Chapters 9-10: The Betrayal Complete
Boxer’s Death (Chapter 9)
Boxer collapses while working on the windmill. He has worked himself to destruction — the very quality that made him valuable is what kills him. Napoleon announces that Boxer will be sent to a hospital. A van arrives with the words “Horse Slaughterer” painted on its side. Benjamin, who can read, raises the alarm: “They are taking Boxer to the knacker’s!” Clover chases the van, crying “They’re taking you to your death!” But it is too late. Boxer is sent to the knacker’s.
Boxer represents the loyal, hardworking proletariat who give everything to the revolution. His motto “I will work harder” embodies selfless dedication. Napoleon sells him to the knacker for whisky money. This is Orwell’s most powerful allegorical point: totalitarian regimes use the working class and discard them when they are no longer useful. Boxer’s death shows that loyalty to a corrupt system is rewarded with betrayal.
Squealer announces that Boxer died peacefully in hospital and claims that he himself was at the bedside. He explains away the “Horse Slaughterer” sign by claiming the van had been bought from the knacker and not yet repainted. The animals accept this lie — they want to believe it. Orwell shows that propaganda succeeds partly because its audience is complicit: they choose comforting lies over painful truths.
The Final Chapter: Full Circle
Chapter 10 jumps forward in time. The windmill is built but used to mill corn for profit, not to ease the animals’ workload as Snowball promised. Most of the original revolutionaries are dead. The pigs now walk on two legs, wear clothes and carry whips. The sheep have been taught a new slogan: “Four legs good, two legs better!”
The Seven Commandments have been replaced by a single statement painted on the barn wall: “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” This is Orwell’s most famous line — a paradox that perfectly captures the hypocrisy of totalitarianism. It is the logical endpoint of every small alteration that has come before. The revolution that began with “All animals are equal” has produced its exact opposite.
Pigs and Humans: Indistinguishable
The novella’s final scene shows the pigs entertaining human farmers in the farmhouse. Napoleon announces that the farm will revert to its original name: Manor Farm. The animals look through the window from pig to man, from man to pig: “it was impossible to say which was which.” This is the novella’s devastating final image — the revolution has come full circle. The pigs have become the humans they overthrew.
The final scene shows pigs indistinguishable from humans. Manor Farm’s name is restored. The revolution has produced no real change — one oppressor has been replaced by another. Orwell’s message is that power corrupts regardless of ideology: whether capitalist (Jones) or communist (Napoleon), the ruling class exploits the working class. The cyclical structure suggests this pattern may be inevitable.
The Cyclical Structure
Orwell’s structural choice to end where the story began — with the farm under the same name, ruled by the same kind of tyrant — is profoundly pessimistic. The word “revolution” literally means “turning” — and the farm has turned full circle. This cyclical structure implies that revolutions do not create new worlds; they repeat old patterns.
Some readers argue the ending contains a flicker of hope. The animals see the pigs and humans as identical — they are no longer fooled. Benjamin, the cynical donkey who has watched everything with knowing silence, is still alive. Orwell may be suggesting that awareness, even belated awareness, is the first step towards genuine change. However, the novella offers no mechanism for that change, and Orwell’s tone is deeply pessimistic.
The final chapters force the reader to confront Orwell’s central question: is the corruption of revolutionary ideals inevitable, or can it be prevented? Orwell does not answer definitively, but his structure suggests deep scepticism. The fable form, with its promise of a moral lesson, delivers a lesson that is itself morally ambiguous: beware of all who seek power, even those who promise liberation.
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” The pigs have become indistinguishable from the humans they overthrew. The revolution has failed. Power has corrupted absolutely.