This shows they are best at getting what they need to survive and nothing for the benefit of others. The novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is an allegory that explores the end Of the Czarist power in Russia. The term ‘survival of the fittest’ applies to the character Mollie in this novel who symbolically represents the Bourgeoisie of Russia. In George Rowel’s novel Animal Farm, Mollie represents the laziness of the bourgeoisie, the social climbing middle class.
From the very beginning when Mollie appears she arrives late to Old Majors speech, and she “took a place near the front and began flirting her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with” (Orwell 27) which shows her lazy to arrive when all the other animals do, she instead thinks she can show up whenever he wants and still have all the attention focused on her. Similarly, the upper class of Russia and the bourgeoisie never had to do much work as they were given luxuries by Czar Nicholas II and didn’t have to contribute as much as the lower classes.
Then, when the animals begin to have a hard time getting all of the necessary work and labor done in the winter Orwell emphasized “Mollie became more and more troublesome. She was late for work every morning and excused herself by saying that she had overslept, and she complained of mysterious pains, though her appetite was excellent” (61). This clearly emphasizes Mollies lack of care and lazy attitude towards helping anyone other than herself, as she gives excuses to not work but still gets to eat as much as those animals who did work.
This is equivalent to the bourgeoisie “who were not outright unfaithful to the Bolsheviks, but who contributed very little to the revolution in the long run” (Shampoo Editorial Team). In Mollies last appearance in the novel she leaves Animal Farm just like many of the bourgeoisie who were asked to make sacrifices in their lifestyle would flee to the west. When Mollie did not want to make sacrifices in her life to help there in the long run she decided to go somewhere she would be taken care of and pampered again.
Orwell definitely intended for Mollie to represent the privileged. In addition to being lazy in Animal Farm Mollie also demonstrates how vain the bourgeoisie was. After Manor Farm had been taken over by the animals and became Animal Farm the other animals began to learn the alphabet along with reading and writing. Mollie shows her little care towards learning anything that is not related to her as shown in this quote “Mollie refused to learn any but the six letters which spelt her own name.
She would form these ere neatly out of pieces of twig, and would then decorate them with a flower or n,vow and walk around them admiring them. ” (Orwell 50). This quote makes it clear that Mollie doesn’t care about anything that she can’t admire about herself. However this is not the only way Mollie behaves vainly in the following quote she puts forth an effort to admire herself while the other animals are working hard. “…
On every kind of pretext she would run away from work and go to the drinking pool, where she would stand foolishly gazing at her own reflection in the water’ (Orwell 61 ) this demonstrates how Mollie cares more about her appearance over anything going on around her. This can be compared to the vainness of the bourgeoisie because they used fashion and appearance to mimic the air of aristocracy without actually being an aristocrat as told in this quote “For the social climbing bourgeoisie, image was everything” (Laotian, Ruby, Kelly Hughes, and Lee Havilland).
The bourgeoisie wanted to be like the aristocrats in their way of riches while remaining with the average class although this did not happen most often as stated in this quote “Their aim was to imitate nobility, but not to replace it: hey desired to create a world as luxurious as that of the aristocracy, with the morals and ethics of the bourgeois” (Laotian, Hughes, Havilland). Through these actions it is clear that Mollie thinks very vainly and high of herself, and Orwell made Mollie as vain as the bourgeoisie were.
In conclusion, it is clear George Orwell intended his novel to allegorically represent the individuals and events occurring throughout the Russian Revolution, also through the character Mollie representing the Bourgeoisie. Mollies moral values in the book make a big statement on what the bourgeoisie was like. Mollie never cared about anyone other than herself and her appearance from the very beginning of the novel which reflected onto the bourgeoisie and how they behaved.
