Irony In Animal Farm

This
answer will address situational . is rife with situational irony: the
whole book is framed around the sad irony that a well-intentioned "revolution"
intended to bring about equality and a better life for the animals ends by recreating the same
inequalities and tyranny that provoked it in the first place. Let us look at one especially
powerful example of situational irony...

This example is when , the old horse
who has worked hard for Animal Farm, is sent to the knacker to be euthanized. This tragic end is
especially poignant and ironic because , in his speech to the animals at the beginning of the
book, has warned Boxer that "the very day that those great muscles of yours lose their
power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil you down for the
foxhounds" (9). The animals undertook their uprising to avoid exactly this kind of fate for
themselves, but in the end, it is , now in power as a result of the uprising, who sends Boxer to
the knacker. This is only one example of situational irony, but it is especially important
because it illustrates the central irony of the book. Through their leadership of the creation
of Animal Farm, the pigs have become as cruel and exploitative as the humans they replaced. By
the end of the book, the animals cannot even distinguish them from men at all. Boxer, among the
most loyal and hardworking of all the animals, is an ironic victim of this corrupted would-be
utopia.