Animal

farm by George Orwell

Di d ac ti c Materi al

Adapted by Paul Stebbings

Directed by Gaspard Legendre
Produced by Grantly Marshall
 GEORGE ORWELL

George Orwell (1903-1950) is a writer 1: Early life. The rejection of privilege. The
and activist who is also considered as a rejection of Empire.
prophet.
A biography of George Orwell, born Although Eric Blair was not born into the
Eric Blair, appears elsewhere in these aristocracy, his proud parents ensured
notes. This is an attempt to review the he attended Britain’s most elite school:
themes, experiences and ideas that Eton. The school has provided more
illuminated his extraordinary life and prime ministers than another and one
career. As time passes Orwell’s which the royal family often send their
reputation and influence only sons. This all male school was locked in
increases, and he cements his place as the values of Victorian Britain. In the
one of the most effective and accurate 1920’s it was dedicated to privilege and
commutators on our modern world. Empire. Eric Blair received a solid
This is a reputation that he earned not education while being able to observe the
just by his writing but by his strange ways of an upper class who may
experience. This essay on the man have dominated much of the globe, but
attempts to link his work to his life. who had no idea of the working poor of
England. As a scholarship boy (not paying
fees) , young Blair was looked down upon
and did not do well academically.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

Unsure of what to do after Eton, Eric followed his family into the Imperial Civil
Service and became a policeman in the British Colony of Burma, a minor province
of the sprawling and fragile British Empire.

Key works: BURMESE DAYS. SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT.

“Shooting an elephant “ is the one of the finest short stories written in English in
the 20th century. In a small Burmese town an elephant has run riot. But now the
giant beast sits calmly in the town square. The locals expect the white Policeman
to shoot the elephant. This is the role of Empire. The policeman (Blair) endures
the cold hatred of the local population and goes to do his duty. It is as pointless to
kill the peaceful elephant as to rule another country because one is white. He
shoots the helpless elephant. His job is done and he returns to his house full of
self-hatred and loathing for the Empire.

Eric Blair resigned from the Imperial Police, returned to Britain and became a
school teacher.

“He wears a mask, and his

face grows to fit it.“

“When the white man turns

tyrant, it is his own freedom
that he destroys.“

Quotations from “Shooting an

Elephant”. G Orwell.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

THE DESCENT INTO POVERTY

Key work: Down and Out in Paris and London

Blair was fascinated by the poverty that most wealthy people avoided in Britain.
He started exploring the East End, the poor quarter of London which housed
poverty and neglect as terrible as any in Burma. After spending a night in a “kip”
(homeless shelter), he decided to adopt this life himself. He spent the next two
years on and off “tramping” the roads of England sleeping rough or in “the spikes”
(shelters). He moved to Paris after a while and lived in terrible poverty there too,
finally working as a dish washer in a grand hotel. Curiously he would often escape
from his life to visit wealthy relatives in Britain and France then return to the
road, its hardship and stink.

He wrote an account of these experiences in: DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND
LONDON. This became his first true success and was published in London and
New York.

“In practice nobody cares if work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the
sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable. In all the modern talk about
energy, efficiency, social service and the rest of it, what meaning is there except "
Get money, get it legally, and get a lot of it"? Money has become the grand test of
virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised.”
― George Orwell, quote from Down and Out in Paris and London

“If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can keep on
with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in
here" - he tapped his forehead - "and you're all right.”
― George Orwell, quote from Down and Out in Paris and London
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

Eric Blair had now created his own “nom de Plume” George Orwell. He had also
gained a reputation as a social observer. He became naturally drawn to Socialist
principles and moved in Left wing literary and social circles in London. But he
wanted to do more. So at the invitation of the Labour party he set out to explore
and describe the poorest areas of “Imperial” Britain, the small working class towns
of the North which had always been poor but who suffered even more during the
Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Key work: THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER.

A description of this small drab town and its downtrodden population, the
unemployed, the coal miners and the men and women who lived in hopeless
poverty.

“It is only when you meet someone of a different

culture from yourself that you begin to realize
what your own beliefs really are.”

“Every empty belly is an argument for socialism”.

- Orwell The Road To Wigan Pier.

But The Road To Wigan Pier is not just a political book by someone who believes
they are “right” is also asks questions and is critical of the author as well as many of
his fellow Left wingers. This is a crucial part of his life and work. He never belongs
to a group without standing back and examining its weaknesses and hypocrisies.

“One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and
‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker,
nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist in
England.”
― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

But he understood poverty as he had lived it, and his sympathy always remained with
the poor and exploited members of society. Even in his last novel “1984” the Prols
(workers) are the only source of hope.

“In a way it is even humiliating to watch coal-miners working. It raises in you a

momentary doubt about your own status as an ‘intellectual’ and a superior person
generally. For it is clear that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that
superior persons can remain superior. You and I and the Archbishop of Canterbury
and Comrade X, author of Marxism for Infants – all of us really owe our comfortable
lives to poor miners underground, blackened to the eyes, with their throats full of
coal dust, driving their shovels forward with arms and belly muscles of steel.”
― George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier

Action not words – Orwell in the

Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War was the great

issue for the Left inthe 1930’s. They
correctly saw it as a dress rehearsal
for the attempt at domination by the
fascist powers of Europe – Germany
and Italy. The democracies of
France and Britain foolishly tried to
stay neutral and this infuriated most
of the organised Left.

The Democratic governments were too afraid of Communist Russia, who supported
the Republic against the rebel fascist forces of Franco. Hitler and Mussolini supported
Franco with resources and even military forces. Gradually Stalin’s Russia did the same
for the Republic. But before the Russians became important, volunteers from all over
Europe joined the ‘International Brigades’ to fight against fascism and defend the
young socialist republic of Spain. George Orwell joined the International Brigade and
fought in the front line near Barcelona. He was nearly killed in battle, a bullet passing
though his neck. His major book about his Spanish experience entitled HOMAGE TO
CATALONIA remains a classic of both war and political literature.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

This period of Orwell’s life is crucial, because he experienced not only the fight
against fascism but also the civil war within a civil war, where Stalin’s Communists
fought in the streets of Barcelona against the Anarchists and socialists who had first
rallied to defend the Republic. He was shocked and understood the parallel between
Stalin and Hitler before many others understood this bitter fact.Any reading of
ANIMAL FARM or 1984has to take into account Orwell’s shame as he realised that the
side he had been fighting for was little different from the Fascists he fought against. It
is in Spain that Orwell understood that Totalitarianism (Dictatorship) and that each
Dictator only used political aims or ideology as a cover for a naked grab of power at
the expense of the individual and their liberty.

Franco won the war with Hitler’s help. The wounded Orwell returned to London,
having witnessed the bloody suppression of the Anarchists and Socialists by the Stalin
backed Communist Party, which contributed to the Republican defeat.

Key work: HOMAGE TO CATALONIA

“There are occasions when it pays better to fight

and be beaten than not to fight at all.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

“If you had asked me why I had joined the militia I

should have answered: 'To fight against Fascism,'
and if you had asked me what I was fighting for, I
should have answered: 'Common decency.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

“The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think worth
describing in detail… They laid me down again while somebody fetched a stretcher. As
soon as I knew that the bullet had gone clean through my neck I took it for granted
that I was done for. I had never heard of a man or an animal getting a bullet through
the middle of the neck and surviving it. The blood was dribbling out of the comer of
my mouth. ‘The artery's gone,’ I thought. I wondered how long you last when your
carotid artery is cut; not many minutes, presumably. Everything was very blurry.
There must have been about two minutes during which I assumed that I was killed.
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

Beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact and the distortion inevitably caused by

my having seen only one corner of events.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

Orwell at the front line

of the Spanish civil War.

JOURNALISM, ESSAYS AND PROPAGANDA

ORWELL IN THE SEC

OND WORLD WAR

Key work, the long essay:

The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius (1941)

Orwell developed Tuberculosis after returning to Britain and very nearly died. The
disease was to kill him ten years later. Unable to fight he joined the BBC to work on
propaganda broadcasting. At first he was optimistic that the War would encourage
Socialism but became unhappy with the half-truths he was forced to write at the BBC
and the lack of political progress. When Hitler invaded the USSR he was appalled that
the Western Allies forgave all Stalin’s murderous faults (and previous alliance with the
Nazis) and came to worship Stalinism, which he had seen at first (bloody) hand in
Spain. Orwell stayed in London for most of the War and endured the Nazi bombing.

“The BBC is something between a girls’ school and a lunatic asylum, and all we are doing
at present is useless, or slightly worse than useless.” - Orwell (1942)

Orwell was to use his experience of working inside the BBC in his novel ‘1984’, and
indeed Big Brother is also ‘BB’ -Brenden Bracken, Churchill’s brilliant and domineering
Minister of Information and controller of the BBC during the war. Orwell left the BBC
to edit the main left wing journal Tribune and was far happier.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

‘One cannot see the modern world as it is

unless one recognizes the overwhelming
strength of patriotism, national loyalty.
In certain circumstances it can break
down, but as a force there is nothing to
set beside it. Christianity and
international Socialism are as weak as
straw in comparison with it. Hitler and
Mussolini rose to power in their own
countries very largely because they could
grasp this fact and their opponents could
not’.
― Orwell: The Lion and Unicorn

‘By revolution we become more ourselves, not less. There is no question of stopping
short, striking a compromise, salvaging “democracy”, standing still. Nothing ever
stands still. We must add to our heritage or lose it, we must grow greater or grow
less, we must go forward or backward. I believe in England, and I believe that we shall
go forward’.
― Orwell: The Lion and Unicorn

Orwell tries to find a balance between patriotism and Socialism, between human
liberty and systems of government/authority. And as he states in HOMAGE TO
CATALONIA he believes deeply in “common decency”, respect for others and an
essential human ‘goodness’ especially among the weak and poor. Perhaps that
‘decency’ is an English tradition, a moderation and sense of fairness that is the best of
English culture just as the Empire and the rulers of that empire embody the worst of
Britain.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

THE LITERARY SUMMIT (1) :

ANIMAL FARM

George Orwell conceived of the perfect metaphor for his political and social beliefs in
the creation of ANIMAL FARM (1944/45). The book’s balance between farmyard fable
and crystal clear political analysis is unique. It remains constantly up to date; sadly
the Totalitarianism and cynical manipulation of ideology is as present in today’s world
as in 1944. Right and Left have combined to exploit and pervert the book: Stalin’s
agents at the BBC manged to delay its publication, the CIA funded the distorted 1950’s
cartoon version and Orwell himself struggled to delay the US publication until he
could ensure that it was not used as a weapon against Socialism. It is often forgotten
that the ultimate target of the book is Capitalism as much as Stalinism. Napoleon the
Dictator Pig enters into agreements with the Farmers to restore capitalism to Manor
Farm. The purpose of his grab for piggy power is to make money. The hens fail to keep
their eggs which are sold, even the workhorse Boxer is sold for glue. Dictatorial power
is a means to ensure wealth and comfort of the Pigs and their enforcers (dogs). The
other Animals foolishly believe they are working for equality and a better future for
all. As usual, Orwell seeks a complexity and balance and does not preach.

“THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS:

WHATEVER GOES UPON TWO LEGS IS AN ENEMY.
WHATEVER GOES UPON FOUR LEGS, OR HAS WINGS, IS A FRIEND.
NO ANIMAL SHALL WEAR CLOTHES.
NO ANIMAL SHALL SLEEP IN A BED.
NO ANIMAL SHALL DRINK ALCOHOL.
NO ANIMAL SHALL KILL ANY OTHER ANIMAL.
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL.”

PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

The literary summit(2): 1984

Orwell became increasingly ill with tuberculosis after the war ended. He and his wife
escaped the smog of London to live in the healthy air of a Scottish Island (Mull) in a
remote cottage, where he wrote his last masterpiece: 1984.

The book is a dystopia (a vision of the future

as Hell on earth rather than a paradise as in
its opposite: Utopia). Orwell explores the
ultimate degradation, a world where the Party
are no longer committed to ideology but
pursue power nakedly and with total cruelty.
He uses his experience in propaganda at the
BBC to suggest how this might be
achieved.The chief means are the destruction
and simplification of language: so that words
lose their meanings and no one can even
think thoughts against the State or the Party.
1984 is a brilliant combination of a thriller and
love story set within a dictatorship of the
human mind as well as society. The book has
entered the realm of myth and the adjective
“Orwellian” is used frequently to describe a
nightmare state.
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

Today the phrase “Big brother is watching you” becomes more insidious as we
lose control of our digital identity. Further away, we see the total social and
political control that Orwell predicted taking place in East Asia. Even language
follows Orwell’s pattern as the digital world dumbs down rich and complex
language in favour of ‘tweets’, while fake news replaces fact. Antivaxxers and
dictators do not bother with any pretence of truthfulness, polluting companies
“greenwash” their image and we live in shifting world where our identity is for
sale and unorthodox opinion a danger to ourselves. All of this is brilliantly
exposed in 1984. It may well be the most significant novel of the last one
hundred years, the story with which the future will remember our time, (unless
it is banned, as it is in several countries). But this darkest of books also
celebrates love even if it fails, as ever Orwell offers a complex and satisfying
view of humanity through his writing.

Shortly after finishing 1984 George Orwell died from a lung haemorrhage.

He was 46 years old.

PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

QUIZ GAME

1) What was George Orwell’s real name:

a) George Elliot
b) D. H. Lawrence
c) Joe Bloggs
d) Eric Blair

2) In which colony was Orwell a policeman?

a) India
b) Australia
c) Burma
d) Kenya

3) What job did Orwell take in Paris?

a) Journalist
b) Street sweeper
c) Diplomat
d) Dish washer

4) Orwell wrote a book on poverty called: “The road to Wigan Pier”. What is a pier?
a) A coal mine
b) A dock for boats
c) An unemployment office
d) A crane for goods

5) Orwell served as a soldier and was wounded in what conflict?

a) The Spanish Civil War
b) The Second World War
c) The First world war
d) The Russian Revolution
PAGE 3 G. ORWELL

6) In the second world war Orwell served as:

a) A front line solder
b) A spy
c) A BBC journalist
d) An intelligence officer

7) In Animal Farm the Pig Snowball represents:

a) Stalin
b) Hitler
c) Franco
d) Trotsky

8) In Animal Farm the Crow represents:

a) The secret Police
b) The Church
c) The Communist Party
d) The Red Army

9) What is the most famous sentence in Animal Farm:

a) All animals are equal.
b) Four legs good, two legs bad
c) All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
d) Workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains.

10) 1984 is best known for one sentence too, which is it:
a) Power is the ultimate aim of dictatorship.
b) Confession is not betrayal.
c) Big brother is watching you
d) Forced to choose between liberty and happiness most will choose happiness.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Published by American Drama Group Europe

© American Drama Group Europe - TNT Theatre, 2022

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CREDITS

Published by American Drama Group Europe:

Author - Paul Stebbings
Content editor - Federica Parise
Graphic Designer - Domante Tirylyte

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