Animal farm is a classic portrayal of how power can affect the goals and hopes of society. Animal farm, a story by George Orwell begins with a revolution, and a lot of hopes for a perfect society being developed by the animals by kicking off the humans from the farm but slowly the leading officials, the pigs, get a taste of power and from then on things began to change. A very important part of the novel is the irony George Orwell used to make this novel what it is. In this story, irony is used to show lack of equality, no matter what the original intent was, can result in oppression.
Orwell used three types of irony in his story: dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony. Irony helps develop the story and improves the overall quality of the writing. Dramatic irony is inherent in speeches or a situation of drama which is understood by the reader but not gasped by the characters in the story. A scene in the story that shows the irony is when Boxer “the horse” is sent off to be slaughtered.
The animals are told by squealer that he is being sent off to the hospital, but the readers know that he is not being sent to the hospital.George Orwell used Dramatic irony to make the reader jump out of there sits and tell the animals what is really happening to them and how their being fooled by the pigs. Also when the animals where told by Napoleon that the windmill was knocked down by snowball when it was actually knocked down by the storm. Verbal irony is when a person or a character in the story says or writes something but means another thing.
“No animals may drink alcohol” was one of the seven commandments which were made by the pigs.Later in the story the pigs started drinking alcohol and then they changed the commandment to “no animal may drink alcohol to excess”. Another verbal irony was “all animals are created equal” soon it changes to “all animals are created equal, but some are more equal then others”. In Animal farm, it is used to criticize dictatorship and communism “no animal shall sleep in the bed”, but the pigs start sleeping in the human beds and change the commandment to “no animal shall sleep in beds with sheets” to keep the other animals from questioning them.
Napoleon also changed one of the commandments that said “No animal shall kill another animal” to “No animal shall kill another animal without cause. This was to stop the other animals from questioning Napoleon when he decided to kill the other animals. He then decides that the pigs should start walking as humans and teaching the baby pigs inside the house. Situational irony involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs. The animals took over the farm so that they could have a better life but the pigs took over and the rest of the animals were treated the same.Also the animals hated the animals but when the pigs had a taste of power they start to act like humans.
The pigs start to walk on two legs and teach their kids in schools. They also start to sleep in beds and drink alcohol which was against the commandments. Also the pigs start to control everything and tell the other animals that they are the brains of the operation. This leads to the pigs getting extra stuff and the other animals listening to them and doing extra work.
The animals also get the same amount of food as they did with the humans but the pigs tell them that they are getting a ton more of food then they actually where. Irony builds a sense of excitement for the readers by changing the expected result to something else. No one expected the pigs to act like humans in the end because at the beginning they hated the humans. Also Overall, George Orwell uses irony, the animals, the windmill, and the seven commandments as symbolic ways to relate the way that people with more power manipulate other people under them.
