‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, Lord Acton. This quote perfectly depicts the role of power and corruption throughout Animal Farm by George. Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. Power is portrayed largely through four characters Mr. Jones, Old Major, Napoleon and Boxer. As the animals (especially Napoleon) receive a taste of power and authority they begin to become greedy for more. This creates corruption throughout Animal Farm as Napoleon in particular, does whatever it takes to achieve control and power over everyone else. Animal Farm also reflects as an allergy to the Russian Revolution through character such as Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and Tsar Nicholas II.
Old Major as the wisest character in Orwell’s novel takes his place as the most powerful and influential even though he is only present during the initial stages of the novel. One night Old Major had a dream. All the animals gather around to hear what Old Major has to say. What is interesting is that the animal’s sacrifice one hour of sleep just to hear what Old Major has to say. Major imprints themes of equality, joy and ‘Animalism,’ into the minds of all the animals. He also teaches the animals of ‘Manor Farm’ a song by the name of ‘Beasts of England.’ All the animals begin to pick this up showing the great power and influence Old Major had. However, minutes later he died. Three days later the animals took over. Old Major had only given his speech 72 hours before they took over the farm. This once again shows the power and respect that the animals had for Old Major. All in all Old Major began the revolution of ‘Animalism’ yet corruption was brought upon the farm. ‘All animals are equal.’
Napoleon displays an enormous deal of power through his intelligence and manipulation skills. During the initial stages of this novel Napoleon achieves glimpses of power through his intelligence. However, as the novel rolled on Napoleon became greedy for more power. Through Napoleon’s greed he ended up abusing his power creating corruption throughout Animal Farm. The original ideas of Animalism and ‘all animals are equal’ had been completely abolished due to Napoleons lust for power. Napoleon and the other pigs create seven commandments in which everyone must follow. However, as Napoleon takes on human folly’s he begins to break all the laws and bent them for his personal advantage. The windmill symbolizes the pig’s manipulation of the other animals for their benefit. Napoleon exercised his power and intelligence over Jesse by telling her that he must teach the puppies for their own good, but actually uses them to his advantage. Napoleon’s ability to imprint the message ‘Napoleon’s is always right’ into the mind of one of the strongest animals in the farm is