During the Battle of the Cowshed, most of the main characters are shown to be fighting in the heat of the battle, including Snowball, Boxer, Clover, Benjamin and Muriel; even the cat, a minor character, was mentioned. Being one of the leading figures in the farm, Napoleon would have been expected to be one of the key fighters, or at least be known to be present at the battle. However, while the actions of Snowball (who “dashed straight for Jones”) and Boxer (who was “rearing up on his hind-legs”) are described in detail, Napoleon is not even mentioned once. It can therefore be assumed that he was indeed not present at the scene. From this, we can detect cowardice as one of his numerous traits. He let other animals risk their lives in battle while he himself remained just a bystander. This implies that perhaps in the future, Napoleon would let all his fellow beasts do the farm-work while he merely watches them.
During the Sunday meetings in the farm, Napoleon was “never in agreement” with Snowball and he uses sheep to silence Snowball at critical moments in his speeches. The fact that Napoleon was “canvassing support for himself” between meetings shows his cunning and also his level of power at the gatherings. He was also shrewdly trying to put Snowball down by contradicting him, and thereby making the animals doubt Snowball’s rhetoric.
Napoleon took the nine puppies of Jessie and Bluebell into his care in the pretext of making “himself responsible for their education”. However, he was in fact training them to be his soldiers in order to expel Snowball and seize control of the farm. This shows that his strike for power was pre-meditated which further emphasises his devious character. The expulsion of Snowball reveals his desire to have total control over the farm. By announcing that the “Sunday morning Meetings would come to an end”, Napoleon made sure that there would be no room for people to speak out against him. This is enforced when the dogs “let out deep, menacing growls” when four porkers tried to oppose him. This completely unmasks his love of power.
Napoleon can be thought of as a hypocrite. Three weeks after chasing Snowball off the farm, he announced that “the windmill was to be built after all”. He then asks Squealer to tell the animals that “the windmill was, in fact, Napoleon’s own creation”. Napoleon was clearly trying to twist the minds of the animals into thinking that he was trying to improve their lives.
The destruction of the first windmill demonstrates Napoleon’s incredible ability to seize an opportunity for his own purposes. Afraid of being indecisive and a failure while all the animals stare at the toppled windmill, Napoleon uses the name of Snowball as Squealer did with Jones: “Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL!” For the rest of the novel, Snowball is used as a scapegoat for all of Napoleon’s failings. The fact that he immediately orders the rebuilding of the windmill implies that he does not want to give the animals any time to consider the credibility of his story about Snowball.
Napoleon again shows his political cunning by altering several of the commandments. For example, he changes “No animal shall kill any other animal” to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause” and “All animals are equal” to “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. Changing the commandments shows that he controls the farm to such an extent that he can even re-write the laws to suit his needs.
After becoming the indisputable leader of Animal Farm, Napoleon becomes a paranoid egomaniac. First, he is rarely seen in public and when he is, he is heralded by a black cockerel. Second, he is referred to with flattering phrases such as “Protector of the Sheep-fold”. Third, he lives in a separate room from the other pigs and only eats from the Crown Derby dinner service. Fourth, he orders the gun to be fired on his birthday. Next, he orders a poem about himself to be inscribed on a wall and surmounted with a painting of his profile. Furthermore, he has a pig called Pinkeye to taste all his food to ensure it is not poisoned. Then, he names the windmill ‘Napoleon Mill’ and finally, he orders all the animals to file past him as he lies on a heap of straw next to a pile of money. This shows that Napoleon is vain and egotistic. His powerful image as a dictator is used as a powerful means of controlling his subjects.
Napoleon is overall portrayed as having a cunning, vain and greedy character. Old Major’s words clearly encouraged Napoleon not to fight against tyranny, but to establish himself as a tyrant. His greatest crime is his complete transformation into a ‘human’, although Napoleon is harsher than Jones ever was. By replacing the name ‘Animal Farm’ with ‘Manor Farm’, he shows his total disregard for Old Major’s ideals.
