“A Hanging,”
“A Hanging,” authored by George Orwell, is an individual account set in the 1930s in Burma, India. The narrative describes the execution of an unknown prisoner and the role of his executioners. The dominant concern of this story is his stance that capital punishment disregards the rules of nature. In this unsettling narrative, Orwell seeks to examine the emotional, physical, and psychological trauma encountered by those who take part in the taking of human life and the victim’s life. The atmosphere is somber. The narrator tries, in vain, to avoid becoming emotionally involved in the narrative. This notwithstanding, he has to submit to duty and takes an emphatic stand against capital punishment.
Orwell depicts the prisoner’s cell as a “small animal cage” (99). Through giving the prisoner’s surroundings animalistic features, Orwell suggests tacitly that the condemned prisoner is treated inhumanely. By so doing, Orwell implies that capital punition dehumanizes the prisoner. In addition to this, the speaker compares the condemned man’s dilemma to that of a helpless fish. He states, “It is like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water” (99). The exaggerated measures to sail the condemned man to his tragic end substantiate the perverse nature of the occurrence.
The sentenced man is weak, significantly small, and puts up no fight but is vigilantly watched and guarded. He is bound by six tall Indian warders, an unnecessary precaution. The author portrays the condemned man as “a puny wisp of a man.” Noticeably, the prisoner has come to terms with his impending doom and is unalarmed. Orwell states, “But he stood quite unresisting, yielding his arms limply to the ropes…” Comparatively, his would-be executioners are restless and want to be quick about the execution. Their undoubted discomfort is a clear sign of their unhappiness about committing an unusual act.
In the process of execution, the author conveys that the prisoner is innocent by putting emphasis on his religion. Orwell narrates the prisoner’s persistent cry of Ram (101), the Hindu god, before his death. According to some philosophers, Ram is a symbol of purity, and a person able to utter Ram before death has some good within them. Besides, the author depicts the prisoner’s innocence through the deeds of the servants. Upon the hearing, the condemned man’s cry of Ram, everyone changes color. He states, “The Indians had gone grey like coffee, and one or two of the bayonets were wavering.”(102)
As the prisoner walks towards the gallows, the author intently watches him and notices that he avoids a puddle. The author states, “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” The prisoner never wants to get his feet dirty, even though he is about to be executed. This deed is quite puzzling and behooves the author to contemplate the prisoner’s state. Orwell becomes aware that the prisoner is still a human being, with feelings and thoughts of his own. Regardless of the impending death, the prisoner shows that he has not lost his identity.
A large, woolly dog approaches the procession as they were walking into the gallows. The dog is happy at finding so many human beings together. To everyone’s surprise, it made a dash for the prisoner, jumping as it tried to lick his face. The author uses the dog to ridicule the animalistic nature of human beings satirically. The dog, just an animal, is able to recognize and appreciate the mere existence of the prisoner, even in his deplorable state. The superintendent gets irksome at the dog’s humane behavior and shouts for the beast to be caught. Stone is hauled at the dog by a young Eurasian jailer laying bare the fact that treatment of the prisoner was worse than that of the dog. The dog even whines in synchronicity with the prisoner’s cries—a cry for justice that is entirely ignored.
There is a general atmosphere of great relief and happiness after the execution of the prisoner. The remaining inmates are served breakfast as they squatted in long rows. This scenario depicts the impulsive need to forget the gruesome events that accompanied the execution. Unarguably, human beings always want to put in the past their sordid deeds. Cigarettes and whiskey are embraced as transient pacifiers of the battling human conscience. The author successfully shows that capital punishment breaks the natural course of the human being’s existence and maims the integrity of our core identity.