Muriel

Muriel is a white goat on Animal Farm, one of the more intelligent animals after the pigs and dogs. She appears early in the story, arriving at Old Major's meeting in the big barn along with the other animals, and is present throughout the farm's transformation. Her most distinctive role is as a reader: she can read somewhat better than the dogs, and sometimes reads to the others in the evenings from scraps of newspaper she finds on the rubbish heap. This literacy makes her a crucial witness to the pigs' manipulations.

Literacy and Verification

Muriel's ability to read sets her apart from most of the farm's inhabitants. While Boxer cannot get beyond the letter D and Clover learns the whole alphabet but cannot put words together, Muriel can decipher full sentences. This skill proves essential when the pigs begin altering the Seven Commandments. When Clover, troubled by the news that the pigs are sleeping in the farmhouse beds, asks Muriel to read the Fourth Commandment, Muriel spells it out: "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets." The addition of the last two words—which Clover had not remembered—allows the pigs' behavior to appear compliant with the law. Later, after the executions, Clover again asks Muriel to read the Sixth Commandment. This time Muriel reads: "No animal shall kill any other animal WITHOUT CAUSE." The phrase "without cause" had slipped from the animals' memory, but Muriel's reading confirms that the commandment, as now written, permits the killings. After the pigs' drunken incident with the ladder and paint, Muriel discovers yet another alteration: the Fifth Commandment now reads "No animal shall drink alcohol TO EXCESS," the two final words having been added. Each time, Muriel's reading reveals that the law has been quietly expanded, yet she never protests or questions the changes.

Role in the Battle of the Cowshed

Muriel participates actively in the defense of the farm during the Battle of the Cowshed. When the human invaders approach, Snowball launches a second line of attack: Muriel, Benjamin, and all the sheep rush forward to prod and butt the men from every side, while Benjamin lashes at them with his small hoofs. Though the men with their sticks and hobnailed boots are too strong and the animals are forced to retreat, Muriel's involvement shows her willingness to fight alongside the others. She is not merely a passive observer but takes part in the physical struggle for the farm's survival.

Presence in the Later Years

As the years pass and the farm changes, Muriel remains among the animals who remember the old days. She is present during the terrible executions, huddling with Clover, Benjamin, the cows, the sheep, and the geese on the knoll where the half-finished windmill stands. She is also there when the pigs begin walking on their hind legs and when the sheep bleat "Four legs good, two legs BETTER!" In the final scene, when the animals peer through the farmhouse window and see the pigs and human farmers drinking together, Muriel is among those watching. But by then she is no longer needed as a reader: the Seven Commandments have been reduced to a single principle—"ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"—and the pigs have abandoned even the pretense of the old laws. Muriel's quiet literacy, which once served as a check on the pigs' revisions, has become irrelevant in a farm where the law itself has been erased.

Thematic Significance

Muriel embodies the possibility of verification in a society built on manipulated memory. Her ability to read the commandments as they actually appear on the wall provides a factual counterpoint to the animals' fading recollections. Yet she never uses this knowledge to challenge the pigs' authority; she reads what is written and accepts it. Her role highlights how access to information, without the will to act on it, cannot prevent the erosion of justice. She is a literate witness to the farm's decline, but her literacy serves only to confirm the new reality, not to resist it.