Analysis of A Hanging
Part one:
Hangings, injections, electrocutions, firing squads and gas chambers, all different forms for capital punishment. We execute people who have committed horrible crimes. Some might argue that these executions are acceptable, and some might argue they are not. In the short story “A Hanging”, by George Orwell, we are presented with a firsthand example of this.
“A Hanging” is a short story about a Hindu man, who is on his way to his hanging. As the man is on the way to the gallows, he avoids walking through a puddle to ensure that he does not get wet feet. This strikes Orwell as a very queer and curious action given that the man is about to be executed, and he realizes it is an actual human being they are about to kill. This is an example of one of the many devices and elements that Orwell uses to describe his view on capital punishment. Throughout the entire short story Orwell shows, a very dark, gloomy and murky environment. First, he describes how the inmates are treated like animals; they are put in small, almost cage-like, cells. “We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages. Each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot of drinking water”(Page 1, line 3)
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He describes the guards as tall and well-armed while he describes the inmate as “a puny wisp of a man”(Page 1, line 7). In addition to this, he also presents the superintendent of the jail, as a rough and brutal man. The purpose of these descriptions is to allow the audience to fully understand how the prisoners are being treated. This is verified when the superintendent is upset, due to the fact that the execution running late, and he bursts out “For God's sake hurry up, Francis,’ he said irritably. ‘The man ought to have been dead by this time. Aren't you ready yet?”(Page 1, line
The essay “A Hanging” by George Orwell speaks to the reader about the author’s stance on capital punishment. I believe that Orwell was able to communicate his point, without actually saying I’m against capital punishment, through three steps. The first step is to set the mood and bring you into his perspective. From the dreary description of the morning to the slow procession of the condemned man to the gallows, Orwell puts the reader in a mood that conveys the experience of watching a man die. The second step is to compare himself to the condemned man, showing how we are all equal. A life is a life, whether you are a condemned man or not. The third step is to show how everyone tries to cope with the aftermath of the execution. This
The setting of the jail helps the audience to think about the reality of the horrible conditions of people who are incarcerated. They prisoners are treated like animals. They have filthy conditions and it similar to living in a barn. It is cold and dark and the bedding is straw. When Herrick enters, it says that he nudges a bundle of rags lying on a bench which implies that you cannot tell that there is even a person in the cell. The audience is aware of how these people suffered for no reason.
In George Orwell’s “A Hanging”, he initiates with his description of the weather in Burma, which portrays “a saddening morning” with “a sickly light, like yellow tinfoil”. The use of this perception adds an eerie environment that creates a sinister and unease mood which grows more by this particular simile. Orwell mentions his memory of the hanging of a Hindu man. Orwell comments that the Hindu man was “a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes,” and that the prisoner wore “a thick, sprouting moustache”. Orwell’s initial description of the Hindu is ridiculously cartoonish. While the man is move to the gallows, avoids a puddle so as to safeguard that his feet don't get wet. Orwell found this intrusive given the fact that
Oftentimes, a deciding factor for a president’s reputation is his involvement in foreign affairs. Though Richard Nixon’s terms have been deservedly cast into a bad light, historians still quarrel about his international policy. Interestingly enough, the very traits which made him so despised as a public officer—his paranoia, lying, backstabbing, distrust, opacity, etc.—these traits made him an fascinating figure on the global stage. Instituting a policy coined “détente,” he sought separate peaces with the Soviet Union and China so as to subversively convert these communist foes into allies. He also wished to bring “peace with honor” to the Vietnam War through a practice nicknamed “Vietnamization.” To accomplish these two tasks, Nixon consolidated them under a single goal: the reduction of military spending. To accomplish that goal, President Richard Nixon relied on the dirty tactics he knew best and almost succeeded. The problem? His dirty tactics got in the way.
The man’s neck is then clasped by the grotesque hands of the executioner and he is throttled
“A Hanging” by George Orwell is an influential, autobiographical essay, in which the subject of capital punishment is powerfully examined. The essay is based on a prisoner’s execution in a Prisoner of War camp in Burma during the Second World War. In the essay, Orwell is a prison guard for the camp and carefully illustrates his views on capital punishment. The structure of the essay is of three distinct sections. These sections provide the reader with contrast and repetition, and are grounded in reality but with emphasis on the creative,
Through his cleaver use of language techniques and word selection, Orwell evokes the reader's sympathy for the prisoner's struggles. He repeatedly shows that the prisoners are treated like animals. In the opening lines of the essay, the setting is described immediately highlights the inhumane conditions in which the prisoners are contained in. We notice this when the author is describing the cells, he states, "we are waiting outside the condemned cells, row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages" (Orwell 93). It is evident again when he is describing the way it took six guards to escort the prisoner. He says "it was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump out of the water" (Orwell 94). "The sprouting moustache, absurdly too big for his body" (Orwell 93), and "a puny wisp of a man" (Orwell 93) suggests malnourishment and neglect among this prisoner, but the reader can infer that this treatment is spread out amongst all the prisoners. In contrast with this sickly man, he describes the prison guards as "tall Indian warriors"(Orwell 93) and even describes one guard in particular as a "fat Dravidian" (Orwell 94). The details of these well-fed men in comparison to this ill man fuels a feeling of sympathy towards the prisoner. He provides these details to evoke sympathy for the prisoner to prove that killing a man is unethical.
In the chapter, “The body of the Condemned,” Foucault addresses the evolution of the punishment system and how it has gone from being a public spectacle to something that is done behind closed doors. Foucault opens the chapter with an extremely descriptive and gory representation of a public execution. The purpose of this was to display how execution have changed from being in the public eye to behind closed doors using the electric chair and legal injections. It was done in this fashion to deter individuals from committing heinous crimes. Today, the cost of prison time, fines, etc.. deter individuals instead. Punishment has become less about effecting the body and more about the changing the souls and integrating them back into society.
One of Orwell’s distinctive characteristics is his emphasis of his emotional response to life and death in every situation. Orwell engages readers in his pieces because they feel
writes towards the middle of his essay about seeing the prison being brought up to the hanging site and
George Orwell conveys the prisoner as human in order to emphasis the dehumanization of capital punishment. As George Orwell states, “He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding, the same world, and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone” (101). Orwell implies the prisoner is no different from him; yet, by killing the condemned man he is taking away his humanity. The author explains the prisoner’s gait and stance as steady, bobbing from side to side with his knees bent. He does not protest, as he has accepted his fate.
Capital punishment is also used as a social commentary by showing how people cling to the popular attitudes and beliefs of the day. People are quick to adopt the guillotine as their new savior. Dickens articulates the common attitude towards this when he writes, "[the guillotine] was the sign of the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the cross" (271). These "followers of the guillotine" are ruthless in their quest for blood as they shout "Take off his head…an enemy to the republic!" (280). By showing the ridiculous manner in which the people of France behave, Dickens teaches us a lesson about
Many people are controlled by fear and are made to do things that aren’t right. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Jews are being controlled by fear and are stripped of their rights. In the present world mainly in Syria, ISIS, the radical group that fights for terror, is doing the same to frighten the world and kill those who don’t obey them just as the Germans did to the Jews. Terrorism around the world is controlling people by fear. For instance, let’s talk about how in both situations the victims decide to realize their fate because of how bad things have gotten.
“A Hanging”, composed by George Orwell, is a personal testimony set in the 1920’s in Burma. The narrative depicts the death of an unknown prisoner and the role of those who enforce the death sentence. Through the process of the execution, Orwell illustrates the effects of capital punishment on the executioners and the executed in an attempt to convey an Abolitionist message. While stated only once in his story, Orwell takes an emphatic position against capital punishment. The author does not use the classic argumentative style; instead, he uses implications of his characters to present the four main points against capital punishment. George Orwell’s Abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, dog, functionaries, and their actions, words, and body language.
The death penalty is a prosecute that is used to kill criminals that have committed crimes that are so bad they should not be left alive. The idea of putting another human to death is hard to completely fathom. The physical mechanics involved in the act of execution are easy to grasp, but the emotions involved in carrying out a death sentence on another person, regardless of how much they deserve it, is beyond my understanding. Knowing that it must be painful, dehumanizing, and sickening. The Eight Amendment says” Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (Constitutions). And for the article Changing Views on\\e rate has gone down at a steady from the 1990 to now and that they death penalty is sometimes necessary, and it is our responsibility as a society to see that it is done.