著者

山内 暁彦

出版者

徳島大学

雑誌

言語文化研究 (ISSN:13405632)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.19-44, 2014-12

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This essay examines some of the animal characters, especially pigs and horses, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story by George Orwell. Attention is paid to problems experienced by animals in the beast fable. For example, while pigs cannot stand or talk, they use trotters as hands and direct other animals to be laborious. The pigs behave like humans throughout the story and eventually cannot be distinguished from people, showing criticism of the failed revolution. There is consideration of how the transformation of pigs and other animals was derived from conventional fables and fantasy, including Nursery Rhymes and Beatrix Potter's Pigling Bland. The rational Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels are seen as precedents of the clever pigs since Orwell puts pigs in the position of the ruling class animals to criticize their nastiness. The simple and overworking carthorse Boxer represents working class people in that he is so devoted to the farm and to Napoleon and he serves as a role model for other subservient animals. Unfortunately, Boxer lacks the memory and reasoning of Houyhnhnms. The difference in abilities of speech and manipulation between pigs and horses is essential in determining their position on the farm and these animal characters are skillfully created for the sake of Orwell's satire against totalitarianism and tyrannical dictators in general.