Napoleon in Animal Farm Characteristics

Animal Farm is one of the most well-known stories by eminent British novelist George Orwell. The novel is an allegorical masterpiece and an amazing political satire, which was Orwell’s criticism of the lust for power & lack of integrity among the powers that be. The story is a culmination of George Orwell's incredible observations and insightful reflections on the political climate and leaders of the 20^th century.  

Animal Farm boasts an exceptionally unique setting and an ensemble of characters, each unique & essaying a specific role. We look at the world through the perspective of farm animals, who are suffering under the oppression of humans who harbor them just for exploitation. George Orwell’s characterization of the farm animals showcases his brilliance as a writer and his brilliant intellectualism.

This write-up is a careful character analysis of Napoleon, Animal Farm’s primary antagonist, and attempts to deliver valuable insights about his characteristics. To unearth insights into Napoleon's characteristics, we first need to talk about

A Quick Overview of the Story

The setting is the Manor Farm. Old Major, an aged and award-winning boar and a long-term inhabitant of the farm, gathers all the farm animals and talks to them about his dream. Old Major dreams of a farm free from the oppression of the human farm owners. He invigorates all the inhabitants and encourages them to stand up & fight for a secure and better future. Naturally, after years of oppression, all animals receive Old Major's proposal with immense enthusiasm &

joy.

Old Major passes away after instilling the fervor of freedom across the farm. His mission to transform Manor Farm into a paradise is taken by three young pigs ---Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer. They take Old Major’s ideas and visions & come up with the concept of Animalism. The trio begins to refer to the farm as Animal Farm & dedicate themselves to making Old Major's dream a reality. Every farm member is enthused, with the horse Boxer exhibiting immense zeal for the cause.

Things start well as the triumvirate of leaders teaches the other animals to read and educate them about the principles of Animalism. Animal Farm becomes a peaceful and prosperous place to live for one & all. When the human owner of the farm, Mr. Jones, came to subdue the revolting animals, all the animals resisted as a united front and defeated him in the Battle of the Cowshed. And, as a symbol of their victory, they took his gun.

 But, alas, such peace and prosperity were not to last!

As witnessed time & time again through the ages, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The first disputes arose between Napoleon and Snowfall due to their differences in their vision of a secure future for the farm and an underlying struggle for power & influence. Snowball’s vision for a better future involves developing the farm’s infrastructure by building windmills for electricity generation, but Napoleon opposes that proposal vehemently. The animals convene together, and Snowfall places his proposal before everyone. Napoleon retorts throughout the meeting and causes an uproar to impede his speech. As the speech ends, Napoleon makes a strange sound that leads to nine attack dogs chasing Snowfall away from the farm. Many animals were appalled to find that those attack dogs were the same ones Napoleon took under his wing to train.

Napoleon takes over the reins of Animal Farm. Still, soon, things take a turn for the worse on the farm as oppression & totalitarianism set in, with Napoleon beginning to exhibit dictatorial tendencies. He quickly changes his decision about the windmill and the animals, but a storm brings it down one night. While the human farm owners concur that the animals had built the mill too weak, Napoleon conveniently blames Snowball and frames him as a saboteur. He then purges and declares that any animal who has anything to do with Snowball will be taken out by the attack dogs, thereby discouraging and dismantling any opposition to his rule.

Napoleon establishes a new rule or tenet of Animalism, which declares him the end-all and the be-all of Animal Farm. He further expands and establishes his power, behaving more and more like the human beings so despised by each and every animal. Every tenet of Animalism, as established by Old Major, was discarded, with Napoleon and his cohorts declaring new polar opposite rules. Napoleon begins to drink alcohol and sleep in a bed just like humans, even going to trade with them. He prospers and fills his coffers by trading with the two-legged animals while the rest of the farm remains cold, hungry, overworked, & oppressed.

An assault by the neighboring farmer, Mr. Frederick, who destroys the windmill, is repelled by the animals, but Boxer is grievously injured. Squealer, Napoleon's propagandist, declares that Boxer passed away in his sleep peacefully, while, in reality, Napoleon sold the most hard-working animal to another human trader for whiskey.

Through the years, the condition of Animal Farm shows no improvement whatsoever, but Napoleon and the other pigs start to resemble the humans more & more. They now walk upright, drink whiskey, wear clothes, carry whips, and exert absolute authority over the far animals. The tenets of Animalism have been changed to suit the needs of the ruling class. Napoleon allies with the human farm owners, identifying with their ideologies and plotting against the ever-nuisance of the labor classes. The farm is renamed the Manor Farm, and all its inhabitants contemplate in disbelief as they fail to differentiate between the pigs and the humans.

The story's allegories, references, and allusions will be quite intuitive to any average reader. Animal Farm is an unbridled and unapologetic socio-political satire that shines light upon human nature, society, politics, and how greed & the lust for power corrupt anything it touches.

The similarities between Animal Farm and any ideal-turned-totalitarian state are incredible and indicate the minute observations, analysis, & reflections of the great George Orwell.

This edition of our analysis of George Orwell's Animal Farm will focus on Napoleon, the tyrannical pig who deceives and then diminishes the freedom of the farm's animals.

Critical Character Analysis of Napoleon

Napoleon, the tyrant of Animal Farm, is the instrument of corruption in this story. A selfish, dishonest, and conniving hypocrite & the ultimate opportunist, Napoleon plotted his rise to power carefully and began to enact his plan of dominance as soon as the animals chose him as their leader. Not at all a leader but a tyrannical ruler, Napoleon drove out, dismantled, and destroyed anyone and anything which posed a threat to his rule & quickly acquired a bunch of blindly-loyal subjects as his propagandists & enforcers.

• Orwell parallels Old Major & Vladimir Lenin and Napoleon & Joseph Stalin.

Lenin wanted a fairer society with equal distribution of wealth, resources, & opportunities, though his ways were quite brutal. However, Lenin was very wary of Stalin and considered him dangerous to Russian society and government.

• There were many prominent early signs that Napoleon was looking for an opportunity to seize power.

From the novel's beginning, Napoleon the Pig comes across as a sly entity who initially hid his true colors. Despite being a student of Old Major & present in all the far gatherings, Napoleon does not contribute. He does not offer any suggestions during the formulation of the farm's ideologies, nor does he get directly involved in any bloody struggles against the humans.

He has no interest in making Animal Farm stronger, only in what makes him more powerful than anybody else.

• Orwell visualized Napoleon as a fierce, headstrong, and overbearing Berkshire boar.

This symbolism was intuitive and reflects George Orwell’s views of the tyrants of his time, namely Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, etc.

• Napoleon was not a gifted speaker but was cunning and devious enough to get his way.

He takes advantage of the unrest on the farm to gain the trust of the masses and caricatures his way until he and Snowball (whom he considers his rival) is chosen to lead everyone to prosperity.

All his actions are ploys for gaining power.

• Napoleon is, at once, oppressive, threatening, and hypocritical.

He intimidated the farm animals to not vote for the construction of the windmill. He threatens in a sinister manner, with a calm menace, which implies that he has something bad in store for anyone who opposes him.

Napoleon is also a hypocrite by supporting Old Major's ideologies and using those same ideologies to come to power before discarding them. He also uses deception & hypocrisy to mislead people and portray himself as a benevolent leader but eventually uses his position & authority to carry out forced labor.

Finally, this hypocritical and anti-social pig is also an oppressive tyrant who imposes his will and authority on one & all. He instills fear and threatens the farm's inhabitants, even with death, to eliminate any threat to his power.

• George Orwell’s inspiration for the character of Napoleon is the infamous USSR dictator, Joseph Stalin.

Stalin took part in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and became Russia's ruler after the death of Vladimir Lenin, his mentor and guide, in 1924. Stalin used World War 2 as an excuse to turn Russia from a Communist to a totalitarian regime, causing untold suffering to the masses. He ruled with fear and an iron fist, & spread poverty and famine across the entire Russian landmass.  

Political dissidents and opposition leaders disappeared or suffered unfortunate accidents. Millions starved and lived in abject conditions, and many more were killed & deported as Stalin became a cult of personality & a power-hungry fanatic.

• Unlike Jones, the drunk former owner of the farm, who was too dim-witted to understand the repercussions of his actions, Napoleon was well aware of the consequences of his actions on the animals.

More astonishingly, he eventually ceases to identify as an animal and starts behaving, interacting, & trading with humans.

All this can be attributed to his self-centeredness and blatant lust for power. He is undoubtedly crafty & cunning, & knows how to use his power and propaganda to keep everyone in line. His crimes and atrocities against his comrade, Snowball, and his kind signified his utter disregard for decency, kindness, benevolence, & his duties and responsibilities.

Napoleon cares only about one thing & one thing alone, power and absolute control over the weak.

• Napoleon's downfall was complete when he and his fellow pigs began walking and acting like humans.

He began interacting and trading with the human owners of the other farms. Napoleon slept in Jones's bed, drank alcohol like him, and eventually partnered with Mr. Pilkington, the owner of a neighboring farm.

At the novel's end, he changes Animalism's tenets to "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL—BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS," reflecting his ruthless ambitions. The final nail in the coffin of freedom and equity comes through renaming Animal Farm back to Manor Farm.

Like most political activists turned despots, Napoleon became the thing he once raised arms against. However, unlike a few, this change was purposeful and planned.

Our analysis of the character of Napoleon reveals his despotic and oppressive nature, which was so brilliantly highlighted through the story's incredible character & plot development. No wonder Animal Farm is considered an essential read by the UK high school education authority. 

Some Final Thoughts

Napoleon, the antagonist of Animal Farm, remains on top at the end of the story. Orwell does not end the novel positively and may believe this to be deliberate. He did so to highlight the pitfalls of placing unmitigated power in the hands of a few.

George Orwell modeled this blatant opportunist & thoroughly corrupt character after the political tyrants of his time and those that have emerged throughout history. The name, Napoleon itself, is incredibly symbolic and refers to the famous French general & dictator who betrayed democratic ideals and became the very thing he rose against. All such aspects are a testament to the incredible mind of George Orwell, and it is these aspects that make the novel a timeless classic.

Even today, any reader can easily relate the character and nature of Napoleon with dictators like China’s Mao Zedong, Cambodia’s Pol Pit, Uganda’s Idi Amin, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, etc.

Well, that’s about it for this write-up. Hope this article was an insightful and informative read for one & all. Take care!