Character Sketch of Napoleon

Amol Chahal

English Character Sketch – 1

Character Sketch of Napoleon Napoleon is the most dominant and perhaps the best developed character by George Orwell in Animal Farm. He is the chief character in the novel. He is not only cleverest in the farm but also considered the superior among all the animals. He knows how to lead all the animals. His egocentricity is described very evidently in the novel. Because he is egotistic and clever, he is able to establish himself as the dictator of the Animal Farm. Napoleon is a huge, potent and vigorous pig. We know this when Orwell describes him as: “Napoleon was a large, fierce-looking Berkshire boar.”(Ch-2, pg. – 5, online edition) Being the only one from Berkshire race, he is generally considered much more superior, elite and predominant. He certainly possesses strong leadership skills due to which he becomes a successful tyrant. He is very intelligent and right after becoming the leader, he immediately learns how to read and write. The writer tells us about this as: “With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.” (Ch-3, pg. – 9, online edition) So we can conclude that he is intelligent and well read. This fact contributes to his leadership arousal as he sets himself off at a higher step than all the other animals. He eventually emerges out as a successful leader in the Animal farm. He is noticeably a perfect deceiver, savage, cruel and ruthless. He is very dishonest and treacherous. He apparently steals the milk during the rebellion. Then, he takes all the supply of milk and apples from animals in a clever and hypocritical way. He is harsh and ruthless in his ways. He uses nine dogs as his body guards and slaughters anyone who shows disloyalty and dishonesty to him. Moreover, to his own benefit, he makes changes in the actual original commandments by favouring them for his own advantage. These evidences infer his wicked qualities like cruelty, savagery and dishonesty. Although he started off by overtaking Old Major’s principles, which implied not to behave like humans, he indeed accepted human behavior by amending the commandments to satisfy his own desires. He and other pigs start sleeping in a bed without a sheet. He engages himself in trade to earn some money to invest on the windmill. All these humanlike behavior characteristics are adopted by Napoleon, which were strictly against Old Major’s Principles of liberty and equality.