Animal Farm: Characters and What They Represent

The pigs (the rulers)

Old Major

"Man is the only enemy we have"

• The prize boar whose dream of a world without humans starts everything; he dies three nights after sharing it.
• Teaches the animals the song "Beasts of England" and the rule that "All men are enemies. All animals are comrades".
• His ideas are turned into Animalism, the belief the Rebellion is built on, but he never lives to see it betrayed.

Represents: thinkers behind the revolution, for example Karl Marx and Lenin.

Snowball

• A clever, energetic young boar who leads the Rebellion alongside Napoleon and plans real improvements, above all the windmill.
• Brave in a fight: he leads the defence at the Battle of the Cowshed.
• Chased off the farm by Napoleon's dogs in Chapter 5, then blamed for every disaster that follows.

Represents: the rival exiled and turned into a scapegoat, for example Leon Trotsky.

Napoleon

• A large, fierce boar who says little but works behind the scenes to take sole power.
• Seizes control by raising nine dogs in secret and using them to drive Snowball out.
• Rules through fear (forced confessions, executions and shrinking rations), while the pigs grow rich.
• Ends the book walking on two legs and dining with humans, the tyrant the Rebellion was meant to remove.

Represents: the revolutionary who became the dictator, for example Joseph Stalin.

Squealer

• A persuasive little pig, Napoleon's mouthpiece, said to be able to "turn black into white".
• Explains away every broken promise and secretly rewrites the Seven Commandments to fit whatever the pigs have just done.
• Controls the animals with figures, confusion and the threat that Jones might come back.

Represents: state propaganda and the press.

The other animals (the ruled)

Boxer

"I will work harder"

• The huge, loyal carthorse and hardest worker on the farm, who meets every problem with "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right".
• His companion Clover is the gentler mare who senses things are going wrong but cannot read the changing rules.
• When he collapses, Napoleon sells him to the knacker for whisky money - loyalty repaid with betrayal.

Represents: the loyal working class, used up and discarded.

Benjamin

• The old donkey, clever and sour, who refuses to get excited about anything: "Donkeys live a long time."
• He can read as well as the pigs and sees exactly what is happening, but stays silent and does nothing until it is too late to save Boxer.

Represents: those who saw through the regime but stayed silent.

The minor figures

• Mollie: the vain mare who misses her ribbons and sugar and deserts the farm for human comfort. Represents: the self-interested who flee a revolution.
• Moses: the tame raven who tells of a paradise, "Sugarcandy Mountain"; the pigs let him stay to keep the animals hopeful and obedient. Represents: organised religion.
• The dogs: Napoleon's private army, raised from puppies to enforce his rule by terror. Represents: the secret police.
• The sheep: the unthinking crowd who drown out debate by bleating slogans like "Four legs good, two legs bad". Represents: the masses swayed by propaganda.

The humans

Mr Jones

• The farmer whose drinking and neglect spark the Rebellion when he forgets to feed the animals.
• The threat of his return becomes the pigs' favourite excuse for every hardship.

Represents: the ruler overthrown, for example Tsar Nicholas II.

Mr Pilkington and Mr Frederick

• Neighbours of Mr Jones, the easy-going Mr Pilkington and the tough Mr Frederick, stand for the rival powers Napoleon trades and quarrels with.