must follow. All of the Commandments underline these foundational beliefs. Even the simplified version the smarter animals teach to the sheep and hens emphasize a clear divide between humans and animals. “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad” is the foundation upon which the animals’ new society is built.
However, as the pigs gain power and influence, they begin to see the pleasures and benefits of behaviors they once condemned. Their gradual adoption of human practices—sleeping in beds, wearing clothes, eating the highest quality foods, drinking alcohol—is at first subtle, and then too overt for the other animals to ignore. The pigs, who once stood firmly against human oppression, become indistinguishable from the humans they replaced. They use the powerful rhetorical talents of Squealer the pig to justify these actions. Eventually, their transformation culminates in a total reversal of fortunes for the farm. They manipulate the less intelligent animals who remain naive and trusting, overtly seize power, and begin to publicly walk on two legs. These pigs, who once rallied against human oppression, now embrace the same oppressive tactics and the same taste for luxury and exploitation. They quickly and hypocritically settle into occupying the very position from which they ousted Jones, doing the very things they kicked him out for doing, and collaborating with their other human oppressors from neighboring farms.
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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 10
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.
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Explanation and Analysis—Something Subversive:
Napoleon tries to “clarify” things to the human farmers from the surrounding area at a peacemaking dinner the pigs hold. Orwell uses situational irony to highlight the duplicity in Napoleon's toast, as the narrator recounts it:
For a long time there had been rumours—circulated, he had reason to think, by some malignant enemy—that there was something subversive and even revolutionary in the outlook of himself and his colleagues. [...] Nothing could be further from the truth! Their sole wish, now and in the past, was to live at peace and in normal business relations with their neighbours. This farm which he had the honour to control, he added, was a co-operative enterprise. The title-deeds, which were in his own possession, were owned by the pigs jointly.
Napoleon’s speech here is full of both verbal and situational irony as he (through the third-person reporting of the narrator) addresses the human farmers. Even though Napoleon was the figurehead of the animal revolution, in this moment he is claiming that rumors of subversive or revolutionary behavior by the pigs are unfounded. His assertion that "nothing could be further from the truth" is therefore verbally ironic (we know he doesn’t mean what he is saying, and, indeed, it’s the opposite of the truth) and situationally ironic; a reader would not expect the leader of the revolution to deny it happened. This statement is ironic because everyone present—Napoleon, the other pigs, the human farmers—know the truth of the pigs' revolutionary past. However, as it is more convenient to forget these facts, the pigs and the humans mutually agree to accept this false version of history. The use of verbal and situational irony here critiques the corruption that now characterizes the pigs’ leadership. It also highlights the ease with which selfish leaders can cast aside selfless ideals when there’s power to be won.
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