Intro Intimidation and exploitation are often a result of unbridled power. In both Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Animal Farm by George Orwell there are various aspects of power present. The fight for power between Snowball and Napoleon that Orwell showed us, is somewhat similar to the power struggle between Hamlet and Claudius presented by Shakespeare. Although, in Hamlet the power struggle is mainly because of lineage and in Animal Farm it is more of a political clash in opinions that causes the fight for power.
In both texts, the main protagonists take advantage of their power to do things that they would not have done before, such as intimidate their friends and family and abuse their power for their own benefits. In Animal Farm this includes changing the ten commandments and in Hamlet it is taking advantage of the fact that he is the King’s son try and kill Claudius. Corruption has and always will be a problem in our society. More specifically, corruption was one of the main themes in the novels Hamlet and Animal Farm.
Hamlet revolves around corruption between the characters, which makes corruption one of the most important themes of the novel. Animal Farm on the other hand revolves around how the animals (mainly the pigs) gradually become corrupt, also making this an important concept of the novel. Both texts showed how power and greed often lead to exploitation and venality. Because of these points the texts are quite similar. However they both have major differences in addition to their completely different plotlines. Whereas Hamlet is mostly about vengeance, Animal Farm is about political power and control.
Corruption Corruption plays an important role in both Hamlet and Animal Farm. In Animal Farm, corruption is shown when Napoleon and the other pigs break the commandments they had written up. This also shows us how little respect they pay for Old Major, the one who thought up of these rules so that all the animals could be happy and free. Looking back at the beginning of this text, the animals’ situation was hopeful and full of determination. But by the end of this book, the animals are completely controlled by Napoleon and the pigs and are afraid and easy to manipulate.
They also illustrated corruption when they began to execute their own animals. This was a way of setting an example to the animals to threaten them and keep them under Napoleon’s control. The last way corruption was shown was when the animals couldn’t tell the difference between Napoleon, who was a pig, and Pilkington, the farmer. This shows the extent of the corruption and how far gone Napoleon was. In Hamlet, King Claudius is corrupt because he murdered King Hamlet to marry his wife, Gertrude. Animal Farm and Hamlet relate because in both stories the people of highest ranking do corrupt things to get or keep power.
Author: Cody Owens