Irony in Animal Farm Essay

ANIMAL FARM IRONY ESSAY

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, from then 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.

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 by Napoleon. 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.

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 the bed with sheets. George Orwell used verbal irony to show how selfish the pigs become after they get taste of the power.

Situational irony is irony involving a situation in which an action has an effect that is opposite from what was intended. In the novel, situational irony is that the animals took over the farm so they could run it themselves because they did not like the way they were being treated by the humans, and they did not get as much food as they wanted. The Animals did not like the humans at all. In the end of the story the pigs end up exactly like the people that they hated. None of the animals had enough food because of the pigs. They start wearing cloths of the humans, and started walking around on two legs. The pigs go from animals who hated the humans to animals who act like humans and started treating the animals like they were treated before. George Orwell used situational irony to show how power can lead to a corruption.

George Orwells novel Animal Farm is full of ironies. Irony in the story made up most of the intense and the strong part of the story, and George Orwell tried to explain with the three types of ironies that the animals tried to be equal, but in time, some animals had certain views and different opinions and some gradually became more powerful. No matter how hard in society we try, equality will never truly be reached by mankind for the reason that "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" (Lord Acton).