Death penalty for drinking alcohol

During the Whisky Incident, after the pigs discovered a case of whisky in the farmhouse cellars and Napoleon was seen wearing Mr. Jones's bowler hat and galloping around the yard, Squealer announced the next morning that Napoleon was dying. As his last act upon earth, Napoleon pronounced a solemn decree: "the drinking of alcohol was to be punished by death." The animals, already in a state of lamentation, accepted this without question, and straw was laid down outside the farmhouse doors as they walked on tiptoe, fearing the loss of their Leader.

By evening Napoleon had recovered, and within days he ordered the purchase of booklets on brewing and distilling. The small paddock beyond the orchard, originally intended as a retirement pasture, was ploughed up and sown with barley. Soon after, the Fifth Commandment was quietly altered: it now read "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess." The pigs began receiving a daily ration of beer, and later, after Boxer's death, they acquired another case of whisky, celebrating with uproarious singing and a violent quarrel that ended with broken glass.

The death penalty for drinking alcohol thus became a dead letter for the ruling pigs while remaining a threat for the others. It exemplified the regime's method: a terrifying decree issued in a moment of crisis, later eroded by the pigs' own privileges and by the systematic rewriting of the Seven Commandments. The rule was never formally repealed, but its substance was nullified by the addition of "to excess," a loophole that allowed the pigs to drink freely while maintaining the appearance of law.