The Importance Of Power In George Orwell's Animal Farm

Power can have the persuasive action in undoing the moral ethics of one’s character. This can be seen throughout history with the Russian Revolution and can also be proven by the actions of Napoleon in the allegory, Animal Farm, by George Orwell. As Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In history what was viewed as a villain, is never the same as the perception. A leader does not begin wanting to do wrong, they start with the best intentions, but power is a tricky thing. As someone gains more and more power, they increasingly become corrupted with that power.
In the novel, Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm, neglects, abuses and mistreats his animals until he is thrown out. When one of the pigs, Napoleon,

The pigs have most of the power so, “The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership,” (Orwell 46). This is significant because since the pigs were superior in knowledge, they were able to assume most of the leadership, which created their power. The pigs would soon take advantage of that power and corrupt most of the farm. Soon, the whole entire farm was chanting, “Long Live, Comrade Napoleon,” and, “in April, Animal Farm was proclaimed a Republic, and it became necessary to elect a President. There was only one candidate, Napoleon, who was elected unanimously,” (Orwell 118). This isn’t right because an election with only one candidate who 's elected unanimously. It sounds like this Animal Farm republic is looking a lot more like a dictatorship. It seems that Napoleon has brainwashed the farm with his power. All in all, the more power handed around the more the person or animal, in this case, is corrupted in their own

Old Major was in power at the beginning and forming of animal farm. Old Major had a dream about a rebellion and he stated to the animals, “I do not know when that rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done,” (Orwell 30). This shows that, Old Major, who is a respected animal on the farm, had given a speech to stir the animals emotion into rebellion. This also exemplifies that he used his power of respect and trust to persuade the others to pursue the vision in his dream. The facts state that Old Major had all the power, but, history has proven that dictatorship does not work, due to the fact that, power leads to corruption in a communist style government. As Napoleon gained power after Snowball died, Napoleon took advantage of his power as it states, “Throughout the spring and summer they worked a sixty hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would be work on Sunday afternoons as well, “ (Orwell 73). This is significant because since Snowball had died, Napoleon took over "The Animal Farm" which led to food shortage, hard labour, and deaths. Napoleon used all his knowledge and education to take over the farm. This also shows that with all the pigs and dogs on his side Napoleon had absolute power over everyone. In conclusion, Power corrupted society and