The crafty owner of Pinchfield, a neighboring farm, Frederick is “perpetually involved in lawsuits” and reveals himself to be a cutthroat businessman. Despite his offers of sympathy to Jones about the rebellion at his farm, Frederick inwardly hopes that he can “somehow turn Jones’ misfortune to his own advantage.” He attempts this by offering to buy a load of timber from Napoleon but paying for it with counterfeit notes. His subsequent attempt to take Animal Farm by force reveals him to be a man who always takes what he wants — in short, exactly the kind of man against which the animals initially wanted to rebel. By the novel’s end, however, Napoleon has proven himself to be more greedy and double-dealing than Frederick at his worst.
