Clover Animal Farm Quotes, by Chapter

Clover is the cart-horse who notices that something has gone wrong on Animal Farm but can’t put it into words. Her most important quote is in Chapter 10, when she asks Benjamin, “Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” The Clover quotes below run in chapter order, with context, so you can track her from the ducklings in Chapter 1 to that final question.

Who Clover is

Orwell introduces her in Chapter 1 as “a stout motherly mare approaching middle life, who had never quite got her figure back after her fourth foal.” She works beside Boxer, looks after the weaker animals and is loyal to the revolution to the end.

Most readers see her as the ordinary working class under Stalin. She believes in the ideals, she suspects the betrayal, and she lacks the education or the confidence to challenge it.

Clover quotes about protecting others

Her first act in the book is a protective one. During Old Major’s speech in Chapter 1, a brood of ducklings who have lost their mother wander into the barn, and Clover makes “a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg.”

That image comes back in Chapter 7, when she remembers it as the picture of the society she wanted. It is the book’s clearest symbol of what the revolution was supposed to be.

In Chapter 9, after Boxer collapses, Clover and Benjamin stay with him. When the van comes to take him away, it’s Clover who realises the danger and tries to warn him.

“Get out quickly! They’re taking you to your death!” — Clover, Chapter 9. Benjamin has just read the lettering on the van, which says it belongs to a horse slaughterer. Clover shouts the warning, but Boxer is too weak to break out.

Clover quotes about the changing rules

Clover can’t read well. In Chapter 3, Orwell notes that she “learnt the whole alphabet, but could not put words together.” That weakness is exactly what the pigs exploit, and it makes her the character who checks the Commandments.

In Chapter 6, after the pigs move into the farmhouse, she thinks she remembers a rule against beds. She can’t make out the Fourth Commandment herself, so she fetches Muriel the goat to read it: “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” Clover doesn’t remember the last two words, but she assumes she must have been mistaken.

The same pattern repeats in Chapter 8 with the Sixth Commandment. This time she asks Benjamin, he refuses to get involved, and Muriel reads it again: no killing “without cause.” Clover’s doubts are right each time. Her habit of assuming she’s the one who has forgotten is how the pigs get away with it.

Clover on the hillside: Chapter 7

After the forced confessions and executions in Chapter 7, the surviving animals gather on the knoll. This is Clover’s longest passage and the most quoted, even though she never says it aloud.

“If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, each working according to his capacity, the strong protecting the weak…” — narrator, voicing Clover’s thoughts, Chapter 7.

The passage goes on to say that she has no thought of rebellion or disobedience. She still believes the farm is better than it was under Jones. That’s what makes her tragic rather than heroic: she sees the betrayal and stays loyal anyway.

Unable to find the words for what she feels, she starts singing “Beasts of England” instead, and the other animals join in. It is the last time they sing it before Napoleon bans the song.

Clover in Chapter 10

Years pass. Clover is described as “an old stout mare now, stiff in the joints and with a tendency to rheumy eyes.” Most of the animals who remember the revolution are gone.

When the pigs appear walking on their hind legs, Clover leads Benjamin to the barn wall.

“My sight is failing,” she said finally. “Even when I was young I could not have read what was written there.” — Clover, Chapter 10.

“Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” — Clover, Chapter 10. Benjamin breaks his rule of never reading aloud and tells her there is only one commandment left: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Her failing sight doubles as a symbol. She can no longer see clearly, but she has always sensed what the pigs have done. The question is the closest she comes to saying it.

How to use Clover quotes in an essay

Clover works well in essays on the working class, on memory and on how propaganda relies on people doubting themselves. Pair the Chapter 1 ducklings with the Chapter 7 hillside passage to show her ideals, then the Chapter 10 question to show what has become of them.

For how to break a passage like the hillside scene into points, see how to analyze a quote in an essay. For how to present her thoughts, which are narrated rather than spoken, see how to quote a book and embedded quotes.

FAQ

What does Clover represent in Animal Farm?

She is usually read as the loyal working class, and some readers also see her as a mother figure for the farm. She believes in the revolution’s ideals and senses that they’ve been betrayed, but she can’t read well enough or speak strongly enough to resist.

What is Clover’s most important quote?

“Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” from Chapter 10. It leads to the reveal of the single rewritten commandment.

What does Clover say when Boxer is taken away?

“Get out quickly! They’re taking you to your death!” in Chapter 9, after Benjamin reads the side of the slaughterer’s van.

Why does Clover sing Beasts of England in Chapter 7?

She can’t find the words for her grief and disappointment after the executions, so she sings the revolution’s anthem instead. The other animals join her.