Question

What is the setting for Animal Farm?

Accepted Answer

The actual, physical setting of Animal Farm is somewhere in rural England, but the metaphorical setting could be any repressive government in any part of the world. The Animal Farm setting is anywhere and everywhere where propaganda and oppression occur.

Answer

As noted by others, the actual physical setting of the farm discussed in the book Animal Farm is somewhere in rural England, although the precise location is not disclosed. I would note that the metaphorical setting is not in Soviet Russia, although the Manor Farm or Animal Farm certainly denotes the Bolshevik Revolution and changes that took place under the Bolshevik regime. I believe the virtual setting of the farm is actually much broader than a location in Russia, because Animal Farm describes the potential harm that can occur under any repressive government in any part of the world.
In fact, the term “Orwellian” has come to include any authoritarian and deceitful government. Generally, people tend to associate the term with the author’s 1984, but the characterization could extend to Animal Farm, as well.
Orwell’s experience fighting and being wounded in the Spanish Civil War left an indelible mark on him, as a human and as a writer. According to a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece,

In Spain Orwell witnessed a revolutionary model in action: purges, repression, torture, executions. This experience left him disenchanted with his own revolutionary creed, but this disappointment helped him find himself… he showed the logic with which revolutionary pathos degenerates into totalitarianism.

I would argue that the Animal Farm setting is anywhere and everywhere, as there is a slippery slope between government that overly protects and government that oppresses for all countries. In Animal Farm, the founders of Animalism present propaganda that their rules are meant to help protect the animals and enable all to share in the production of the farm. The reader knows this to be false, but this kind of propaganda can occur anywhere and everywhere.

Answer

The literal setting of the story is a farm somewhere in rural Southern England. But the allegorical setting is of course Soviet Russia. Orwell uses a farm for this allegory because the Russian Revolution took place in a country where the vast majority were peasants. This turned established Marxist orthodoxy on its head, which held that socialist revolutions could only take place in advanced capitalist countries.
Nevertheless, there were still a number of major towns and cities in Russia on the eve of the Revolution; and Orwell develops the theme of the relationship between town and country throughout the story. The dictator pig Napoleon sells out the principles of the Animalist revolution by establishing good relations with the hated human oppressors of the nearest town. Stalin, the Soviet dictator, reneged on his promises to the peasants in driving through a brutal, centralized campaign of state collectivization, which created suffering on an unimaginable scale. The parallels are clear, and this is why the setting of Animal Farm is so important.

Answer

Orwell does not provide specific evidence that precisely dates the setting of the novella but one could surmise that the story takes place sometime between 1917-1945, which corresponds to the time period of the Russian Revolution. Since the story is an allegorical tale of the Bolshevik Revolution and the inception of the Soviet Union, Orwell created the fable to be contemporaneous to the time he wrote it, which was between 1943-1944. The location of the story is set somewhere in England, on Manor Farm, which is located in between Pinchfield and Foxwood farms. In the story, the animals rebel against their authoritative master, Mr. Jones, and establish Animal Farm. Tragically, a tyrannical Berkshire pig named Napoleon usurps power and rules over the farm as a brutal dictator, who oppresses the other animals and ruins their dream of establishing a comfortable, efficient egalitarian society.

Answer

As mentioned by other educators, the setting of Animal Farm is Manor Farm which is owned and managed by Mr and Mrs Jones. Orwell does not reveal any further details about the farm nor about the time period, more generally.
From the first chapter of the story, however, it is clear that Manor Farm is not quite like other farms in England. Mr Jones, for instance, is portrayed as someone who is more interested in getting drunk than tending to his animals. We see this in the opening line when he is so "drunk" that he forgets to the close the "popholes."
Mr Jones' drunken incompetence and the violence of his farmhands ignites the animals and acts as a catalyst for rebellion. So, while the story's title implies that the setting is a  typical and idyllic English farm, the reality is quite the opposite.

Answer

both of the above and the time- set of several years and seasons

Answer

In addition to the above details, Manor Farm seems to be wedged between or at least neighbors with two farmers, Pilkington and Fredrick.
Manor Farm is set to represent Russian Revolution era Russia, while these two other farms might represent Great Britian, Germany, and/or the United States. Each of these countries had a different political ideology from one another as well as Russia. Setting involves both time and place and the Russian Revolution took place in 1917-18, while the reign of Lenin lasted until 1924. Since Stalin is represented by Napoleon, the represented activity of the book took place after that.

Answer

All that is really clear is that the setting is a farm somewhere in England.  It is somewhere near to a town called Willingdon.  At the start of the book, the name of the farm is Manor Farm and its owner is Mr. Jones.  We have nothing to really indicate when the book is set, although there does not seem to be much mechanization (tractors and such -- we know this because Boxer pulls wagons and Mollie pulls carts) so it must be sometime relatively long ago (like around 1900 maybe).

Animal Farm Questions and Answers
by George Orwell

Animal Farm Setting

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