Animal Farm Characters: Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Boxer and the Rest

Animal Farm's characters fall into two groups: the pigs, who lead the rebellion against Mr Jones and then take the farm over for themselves, and the other animals, each standing for a section of society under the revolution they were promised. Napoleon, the pig who drives out his rival Snowball and rules alone, is often read as a figure for Stalin, tracing a path from comrade to dictator across the novella.

The novella sits on Paper 2, Section A of AQA's GCSE English Literature (8702) specification, where it is examined as a modern prose text alongside other boards that set it, and every paper is closed book, so quotations must be memorised before the exam. Understanding what each character represents in the allegory of the Russian Revolution, alongside the words Orwell actually gives them, separates a character summary from an analytical answer built for AO1 and AO2.

Who is Napoleon and what does he represent?

Napoleon is the pig who takes sole control of the farm after driving Snowball off it with dogs he has secretly raised, and he is often read as a figure for Stalin in Orwell's allegory of the Russian Revolution. Orwell introduces him early as physically imposing and quietly ambitious, a pig whose early standing rests on presence and will, a trait Chapter 5 turns into open force when he sets his dogs on Snowball.

Across the novella Napoleon moves from committee member to sole ruler: he expels Snowball in Chapter 5, then claims the windmill as his own plan and blames every later disaster on his absent rival, while Squealer justifies each change to the Seven Commandments on his behalf. Show confessions and executions by the dogs follow, and by Chapter 10 Napoleon walks on two legs, carries a whip and deals with human farmers as the renamed Manor Farm's animals struggle to tell pig from man.

• "a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar", how the narrator describes Napoleon in Chapter 2. The description marks him as physically intimidating before he speaks a word, so his later cruelty reads as the fulfilment of a nature Orwell has already signalled.
• "not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way", the narrator's description of Napoleon in Chapter 2. The line sets Napoleon's silence against Snowball's eloquence, suggesting a power built on will and manoeuvre.
• "nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars", the narrator's description as the dogs chase Snowball off the farm in Chapter 5. Raised in secret, the dogs suggest a private security force loyal to Napoleon alone, and the detail of their collars hints at ownership, obedience bred into them from puppyhood.
• "Father of All Animals" and "Terror of Mankind", titles given to Napoleon in Chapter 8. Pairing a paternal title with a violent one captures the contradiction at the centre of Napoleon's rule, presenting him at once as protector and as threat.

Who is Snowball and what does he represent?

Snowball is the pig who plans the windmill and argues for spreading the rebellion to other farms, and he is often read as a figure for Trotsky, Napoleon's rival for power after the revolution. Orwell presents him as sharper and more persuasive than Napoleon, a pig of ideas, which Chapter 5 shows leaves him vulnerable once Napoleon turns to force.

• "a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive", how the narrator describes Snowball in Chapter 2. The comparative structure sets Snowball's verbal fluency directly against Napoleon from Orwell's first introduction of both pigs, a rivalry of temperament the plot later resolves through force.
• "Four legs good, two legs bad", Snowball's maxim summing up the Seven Commandments, bleated by the sheep in Chapter 3. Reducing Animalism to a chantable slogan shows Snowball simplifying revolutionary principle for animals who cannot remember long arguments, a simplification the pigs later exploit for their own propaganda.

Who is Squealer and what does he represent?

Squealer is the pig who explains away every decision Napoleon makes, and he suggests a figure for Soviet propaganda, the voice that keeps the other animals compliant. Orwell gives him a specific skill, turning any unwelcome fact into something the animals can accept, which makes him indispensable to Napoleon's hold on power.

• "a brilliant talker", how the narrator describes Squealer in Chapter 2. The adjective establishes Squealer's role before he does anything else in the novella, framing persuasion as his defining trait among the pigs' leadership.
• "he could turn black into white", how the narrator describes Squealer in Chapter 2. The paradox captures propaganda's central trick, the capacity to make any fact, however plain, argue for the leadership's convenience.
• "Tactics, comrades, tactics", Squealer's words in Chapter 5. The repetition of the single word lets Squealer present Napoleon's claim to the windmill, a plan he had opposed, as calculated strategy, a rebranding that keeps the other animals from naming it betrayal.
• "Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?", Squealer's question in Chapter 5. The rhetorical question works through implied threat, reminding the animals of a worse past to silence doubt about a worsening present, a manoeuvre Squealer repeats whenever Napoleon's authority comes under question.

Who is Boxer and what does he represent?

Boxer is the cart-horse whose strength and loyalty drive much of the work on the farm, and he is often read as a figure for the loyal working class exploited by the revolution it trusted. Orwell shows his devotion through the two mottoes he repeats whenever problems arise, and through the collapse and sale that end his life once his usefulness runs out, with Squealer telling the other animals he died peacefully in hospital.

• "I will work harder", Boxer's personal motto in Chapter 3. The simplicity of the motto captures Boxer's response to every setback, answering doubt with labour, a habit Orwell uses to show how loyalty can become self-exploitation.
• "Napoleon is always right", Boxer's second motto in Chapter 5. Boxer's uncritical repetition shows how completely fear and propaganda have replaced independent judgement among the animals, making Napoleon's authority unquestionable even as his decisions cause them harm.

Who are Old Major, Benjamin, Clover and Mollie?

Old Major is the old boar whose dream of animal freedom opens the novella and whose speech supplies the principles of Animalism, and he suggests a composite of Marx and Lenin, the revolutionary thinkers whose ideas later leaders each claim to carry forward. He dies shortly after teaching the animals the song Beasts of England, leaving Snowball and Napoleon to interpret his ideas for themselves.

Benjamin, the farm's donkey, refuses to celebrate the rebellion and predicts nothing will really change, a cynicism the novella's events go on to justify. Clover, a motherly mare, tries to hold the other animals to the original commandments as she remembers them, while Mollie, a vain mare interested chiefly in ribbons and sugar, leaves the farm for a human owner once work replaces comfort.

• "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing", Old Major's words in Chapter 1. The absolute claim builds Old Major's argument into a moral law, giving the animals' later rebellion the force of natural justice.
• "Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy", Old Major's words and the first commandment, Chapter 1. Defining the enemy by a physical trait sets a rule easy to state and, later, easy to bend once the pigs themselves start walking on two legs.
• "All animals are equal", Old Major's speech and the seventh commandment, Chapter 1. Placed last among the commandments, the phrase becomes the founding principle the rest of the novella tests and breaks, its brevity carrying weight beyond its length.
• "Beasts of England", the song Old Major teaches the animals, Chapter 1. The song's survival and later suppression trace the fate of revolutionary hope, sung with conviction early in the novella and effectively silenced once the pigs no longer need it.
• "Donkeys live a long time", Benjamin's words in Chapter 3. Offered without elaboration, the flat statement suggests patience built from having watched such promises fail before, so Benjamin's refusal to celebrate reads as experience earned the hard way.

Who are Moses, the dogs, the sheep and Mr Jones?

Moses is the raven who tells the other animals of Sugarcandy Mountain, a heaven beyond the sky where they will rest from their labour, and he is often read as a figure for the Church, offering comfort that distracts from conditions on the farm. Moses leaves the farm after the Rebellion, and when he later returns the pigs allow him to stay.

The nine dogs Napoleon raises from puppies in secret become the muscle behind his rule once Snowball is driven out, and they suggest a figure for the secret police, loyal to Napoleon personally and answerable to him alone. The sheep, meanwhile, repeat whichever slogan the pigs need chanted at a given moment, and Mr Jones, the farm's original owner, is driven out earlier in the novella for his drunken neglect of the animals, a failure often read as a figure for the Tsar whose own weakness made the revolution possible.

• "Sugarcandy Mountain", Moses the raven's story of animal heaven, Chapter 2. The invented destination costs the pigs nothing to promise, and its vagueness lets it be suppressed or revived depending on whatever keeps the farm's animals patient with hardship.
• "Four legs good, two legs bad" and "Four legs good, two legs better", the sheep's chant before and after the pigs begin walking on two legs, Chapters 3 and 10. The single-word change between the two slogans compresses the whole novella's betrayal into one phrase, the animals' own voice turned to praise the very shift it once existed to resist.

How does Orwell show the Seven Commandments being changed?

Orwell shows the Seven Commandments changing one word at a time across the novella, so each amendment reads as a small clarification, quietly reversing a founding principle with every edit. Squealer explains each change as the animals struggle to remember the original wording, since few of the other animals can read the wall or remember the original wording, and by Chapter 10 only a single, self-contradicting rule remains on the barn wall.

• "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets", an altered commandment, Chapter 6. The added qualifying phrase narrows an absolute ban into a rule about a specific comfort, letting the pigs move into the farmhouse beds while the commandment appears unchanged to any animal glancing at the wall.
• "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess", an altered commandment, Chapter 8. The added qualifying phrase turns a total prohibition into a permission with a built-in excuse, mirroring the pigs' own growing taste for whisky discovered earlier in the chapter.
• "No animal shall kill any other animal without cause", an altered commandment, Chapter 8. The added justification clause grants Napoleon's show executions a retrospective cover, so the rule reads as protection for the innocent while it functions as cover for the guilty.
• "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS", the single commandment left on the barn wall, Chapter 10. The grammatically impossible comparative exposes the lie underlying the pigs' rule, since equality by definition admits no degrees, and the capital letters mimic the original commandment's authority while announcing its betrayal.

How should a character be written about in an essay answer?

Writing well about a character in Animal Farm for AQA's Paper 2, Section A, means choosing the stronger of the two essay questions offered and using the allegory alongside the language Orwell chooses, since the question rewards AO1 references and AO2 analysis of language, form and structure together. A strong paragraph states a point about the character, supports it with a short quotation learned in advance since the paper is closed book, and then analyses a specific word or technique within that quotation before linking the point back to what the character represents in the allegory.

For AO3, a sentence connecting the point to the Russian Revolution or to Orwell's own politics as a democratic socialist opposed to Stalin's dictatorship earns credit, provided it stays tied to the specific character. AO4, worth 4 marks in Section A alongside the 30 for the essay itself, rewards accurate spelling and the vocabulary of literary analysis, so naming techniques precisely, such as juxtaposition, imperative or rhetorical question, matters as much as spotting them.

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• AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2 guide
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• How to get a grade 9 in GCSE English Literature
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