All animals are equal, but some animals
are more equal than others.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Summary
Years pass. Many animals age and die, and few recall the
days before the Rebellion. The animals complete a new windmill,
which is used not for generating electricity but for milling corn,
a far more profitable endeavor. The farm seems to have grown richer,
but only the many pigs and dogs live comfortable lives. Squealer
explains that the pigs and dogs do very important work—filling out
forms and such. The other animals largely accept this explanation,
and their lives go on very much as before. They never lose their
sense of pride in Animal Farm or their feeling that they have differentiated themselves
from animals on other farms. The inhabitants of Animal Farm still
fervently believe in the goals of the Rebellion—a world free from
humans, with equality for all animals.
One day, Squealer takes the sheep off to a remote spot
to teach them a new chant. Not long afterward, the animals have
just finished their day’s work when they hear the terrified neighing
of a horse. It is Clover, and she summons the others hastily to
the yard. There, the animals gaze in amazement at Squealer walking
toward them on his hind legs. Napoleon soon appears as well, walking upright;
worse, he carries a whip. Before the other animals have a chance
to react to the change, the sheep begin to chant, as if on cue: “Four
legs good, two legs better!” Clover, whose eyes are failing in her
old age, asks Benjamin to read the writing on the barn wall where
the Seven Commandments were originally inscribed. Only the last
commandment remains: “all animals are equal.” However, it now carries
an addition: “but some animals are more equal than others.” In the
days that follow, Napoleon openly begins smoking a pipe, and the
other pigs subscribe to human magazines, listen to the radio, and
begin to install a telephone, also wearing human clothes that they
have salvaged from Mr. Jones’s wardrobe.
One day, the pigs invite neighboring human farmers over
to inspect Animal Farm. The farmers praise the pigs and express,
in diplomatic language, their regret for past “misunderstandings.” The
other animals, led by Clover, watch through a window as Mr. Pilkington
and Napoleon toast each other, and Mr. Pilkington declares that
the farmers share a problem with the pigs: “If you have your
lower animals to contend with,” he says, “we have our lower classes!”
Mr. Pilkington notes with appreciation that the pigs have found
ways to make Animal Farm’s animals work harder and on less food
than any other group of farm animals in the county. He adds that
he looks forward to introducing these advances on his own farm.
Napoleon replies by reassuring his human guests that the pigs never
wanted anything other than to conduct business peacefully with their
human neighbors and that they have taken steps to further that goal.
Animals on Animal Farm will no longer address one another as “Comrade,”
he says, or pay homage to Old Major; nor will they salute a flag
with a horn and hoof upon it. All of these customs have been changed
recently by decree, he assures the men. Napoleon even announces
that Animal Farm will now be known as the Manor Farm, which is,
he believes, its “correct and original name.”
The pigs and farmers return to their amiable card game,
and the other animals creep away from the window. Soon the sounds
of a quarrel draw them back to listen. Napoleon and Pilkington have played
the ace of spades simultaneously, and each accuses the other of
cheating. The animals, watching through the window, realize with
a start that, as they look around the room of the farmhouse, they
can no longer distinguish which of the cardplayers are pigs and which
are human beings.
Analysis
“If you have your lower animals to contend
with,” he said, “we have our lower classes!”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The last chapter of Animal Farm brings
the novel to its logical, unavoidable, yet chilling conclusion.
The pigs wholly consolidate their power and their totalitarian,
communist dictatorship completely overwhelms the democratic-socialist
ideal of Animal Farm. Napoleon and the other pigs have become identical
to the human farmers, just as Stalin and the Russian communists
eventually became indistinguishable from the aristocrats whom they
had replaced and the Western capitalists whom they had denounced. The
significance of Napoleon’s name is now entirely clear: the historical
Napoleon, who ruled France in the early nineteenth century and conquered
much of Europe before being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1814,
originally appeared to be a great liberator, overthrowing Europe’s
kings and monarchs and bringing freedom to its people. But he eventually
crowned himself emperor of France, shattering the dreams of European
liberalism. Rather than destroying the aristocracy, Napoleon simply
remade it around himself. Similarly, the pig Napoleon figures as
the champion of Animalism early on. Now, however, he protests to
the humans that he wants nothing more than to be one of them—that
is, an oppressor.
Throughout the novella, Orwell has told his fable from
the animals’ point of view. In this chapter, we see clearly the
dramatic power achieved by this narrative strategy. The animals
remain naïvely hopeful up until the very end. Although they realize
that the republic foretold by Old Major has yet to come to fruition,
they stalwartly insist that it will come “[s]ome day.” These assertions
charge the final events of the story with an intense irony. For
although Orwell has used foreshadowing and subtle hints to make
us more suspicious than the animals of the pigs’ motives, these
statements of ingenuous faith in Animal Farm on the part of the
common animals occur just before the final scene. This gap between
the animals’ optimism and the harsh reality of the pigs’ totalitarian
rule creates a sense of dramatic contrast. Although the descent
into tyranny has been gradual, Orwell provides us with a restatement
of the original ideals only moments before the full revelation of
their betrayal.
