Napoleon
A large, fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm. He is not much of a talker and has a reputation for getting his own way. Early on he takes nine newly weaned puppies away to educate privately, and the farm forgets they exist.
To decide, alone, and to be the only animal who ever needed to. He produces no plans while Snowball produces many, speaks less than anyone in the debates, and spends the time between meetings making sure the vote will not matter.
The book
At a glance
- A boar, and the animal who ends up running Animal Farm
- Berkshire — the only one on the farm
- Being bred up for sale by Mr Jones, along with Snowball
- Nine dogs reared from puppies in a loft, plus four at the corners of his bed
- Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon; later President of the Republic, elected unopposed
- A mature boar of twenty-four stone
- Chapter II onward, and in every chapter after that
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeNapoleon is one of the two young boars Mr Jones was breeding up for sale when Old Major made his speech in the barn. George Orwell introduces him in a single sentence beside his rival: a large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball gets the adjectives — vivacious, quicker in speech, more inventive — and is said to lack the same depth of character. Almost everything the book does with Napoleon afterwards is a demonstration of what that sentence means.
He does not argue well and does not try to. Through the first winter of debates he produces no schemes of his own, says only that Snowball's will come to nothing, and works instead on who will be in the barn when a vote is taken; he is described as especially successful with the sheep. On the day the windmill is finally put to the vote, he speaks for barely thirty seconds. Then he makes a sound nobody has heard him make before, and the nine dogs he has been rearing in a loft come into the barn.
After that the farm reorganises around him. The Sunday debates end and a committee of pigs meets in private. He appears in public less than once a fortnight, escorted by six dogs, preceded by a black cockerel that crows before he speaks. The pigs invent titles for him — Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings' Friend — and he awards himself both of the farm's military decorations and then a third of his own creation. He also does the one thing the other pigs cannot: he negotiates. He plays the two neighbouring farmers against each other over a pile of timber, forces one of them up twelve pounds, and refuses to take payment as a cheque.
How the book draws them
- How he is introducedA large, rather fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. He and Snowball were both being fattened for sale before the Rebellion.
- The milkOn the first morning of the Rebellion the pigs milk the cows and five buckets of frothing milk stand in the yard. Napoleon places himself in front of them, says the harvest is more important and that the milk will be attended to, and sends everyone to the hayfield behind Snowball. By evening the milk is gone.
- On the plansHe held aloof from Snowball's windmill drawings for weeks, then came to the incubator shed unannounced, walked round it, looked closely at every detail, snuffed at the plans once or twice, urinated over them and walked out without saying anything.
- The puppiesWhen Jessie and Bluebell produced nine puppies between them, he said the education of the young mattered more than anything and took them away as soon as they were weaned. He kept them in a loft that could be reached only by a ladder, and the rest of the farm soon forgot that they existed.
- How he speaksHis speeches are short and to the point. He reads out the week's orders in a gruff soldierly style. When he is thinking hard his tail goes rigid and twitches sharply from side to side, which the other animals learn to read as a sign.
- The titlesHe is never spoken of simply as Napoleon after a while, but as our Leader, Comrade Napoleon. The pigs invent titles for him: Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings' Friend. Squealer speaks of his wisdom with tears running down his cheeks.
- Separate apartmentsHe lives apart from the other pigs in the farmhouse, eats alone with two dogs waiting on him, and always off the Crown Derby dinner service from the drawing-room cupboard. Four dogs guard his bed, one at each corner, and a young pig named Pinkeye tastes his food before he eats it.
- The timber dealHe kept both neighbouring farmers guessing for months, let it be understood he was selling to one, and sold to the other. The manoeuvre raised the price by twelve pounds. He refused a cheque, which he was told was a piece of paper with a promise to pay written on it, and demanded five-pound notes handed over before the timber left the yard.
- The medalsHe awarded himself Animal Hero, First Class and Animal Hero, Second Class, and wore both. After the second battle he created the Order of the Green Banner and conferred it on himself. He also had the gun fired every year on his birthday.
Napoleon quotes
Napoleon is always right.
Everything the animals agreed to in the first year is reversed under him, and each reversal is presented as something they misremembered.