“No animal shall sleep in a bed”, this commandment was broken on page 42 when it describes, “The pigs not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing-room as a recreation room, but also slept in beds”. To cover this up the pigs added “with sheets” on the end of the commandment relying on the animal’s poor memories, so they won’t notice. Clover reacted to this quite puzzled because she can’t remember the commandment properly. The pigs make up an excuse by saying that there was never a ruling against beds only against sheets so the animals believe them but clover is still not sure. They also said that Napoleon should sleep in a house and bed for his dignity and asked the animals if they could imagine a high-ranking pig sleeping in a stall. In squealers explanation he said, “It was also more suited to the dignity of the leader to live in a house than a mere sty”.
“No animal shall drink alcohol”, in the book the pigs broke this commandment on page67, and evidence of this is, “The pigs came upon a case of whiskey in the cellars of the farm house”, and “That night there came from the farm house the sound of loud singing, in which, to everyone’s surprise, the strains of ‘Beasts of England’ were mixed up”. To conceal the fact that they had been drinking alcohol the pigs added “to excess” on the end of the commandment. The animals were surprised to hear the pigs singing “Beasts of England” because it was banned and they were very upset because the following morning Napoleon said he was dying but they did not know it was a headache; some animals thought that Napoleon had been poisoned.
“No animal shall kill any other animal” the book says that this commandment was broken on page 52 and 53 when three pigs confessed their crimes to Napoleon “They added that Snowball had privately admitted to them that he had been Jones’s secret agent for years past. When they had finished their confession the dogs promptly tore their throats out” and “The three hens who had been the ringleaders in the attempted rebellion over the eggs now came forward and stated that snowball had appeared to them in a dream and incited them to disobey Napoleons orders. They too were slaughtered”. Napoleon ordered the death of many animals that confessed to have been working for snowball. To screen their crimes the pigs added “without cause” on the end of the commandment. The animals were quite shocked and unhappy the book shows this by saying, “The remaining animals, except for the pigs and dogs, crept away in one body. They were shaken and miserable”. Clover was very sad and shocked at what happened, evidence of this is “As clover looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race”. But she promises to still work hard and stay devoted to Napoleon and animalism “Whatever happened she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napoleon”. Page 54 and 55.
“All animals are equal” the pigs erased all the commandments on the wall, on page 85, and changed it to “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others”. When Clover and Benjamin discover the single commandment, Clover knows the commandment looks different but cannot read the writing. Benjamin reads it out to her, for once breaking his rule of not to get involved. They are both silent but all the events that happen afterwards did not surprise them. After this, the pigs started meeting other farmers and inviting them to visit the farm, which was strictly forbidden before the commandments were erased. At night the pigs and farmers all had a very large meal together and they were drinking and singing. The animals were drawn to the noise and discovered that the farmers and pigs were all playing cards and Napoleon had changed the name of the farm back to “Manor Farm”. The animals were shocked to see farmers on the farm and were very afraid but not sure which of the two they were afraid of more. Evidence of this is, “A number of dog carts drove up to the farm. A deputation of neighbouring farms had been invited to make a tour of inspection” and “They worked diligently, hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing who to be more afraid of the pigs or the human visitors”.
Throughout the story Clover is mentioned more and her feelings are described further. She is described as quite co-operative in the beginning of the book but as the commandments seem to change she gets more and more suspicious, until she finally realises that the pigs are changing them for their own benefit and convenience. Benjamin’s feelings are mentioned less but they are very similar to Clover’s. He knew what the pigs were up to all along and his suspicions were confirmed when the animals saw squealer lying on the floor under the commandments, covered in white paint, next to a broken ladder. The other animals could not understand what had happened but Benjamin realised Squealer was changing the commandments.
Animal Farm is a story about the Russian revolution set on a farm with animals as the main characters. Orwell tries to get you to imagine what characters the animals would play in the revolution. Temptation and corruption are major aspects of this book’s theme, just as Orwell saw it occur after the revolution by the Russian leaders, but in this case it was pigs who were the leaders. At the end of the book, Orwell tells you how, after taking on so many human characteristics, the pigs became man, and how the animals could not tell the difference between pig and man.
