The Use Of Dramatic Irony In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a classic satirical allegory written by George Orwell. The text follows a band of farm animals who have revolted against their leader, Farmer Jones and have created their own system of governing called 'Animalism '. Using this text as his medium Orwell comments on the tyranny of political leaders, the purpose of revolutions and the naivety of the general public. The author employs the techniques of symbolism, characterisation and irony to convey his ideals and alert society of how power corrupts, that our ideals can never become reality and how the public should be more informed and wary of their political counterparts.

Animal Farm implements the technique symbolism to make its allegory more effective and allow its message to be conveyed easily. There are many instances of symbolism in the work, mostly in the form of metaphors such as the windmill, the names of the animals and the slow

The next technique used by the author is irony. Specifically, dramatic and situational irony. The dramatic irony is used in the novel to highlight how the public can be ill-informed and act without any consideration of the obvious. An example of this is when Boxer is supposedly being taken to the veterinarian and almost nobody (Except Benjamin) questions the fact that the van carrying him away has the words "Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler" written on it due to their illiteracy. This dramatic irony relates to Orwell 's ideal that the public should be more politically active otherwise they can be taken advantage of by tyrannical leaders. The situational irony in Animal Farm stems from how the animals first defeat the dictator Farmer Jones and believe they can achieve a free and equal society but then another dictator rises to fill the power void and the animals are again enslaved. The author uses this to emphasize how revolutions follow the pattern of "one step forward, two steps back" and how in the end, they always undo any progress that they have