Joseph Granata ENG 101 Prof. V. Hromulak May 7, 2012
Page 1
Condemned
In George Orwell's "A Hanging", language and the style of his writing paints a vivid picture taking you to a Burmese prison in the early 1930's. Through the style and language of his writing, Orwell shows the reader how sometimes ritual and formality can distract someone from the reality of there actions. Orwell also incorporates imagery and personification to solidify his theme.
"A pity beyond all telling is hid in the heart of love" (William Butler Yeates). Imagery in George Orwell's "A Hanging" plays a huge role in expressing the main character pity toward the prisoner. In the beginning of the essay Orwell's paints a dreary setting of the prison but also shows no pity or remorse for the prisoner when he describes him as "a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. He had a thick, sprouting mustache, absurdly too big for his body, rather like the mustache of a comic man on the films."(409) This shows how in the beginning its just another day and another person, but then as you read on, around pages 410 and the beginning of 411 the characters attitude towards the prisoner changes as he avoids a puddle on the way to the gallows. The condemned man's automatic action of side-stepping the puddle, important to one's own continuing comfort later in the day, makes Orwell begin to think about the
Page 2 difference between being alive and being dead, and the horror of what is being done in killing the man. As the piece concludes Orwell reverts back to the stern, almost sense of no remorse towards the prisoner when he writes "We went through the big double gates of the prison, into the road."Pulling at his legs!" exclaimed a Burmese magistrate suddenly, and burst into a loud chuckling. We all began laughing again. At that moment Francis's anecdote seemed extraordinarily funny. We all had a drink together, native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away."(413)
Personification was another main part in expressing Orwell's theme and he does this with the dog in the essay. On page 410 as the guards start to walk the prisoner from the jail to the gallows the dog enters and plays a key role. Orwell states on page 410 "A dreadful thing had happened--a dog, come goodness knows whence, had appeared in the yard. It came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us wagging its whole body, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together." This shows how Orwell uses the dog to show how even though it has entered a dark sinful place the dog has no feeling of sadness or pity just happiness because it sees life. The directly correlates to the guard who starts to realize mid way through the piece the in humanity of killing another human being. The personification of the dog is to show how the guard wishes he could be blind to the horror that is going on around him just as the dog is. Then after catching the dog the whimpering echoes throughout the jail almost once again restoring the dark aura to the prison just like how the main character himself starts of cold, then begins to feel for the prisoner, but then ends up becoming cold to the situation again.
Page 3 "It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide." This line in the essay pretty much sums out the point of the essay. It shows how the protagonist goes through and change and shows his human side. In the beginning its another day and another person but as Orwell points out the human traits of the prisoner and the innocence of the dog, the protagonist has a change of heart. Even though he continued his job as he should of the guard knows that what he does is desirable by any means and that one day he will be dead as well.