Old Major, Revolutionary Dream and the Seeds of Tyranny

Before we look at who Old Major represents, let's look at his rhetoric. Orwell was fascinated by the power of language to control and persuade. Old Major is a brilliant orator. Right from the start, he uses a specific word to address the other animals. He calls them "Comrades." "Comrades." It's the ultimate linguistic equaliser. It erases the farm's natural hierarchy. Suddenly, the massive cart horse and the tiny duckling are on the same level. They are united by a shared identity. But it's an illusion, isn't it? Even during the speech, there's a physical hierarchy. Old Major is up on a raised bed of straw, under a lantern. The pigs sit directly in front of him. The other animals are behind them. The hierarchy is there before the revolution begins. Spot on. The physical blocking of the scene foreshadows the entire novel. But listen to the actual arguments Major makes. He starts by defining the misery of their existence. Let me quote him: "Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and short." He doesn't sugar-coat it. He unites them through shared suffering. Then he gives them a scapegoat. Man. Man. "Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever." It's a very binary way of looking at the world. Animals are innocent victims, and humans are evil oppressors. Exactly. It's black-and-white thinking. Old Major reduces a complex economic system into a simple, memorable slogan. He boils everything down to a single principle: whatever goes on two legs is an enemy, whatever goes on four legs, or has wings, is a friend. Which is incredibly effective for starting a revolution. You need a clear enemy. But it's terrible for running a society afterwards, because it assumes that once the humans are gone, all the animals will naturally be good to each other. He completely ignores the capacity for evil within the animal kingdom itself. Within his own species. Old Major's fatal flaw isn't malice. It's extreme, blinding optimism. He trusts his fellow pigs.

Now, if Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, who is Old Major? Usually, a character maps onto one historical figure. Napoleon is Joseph Stalin. Snowball is Leon Trotsky. Mr Jones is Tsar Nicholas the Second. But Old Major? He's a hybrid. He's Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Precisely. Let's break that down. Why Karl Marx first? Well, Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848. He provided the theory of Communism, which Orwell translates into "Animalism." Marx said the working classes - the proletariat - were being exploited by the ruling classes - the bourgeoisie. They were doing all the work, and the rich were stealing the profits. Which is exactly what Major says to the animals. "Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human beings." Marx urged the workers of the world to unite and overthrow their masters. Major literally teaches the animals a song of rebellion called Beasts of England. Okay, so the Marx connection is obvious: he's the philosopher. But where does Lenin come in? Lenin was the catalyst. Marx was dead long before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Lenin was the man who actually applied Marx's theories to Russia, who gave the speeches, who riled up the masses and sparked the actual overthrow of the Tsar. Ah. So Orwell compresses them to make the story work. Exactly. In a novella, you need narrative economy. Old Major is the revered older statesman who provides the grand theory like Marx, but who also delivers the direct, incendiary speech that kicks off the immediate rebellion, like Lenin. And there's something else about Lenin. After he died, the Soviet state under Stalin turned him into a sort of god. They embalmed his body and put it on display in Red Square. Hold that thought. Because Orwell does something brilliantly grotesque with Old Major's remains to mirror exactly that.

Three days after his speech, Old Major dies peacefully in his sleep. The rebellion happens months later, seemingly by accident. The animals win. They are free. At first, they try to honour his vision. They paint the Seven Commandments on the barn wall - the core tenets of Animalism. But as the years pass, and Napoleon the pig consolidates his tyrannical power, Old Major's pure ideals are twisted, manipulated, and erased. And they literally dig up his skull. Yes, they do. Orwell writes that the skull of Old Major, now clean of flesh, was disinterred from the orchard and set up on a stump at the foot of the flagstaff, beside the gun. It's a brilliant symbol. By stripping the flesh away, leaving just a skull, Napoleon removes the actual, living reality of Old Major. He reduces him to a prop. Just like Stalin did with Lenin's embalmed body. Exactly. They make the animals file past the skull every Sunday in a reverent manner. They turn him into a religious relic. And this is the great tragic irony of Old Major. A man - or a pig - who preached absolute equality is turned into an idol to enforce absolute obedience.

Wait, it gets worse. Major explicitly warned them against this. In his speech, he said: "In fighting against Man, we must not come to resemble him." "Even when you have conquered him, do not adopt his vices." And what do the pigs do? They sleep in beds. They drink alcohol. They trade with humans. And finally, they walk on two legs. Everything Old Major said was a vice, they adopt as a privilege. They don't just adopt the vices. They actively ban Old Major's legacy. Remember the anthem he taught them? Beasts of England? It was the song of the revolution. It gave them hope. And halfway through the novel, Napoleon bans it. He claims it's no longer needed because the rebellion is complete. But the real reason? Beasts of England is a song about a better future. It's a song that encourages dreaming of a time without oppressors. And Napoleon is the new oppressor. Exactly. The ultimate betrayal of Old Major isn't just that the pigs act like men. It's that they actively outlaw the very dream he used to unite them in the first place.

So, what are we left with when we evaluate Old Major? Is he a hero? A tragic visionary? Or a naive fool? I think he's tragic because his intentions were pure. He truly believed in a world where animals owned the fruits of their own labour. But he was naive. He thought power was purely a human problem. He didn't realise that power itself is corrupting, regardless of who wields it. That is the crux of it. Old Major is the pure, intellectual foundation of the revolution. Without his vision, there is no Animalism. Without his rhetoric, there is no rebellion. But by failing to provide any checks and balances - by assuming that "All animals are comrades" - he accidentally lays the foundation for a dictatorship far worse than Mr Jones's farm. When you write about Old Major in your exams, don't just say he's Karl Marx. Talk about his rhetoric. Talk about how he uses the word "Comrades" to create a false sense of eternal unity. And explore the tragedy of his skull - a symbol of equality twisted into a monument of fear. Basically, the revolution was doomed the moment he died. You could certainly argue that. I'm Arthur, and this has been our deep dive into Old Major. Keep reading closely, question the rhetoric, and remember: just because someone promises you a utopia, doesn't mean they won't build you a cage. See you next time.