A monarchy is political system in which supreme authority is given to an individual ruler who functions as the decision maker for all in the society. Old Major and Mr. Jones both die leaving the farm under the rule of the animals. Two pigs Napoleon and Snowball both want a leadership position. Napoleon gains complete control over the animals by brainwashing them into thinking Snowball was a bad pig. Napoleon’s dictatorship is further evidenced when he sets the dogs against Snowball to increase his political power.
This meant that Napoleon was above all the other animals on the farm, Napoleon was a leader; therefore, the animals had to follow what he said. All animals were not ‘equal’ and this is the moment that Clover realises it. Commandment 6 was broken when the traitors were slaughtered for ‘protesting when Napoleon abolished the Sunday meetings’. The traitors represent the mass execution of the people who disagrees with Stalin’s ideas during the 1930’s. Stalin’s ideas were not the same as communism and Orwell is able to portray this when he specifically states that ‘Napoleon’ abolished the meetings, later in the scene, Orwell again wrote that Napoleon ‘demanded’ other animals to ‘confess’.
The animals were being underfed so they were forced to break into the store house and eat the food in there. Mr Jones and his farmers started whipping the animals but the animals fought back. This caused the farmers to flee and this was the revolution. They preserved Mr Jones’ house as a museum and made seven commandants which they should follow. The pigs were the cleverest of the animals so they took the leadership role which is against animalism as animals should be equal.
Three animals, Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer, create a system called Animalism, which is an elaborate system of Major’s teachings. Jones is run off of the farm when he does not feed the animals. The animals now have control of the farm and they rename it Animal Farm. After a successful take over of the farm, the pigs reduce the principles of Animalism to the Seven Commandments. As the farm evolves, Napoleon and Squealer become corrupted by power.
Along with this, Lady Macbeth is also hasty to pursue the prophesised power, and manipulates Macbeth into committing the first deed. In animal Farm, it is Old Major’s ideals which spurs the animals into performing the uprising against Farmer Jones and forming the new idea of Animalism. Unlike the murder of Duncan, the animal’s revolt is a worthy cause, which benefits the whole community and not just a single individual. Both the Witches prophecy and Old Majors ideals planted the seed of ambition in Macbeth’s and Napoleon’s minds, unfortunately, those seeds quickly grow into tyranny. Macbeth begins his bloody chain of murders with the help of Lady Macbeth, working together to murder King Duncan.
The pig nation found out about this and President Pohn Pigennedy was ready to claim war. The wolves placed nuclear missiles in a nearby grassland, that was close to the third piggy’s steel house. Everything was in chaos for both sides, but the wolves pulled back, they couldn’t risk another war toward their economy. Their economical structure was at risk of collapsing. The pigs all celebrated this wonderful victory, with a feast and mud baths.
Orwell’s fictional farm finds itself following almost parallel to communistic Russia. Orwell demonstrates the theme of an unaware, uneducated working class and its danger when accompanied by corrupt opportunists seeking power within his animalistic dystopia. Once the animals secured their control of the farm, many thought little of what it meant for the future, but of the few that did, they were able to sneak their way into power. The pigs quickly appointed themselves leaders and none of the other animals knew any better than to question their haste. The oligarchy of pigs abused their fellow farm animal’s trust from the very beginning.
In Squealer’s version of Snowball’s part of the battle, Snowball was planning to “leave the field to the enemy” (p54). Afterwards, Squealer described how Napoleon was the one who “sprang forward with a cry of ‘death to humanity!’ and sank his teeth into Mr Jone’s leg” when everything was so chaotic (p54). During his speech, Squealer describe everything in so much detail that it “seemed to the animals that they did remember it” (p54). As a result, Squealer has used propaganda to manipulate the memories of the animals so they would believe that Napoleon is the rightful person to trust and Snowball was actually on the side of the enemy. Another form of propaganda was when the pigs started to twist the seven commandments, a list of seven rules the animals in animal farm must follow, to their own needs.
However, Old Major only ends up asserting that man is entirely evil because some men commit evil acts. Nevertheless, the animals show how it is not only men who perform evil deeds. When the animals take over the farm after the rebellion, Snowball and Napoleon become the leaders of the farm and they both enter into a power struggle over the farm. Eventually, Napoleon manages to get rid of Snowball and starts to bring the farm into a state of decay: “They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere” (pg. 87).
At the meeting at which the animals would vote on the idea, Napoleon has his service dogs chase Snowball off the farm and he ends up taking credit for the windmill idea, driven by the thirst for power. Napoleon also starts having lies spread around about Snowball in order to make Snowball look like the villain and to make himself look like the good guy. He has it spread that he was the hero of the battle of the Cowshed, not Snowball who was really the hero. He spreads this, along with other lies, through his messenger Squealer. He does this so that it does not look like he is the bad guy.