GUV:So. We’ve established the central themes of George Orwell’s Animal Farm are equality and power corrupts. Well done.The team look pleased. Guv swings round to face her team.
Right, Green. Talk to me.
PC GREEN:Um. What did you have for your breakfast?
GUV:About the themes Green. Start with equality. Go!
PC GREEN: Yes. Makes way more sense, actually.
Major’s talks abouut a perfect society being an equal one.
GUV:Evidence evidence evidence.
PC GREEN:Alright. He says that “man is the only creature that consumes without producing”. Animals always serve man, and Old Major is sick of it.
SHANE:“Among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship”
GUV:Good. What else?
PC BENNETT: Right from the off, Orwell’s animals aren’t equal.
GUV: More on that.
PC BENNETT: For starters, the Pigs automatically make their way to the front of the meeting, like they own the place. Which of course later on, they do.
PC GREEN:Yeah the pigs see themselves as betterer because they read and write, but in an equal society, everyone’s skills should be taken into account.
GUV:The animals work is voluntary though?
PC GREEN:But it isn’t. They’re told their rations will be “reduced by half” if the work isn’t done.
GUV:Maybe I should do that with your wages?
(snapping out of thought) Sit down Green. So, by becoming the farms Guv/I mean manager, the pigs avoid work. I mean they don’t have to do anything?
PC BENNETTThe pigs take, take, take and turn equality into inequality. You just have to look at the way the rotters adjust the well meaning commandments to suit their greedy needs.
SHANE:Even when fair Old Major suggests the animals can create a new, equal society as the dogs attack the rats which contradicts everything Major’s just said. The dogs don’t see the wild rats as equals because they’re considered uncontrollable.
PC BENNETT:Already the system seems flawed.
SHANE:The book was written as an allegorical commentary on Orwell’s views about the results of the Russian Revolution, which is why there are the links to the actual political figures involved in the events of 1917.
(points to Snowball)
…like Trotsky.
(points to Major)
Lenin…
(points to Napoleon) …and Stalin.
PC GREEN:But wasn’t that aaaages ago!
SHANE:Yeah but remember, the book is about the use of power, it's got wider significance than just the Russian Revolution. It could be seen as a wider exploration of political systems.
PC GREEN: I’m lost, mate.
SHANE:Well, Karl Marx had very similar ideas to Old Major’s, only, he calls them ‘capitalists’, rather than ‘man’. Now the animals, rather like the working class of Russia, had difficult lives, working to produce things that the ruling class would take for themselves, like Mr Jones.
PC GREEN:And then later, the pigs. Oh so hang on, is ‘animalism’ basically ‘communism’?
Shane nods, Green’s pleased she gets it. Bennett looks disgruntled at how much Shane knows.
PC GREEN: So the revolt on the farm is like the working class standing up for themselves?
GUV:They’re crushing on the ants!! Er…quicker team! Please.
SHANE:(really quick) Orwell’s saying communism failed the people in the way animalism failed the farm.
PC BENNETT: The pigs are greedy and adopt the ways of the ruling class they wanted to abolish.
PC GREEN Yeah, like they just take the milk…
(listing on fingers) …and then later on, they take the retirement pasture to grow their grain to make whiskey - even though the animals aren’t meant to drink alcohol, and then eventually they sleep in the beds actually in the farmhouse.
GUV:That’s enough for today. I’m tired. One of you carry me home.
PC GREEN: Got tennis elbow…
SHANE:I’ve got to print something
PC BENNETT: I’ve got a mate taking me up the shard.
Key themes of equality and the corruption of power in Animal Farm by George Orwell are explored via a dramatised police case conference.
The police officers attach key moments and quotations from the text to their evidence wall to support their explorations of how these themes are highlighted through the novel.
This is from the series: LIT P.D
Teacher Notes
Students could use this clip as part of their study of the novel or as part of their revision work.
The ideas in the film could be used as part of initial work on an exploration of the themes, using the quotations and ideas as stimulus for their own presentation on one of the themes explored.
Curriculum Notes
This short film is suitable for teaching English literature at GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 5 and Higher in Scotland.
Animal Farm - Themes. video
An overview of some of the main themes in Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Animal Farm - Characters. video
An overview of some of the main characters in Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Anita and Me - Plot. video
An overview of the plot of Anita and Me by Meera Syal.
Anita and Me - Themes. video
An overview of some of the main themes in Anita and Me by Meera Syal.
Anita and Me - Characters. video
An overview of some of the main characters in Anita and Me by Meera Syal.
The Woman in Black - Plot. video
An overview of the plot of The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.
The Woman in Black - Themes. video
An overview of some of the key themes in The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
The Woman in Black - Characters. video
An overview of some of the main characters in The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.
Never Let Me Go - Plot. video
An overview of the plot of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Never Let Me Go - Themes. video
An overview of some of the main themes in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Never Let Me Go - Characters. video
An overview of some of the main characters in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
