Abolition of 'Beasts of England'
The Abolition of 'Beasts of England' marks a decisive turning point in the history of Animal Farm, the moment when the revolutionary song that had embodied the animals' hope for liberation was officially suppressed and replaced by a hymn of personal loyalty to Napoleon. The anthem, first sung by Old Major on the night he stirred the animals to rebellion, had been a stirring tune between 'Clementine' and 'La Cucaracha', with words that promised a golden future when 'Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown' and the fields of England would be trod by beasts alone. It had been sung at every secret meeting, at the hoisting of the green flag, and after every victory, its verses learned by heart even by the stupidest animals. Its abolition, announced by Squealer immediately after the bloody executions of the traitors, was the final act in the consolidation of Napoleon's absolute power.
The Context of Suppression
The abolition came on the evening of the day when Napoleon's dogs had torn the throats out of four pigs who confessed to being in league with Snowball, and had slaughtered three hens, a goose, and several sheep in a wave of terror that left a pile of corpses before Napoleon's feet. The surviving animals, shaken and miserable, had crept away to the knoll where the half-finished windmill stood. There, huddling together for warmth, Clover began to sing 'Beasts of England', and the others took it up, singing it three times over—very tunefully, but slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before. It was at this moment, as the animals sought comfort in the old song of hope, that Squealer, attended by two dogs, approached them with the air of having something important to say.
Squealer's Justification
Squealer announced that by a special decree of Comrade Napoleon, 'Beasts of England' had been abolished and was from now onwards forbidden to be sung. When Muriel cried out 'Why?', Squealer explained stiffly that the song was no longer needed. 'Beasts of England', he said, was the song of the Rebellion, but the Rebellion was now completed. 'The execution of the traitors this afternoon was the final act. The enemy both external and internal has been defeated.' He argued that in the song the animals had expressed their longing for a better society in days to come, but that society had now been established, and therefore the song had no longer any purpose. Frightened though they were, some of the animals might possibly have protested, but at this moment the sheep set up their usual bleating of 'Four legs good, two legs bad', which went on for several minutes and put an end to the discussion.
The Replacement and Its Significance
In place of 'Beasts of England', Minimus, the poet pig, composed another song that began 'Animal Farm, Animal Farm, / Never through me shalt thou come to harm!' This new anthem was sung every Sunday morning after the hoisting of the flag. But somehow neither the words nor the tune ever seemed to the animals to come up to 'Beasts of England'. The abolition of the revolutionary song was part of a broader pattern of erasing the memory of the Rebellion's original ideals. The song had been the one thing that connected the animals to the hope Old Major had given them, the promise of a future when all animals would be free and equal. Its suppression, coming immediately after the executions, completed the transformation of Animal Farm from a cooperative enterprise into a dictatorship. The song itself, however, was not entirely forgotten. Years later, when the farm had been renamed Manor Farm and the pigs had begun walking on two legs and wearing human clothes, it was a fact that every animal on the farm still knew the tune of 'Beasts of England', though no one would have dared to sing it aloud. The song survived as a secret, unspoken memory of what the Rebellion had once meant, even as the pigs' final transformation made it impossible to distinguish pig from man.
