How Orwell presents Napoleon, and how the character develops across the text: from Snowball's quiet rival to a tyrant who rules through dogs, propaganda and terror.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: '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', 'Napoleon produced no schemes of his own', 'seemed to be biding his time', 'casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball', 'with an escort of six dogs who closely surrounded him and growled if anyone came too near', 'he had recently awarded himself', 'our Leader, Comrade Napoleon', 'Friend of the fatherless! / Fountain of happiness! / Lord of the swill-bucket!', 'Throughout the whole period of his seeming friendship with Pilkington, Napoleon had really been in secret agreement with Frederick.', 'Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side', 'The truest happiness, he said, lay in working hard and living frugally.', 'Napoleon was now a mature boar of twenty-four stone.'.
How Napoleon's power grows, from the puppies he trains to the dogs, titles and poems that surround him, and how little he speaks.
Context: Napoleon as Stalin, the quiet organiser who outmanoeuvres his rival, builds a personality cult and rules by purges.
For Edexcel's essay on this text, link each point to its context and the writer's purpose, which earn as many marks as knowledge of the text (16 of 40); language analysis earns no marks there.
