Question

As winter drew on, 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, although her appetite was excellent. 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.

–Animal Farm,
George Orwell

What satirical technique does Orwell use in this passage?

What human weakness does Orwell use this technique to mock?

Answer 1

Orwell primarily uses anthropomorphism/allegory (and a touch of caricature and irony): he gives a horse human motives and faults to stand for a social type. Through Mollie’s shirking, excuses, feigned illnesses and fascination with her own reflection, he is mocking vanity, laziness, selfishness and materialistic complacency — especially the bourgeois tendency to prefer comfort and personal pleasure over collective responsibility or political commitment.