The first animal to separately question the pigs was Clover, who was a horse on the farm. Clover thought she could remember a commandment stating that, “No animal shall sleep in a bed”. She was right. It was the 4th commandment. Yet the pigs had moved into the farmhouse to live. All the other animals on the farm were amazed by this as well but did not want to question the pigs. Clover went to see Muriel the goat. Muriel takes the role of reading the commandments to the other farm animals when they’ve forgotten them. Clover asks Muriel about the commandment of no animal shall sleep in a bed. Muriel with difficulty says, “It says, “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets”. This is interpreted that humans make sheets and no animal shall sleep on something that has been made by human hands.
Again Squealer reassured them that it was permissible for the pigs to sleep in the house because it improved their brainpower. Clover accepted what Squealer said but was still puzzled because that’s not how she remembered it.
In chapter seven, we see the execution of many of the animals by the pigs. They were all slaughtered because they were all believed to have had contact with Snowball, a pig who was banished from the farm by Napoleon. The first to be killed were some little pigs. Napoleon unleashed guard dogs on them at a meeting he had called. The dogs trailed them to the front of the meeting and ripped out their throats. Hens were also killed because they told of the dreams that they had of Snowball telling them to defy Napoleon and the rest of the pigs. This broke the second and sixth commandment in one go. “Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend” and “No animal shall kill any other animal”. Again more commandments were broken and changed without the knowledge of the other farm animals. For, when Clover asked Muriel to read the commandments to her again, Muriel finished differently again. The sixth commandment that states that no animal shall kill any other animal was ended “Without cause”. This meant that it was acceptable to kill another animal if they had done something wrong. And again the animals did not question the pigs any further.
One day the pigs found cases of whiskey in the cellar of the farmhouse. This was the start of the next commandment to be altered, which was the fifth one; “No animal shall drink alcohol”.
On the same night that the pigs found the whiskey, the other animals were awakened by them singing “Beasts of England”, drunk.
Weeks later the animals were awakened yet again, by a loud noise in the yard. They found Squealer lying next to a broken ladder with a tin of white paint, a brush and a lantern. The animals ignored it as usual because they didn’t know or couldn’t think what he was up to.
Days later Muriel the goat read over the commandments just for herself. She saw that there was another commandment that the animals had read wrongly. It read, “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess”. Again yet another commandment changed by the pigs for their advantage.
In chapter ten the last of the commandments are broken. It begins with Clover neighing terrified from the yard. The other animals rush to see what is the matter. And they too see what Clover sees and are also horrified.
“It was a pig walking on his hind legs. Yes, it was Squealer”. The broken commandment in this case was “whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy”.
Clover nudged Benjamin the donkey who like Muriel was able to read the commandments off for the rest of the farm animals. Clover told Benjamin how her eyesight was failing and that she would like Benjamin to read the commandments for her because they did not look the same. Benjamin read off what was now on the wall, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
The next day on the farm shows us the pigs carrying whips in their trotters. They had a radio, were installing a telephone and were reading newspapers. Then they appeared in clothing. This was the last of the commandments the pigs break. Which was, “No animal shall wear clothes”.
So, without the other animals realising, the pigs made them believe what they wanted them to believe. Also they made them do what they wanted them to do and in general took over Animal Farm with out the other animal’s knowledge.
