Animal Farm Character Analysis

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In Animal Farm there is an instersting cast of characters. Each character or group of characters has a political representation. However, Orwell is more concerned with political psychology than with individual characters. As Jenni Calder states:

“The allegory is very precise in its use of the major figures and incidents of the Russian Revolution. It expresses quite nakedly and with a complete lack of intellectual argument those aspects of Stalinism that most disturbed Orwell. At the same time the humbleness and warmth of the narrative give an attractive obliqueness without turning the direction of the satire. We can feel compassion for Orwell's creatures in a way that we cannot for Winston Smith, for the stark narrative of 1984 stuns our capacity for reaction. But Animal Farm is equally relentless in its message.”
-Jenni Calder, Chronicles of Conscience, 1968

Remember, this is a fable, not a novel. The animals are meant to represent certain types of human beings and ideas, not complex individuals. Some of them are even group characters, without any individual name: "the sheep," "Napoleon's dogs," "the hens." The "main character" of Animal Farm is actually all of the animals taken together as a group. It's what happens to the group as a whole- whether their Rebellion succeeds or fails, and why- that really matters. Still, it is important to notice the distinctions between certain types and individuals.

To start with, we have the pigs. The pigs lead the Rebellion from the start and progressively take on the same power and characteristics as the human masters they helped overthrow. They represent corrupted human leaders, in particular, the Bolsheviks, who led the overthrow of the capitalist Russian government, only to become new masters in their turn. Old Major, makes a stirring speech to the animals to help set the Rebellion in motion- t...