Animal Farm Characters

Don't Look NowNapoleon is smart—smart enough not to play much a role in the initial rebellion. It's only after the animals have rebelled that he takes a leadership role. When we meet him, we lear...

Battle Royale(Click the character infographic to download.) We meet Snowball when the pigs decide to spread Old Major's message through the farm. He's "a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker i...

Squealer. Do you get it? He squeals. A lot. Or, as the narrator puts it, he's "a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whiski...

Nice DoggyLook, we know the dogs are brutal and vicious, but can you really blame them? Napoleon raises them specifically to be his own little private army: he takes them from their parents as pupp...

Brawn not BrainsBoxer is the strongest animal on the farm, "an enormous beast, nearly eighteen hands high, and as strong as any two ordinary horses put together [...] he was not of first-rate intel...

Do I Look Fat in These Ribbons?(Click the character infographic to download.) Mollie is stupid, vain, and materialistic. (It's a good thing she's pretty.) From the very beginning, we get hints that...

Benjamin is "the oldest animal on the farm and the worst tempered. He seldom talked, and when he did, it was usually to make some cynical remark" (1.3). (Think Eeyore, but smarter.) (Click the char...

It's all Old Major's fault. (Well, you could also go with Mr. Jones.) But the rebellion started with Old Major. See, he had a dream—and he wants to tell everyone about it. (It's a good thing that...

Clover is Boxer's companion, a "stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal" (1.3). Ouch. That was way harsh, Orwell. Like Boxer, she'...

When the pigs first begin talking up their ideas about Animalism, they have to "counteract the lies put about by Moses, the tame raven" (2.8). Moses is the Joneses' favorite pet, a clever talker wh...

Animal Farm opens with a bang: "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes" (1.1). Great. Mr. Jones is drunk, cruel, a...

The three dogs are mostly around to have the nine puppies that Napoleon turns into his private army. (Well, that's the point of two of them, anyway.)What's weird is that the dogs, who have teeth an...

Napoleon may not be great with a crowd, but he's "especially successful with the sheep" (5.8). He teaches them simple cheers, has them chant at strategic times during public meetings, and even hand...

Mr. Pilkington owns Foxwood, a neighboring farm. And—he doesn't sound so bad, really. The narrator tells us that he's "an easy-going gentleman farmer who spent most of his time in fishing or hunt...

Mr. Frederick owns the neighboring farm of Pinchfield. He may be a human farmer, but he's no drunk idiot like Mr. Jones: he's "a tough, shrewd man, perpetually involved in lawsuits and with a name...

Whymper acts as "an intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world" (6.7). He's the first human the pigs permit contact with after the Rebellion, constantly showing up in minor role to pass...