orwell essay a hanging

A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s ‘A Hanging’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Hanging’ is a short essay by George Orwell. However, to this simple statement we should probably add two caveats. One is the difficulty of categorisation, when Orwell himself described this ‘essay’ as ‘a story’, suggesting it was fiction rather than an account of a real-life event.

The other caveat is about the by-line under which ‘A Hanging’ first appeared. It was one of his earliest published works, and indeed, it didn’t originally appear in print under the name ‘George Orwell’ but under Orwell’s real name, Eric Blair.

Published in Adelphi magazine in 1931, ‘A Hanging’ draws on Orwell’s experiences in imperial Burma in the 1920s, when he worked there as a policeman. Before we offer an analysis of the essay – or ‘story’ – let’s briefly summarise the content of ‘A Hanging’. You can read the essay here .

‘A Hanging’: summary

Orwell describes one morning in Burma when a condemned man was hanged. The superintendent of the jail where the prisoner is being kept is impatient to get the hanging over with because the other prisoners won’t get their breakfast until it has been done.

The head jailor is a man named Francis, a member of the Dravidians (a race of south Asian people found in India and nearby countries), whose speech, including his sibilant rendering of ‘is’ as ‘iss’, Orwell documents in Dickensian fashion.

Orwell focuses on small incidents that occur in the run-up to the hanging: while the prisoner is being led from his cell to the gallows, a stray dog appears and approaches the crowd of men, trying to lick the prisoner’s face. The prisoner seems uninterested in the merry dance that follows, whereby the prison warder and a young jailor try to catch the dog or shoo it away.

As Orwell follows the condemned man to the gallows, he reflects that this was the first time he had reflected on what it means to execute someone in their prime of life, when they are healthy and conscious.

When the prisoner reaches the gallows, he cries out to his god repeatedly, shouting ‘Ram!’ over and over. A bag is placed over his head and he keeps crying out, until the order is given to drop the carry out the execution.

After the hanging, the men, including Orwell, walk back, and the head jailor shares a story of a hanging where the doctor had to pull the prisoner’s legs to ‘ensure decease’. He then tells another story of a prisoner who resisted being removed from his cell before his execution, and six warders had to pull the man out.

The men laugh at this story, and the superintendent offers them all a drink of whisky. They go and drink together, laughing. Orwell’s closing words remind us that the ‘dead man was a hundred yards away.’

‘A Hanging’: analysis

Like another of Orwell’s ‘essays’ which draw upon his experiences in Burma, ‘Shooting an Elephant’ (which we discuss here ), the extent to which ‘A Hanging’ is actually a work of autobiography or non-fiction has been disputed.

Indeed, even Orwell himself said as much, describing it to his friend and housekeeper as ‘only a story’. However, on other occasions he wrote in print that he had indeed seen a man hanged ‘once’: in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), he remarked, ‘I watched a man hanged once; it seemed to me worse than a thousand murders.’

It is possible that Orwell sought to distance himself from the ‘I’ who narrates the account in ‘A Hanging’ – perhaps because he came to detest his involvement in imperialism – but it’s also perfectly possible that Orwell was using a fictionalised event to represent the common experience of native men being hanged by the imperial class in south Asia.

Whichever interpretation is the accurate one, and perhaps we will never know, there is reason to believe that Orwell was embellishing the account, at the very least. As James Wood points out in his How Fiction Works – the best introduction to how narrative devices work in fiction, in our opinion, and strongly recommended – the moment where the condemned man ‘stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path’ appears to have been lifted from Tolstoy’s War and Peace .

In Tolstoy’s novel, Wood reminds us, Pierre witnesses a man being executed and observes that, just before death, the condemned man adjusts the blindfold at the back of his head because it’s a little too tight.

It says a great deal about Orwell’s skill as a writer that he seized upon this telling detail – why would a man who is about to lose his life care if his shoes get wet? But then it’s human nature to do so, and is a subtle and realistic reminder that this is a living, breathing human being who is being sent to the gallows, a person just like you and me, and old habits such as avoiding puddles would die hard.

It seems almost comically absurd, but it rings all the more true as a result. Orwell’s long essay on Charles Dickens, which – like his essay on Gulliver’s Travels – shows what a keen eye for literary analysis he had, reveals a surprising affinity between the two writers, in that they both understood how, at moments of extreme mental anguish, small and seemingly inconsequential details become all the more important in revealing human character.

Consider, in this regard, how Dickensian is Orwell’s own description of the tense moment leading up to the execution itself:

The hangman climbed down and stood ready, holding the lever. Minutes seemed to pass. The steady, muffled crying from the prisoner went on and on, ‘Ram! Ram! Ram!’ never faltering for an instant. The superintendent, his head on his chest, was slowly poking the ground with his stick; perhaps he was counting the cries, allowing the prisoner a fixed number – fifty, perhaps, or a hundred.

That repeated ‘perhaps’ is reminiscent of someone trying to keep their mind occupied while they wait for the horrible moment to arrive. It’s also reminiscent, perhaps, of the moment when Fagin, in Oliver Twist , is awaiting the judge’s sentencing which will lead to his hanging:

Not that, all this time, his mind was, for an instant, free from one oppressive overwhelming sense of the grave that opened at his feet; it was ever present to him, but in a vague and general way, and he could not fix his thoughts upon it. Thus, even while he trembled, and turned burning hot at the idea of speedy death, he fell to counting the iron spikes before him, and wondering how the head of one had been broken off, and whether they would mend it, or leave it as it was. Then, he thought of all the horrors of the gallows and the scaffold – and stopped to watch a man sprinkling the floor to cool it – and then went on to think again.

This panicked need to occupy the mind to stop it from fixating on the dreaded theme of death is something Orwell conveys so well, even as bystander rather than condemned man, in ‘A Hanging’.

As with ‘Shooting an Elephant’, where Orwell – or his semi-fictionalised narrator, at least – is beset by a morbid fear of being laughed at by the native Burmese population, laughter plays an important part in ‘A Hanging’, dominating its final ‘scene’.

And indeed, even before this, the essay is filled with moments which are described almost comically, from the head jailor’s hissing voice to the jailors’ failed attempts to get rid of the dog that interrupts their procession to the gallows.

But the laughter at the end of the essay is harder to analyse: is it nervous laughter? The laughter of the imperial overlords and their indifference to the lives of the natives? It is, perhaps, both: signalling the nervousness of those who feel uneasy occupying such a position, and who must take refuge in the collective, and in alcohol, to make such things palatable.

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s ‘A Hanging’”

I read that essay before and it was quite a depressing event. Still, I love his writing.

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A Critical Analysis of George Orwell's 'A Hanging'

BBC/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

This assignment offers guidelines on how to compose a  critical analysis of "A Hanging," a classic narrative essay by George Orwell.

Preparation

Carefully read George Orwell's narrative essay "A Hanging." Then, to test your understanding of the essay, take our multiple-choice reading quiz . (When you're done, be sure to compare your answers with those that follow the quiz.) Finally, re read Orwell's essay, jotting down any thoughts or questions that come to mind.

Composition

Following the guidelines below, compose a soundly supported critical essay of about 500 to 600 words on George Orwell's essay "A Hanging."

First, consider this brief commentary on the purpose of Orwell's essay:

"A Hanging" is not a polemical work. Orwell's essay is intended to express by example "what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man." The reader never finds out what crime was committed by the condemned man, and the narrative isn't primarily concerned with providing an abstract argument regarding the death penalty. Instead, through action, description , and dialogue , Orwell focuses on a single event that illustrates "the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide."

Now, with this observation in mind (an observation that you should feel free to either agree with or disagree with), identify, illustrate, and discuss the key elements in Orwell's essay that contribute to its dominant theme .

Keep in mind that you're composing your critical analysis for someone who has already read "A Hanging." That means you don't need to summarize the essay. Be sure, however, to support all your observations with specific references to Orwell's text. As a general rule, keep quotations brief. Never drop a quotation into your paper without commenting on the significance of that quotation.

To develop material for your body paragraphs , draw on your reading notes and on points suggested by the multiple-choice quiz questions. Consider, in particular, the importance of point of view , setting , and the roles served by particular characters (or character types).

Revision and Editing

After completing a first or second draft , rewrite your composition. Be sure to read your work aloud when you revise , edit , and proofread . You may hear problems in your writing that you can't see.

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Analysis: “A Hanging”

In “A Hanging,” George Orwell uses a single event in colonial Burma to critique the death penalty and the corrupt tyranny of empire. Whether “A Hanging” should be considered fiction or autobiography is not entirely clear. As a member of the Imperial Police in Burma, Orwell would likely have witnessed hangings, although he is known to have told a friend that “A Hanging” was “just a story” (Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life . Little Brown, 1980, p. 151). On the other hand, in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), he writes, “I watched a man hanged once; it seemed to me worse than a thousand murders” (Orwell, George. Complete Works of George Orwell . Vol. 5, Secker & Warburg, p. 136). This statement could easily be read as referring to the narrator’s reaction to the execution in “A Hanging.”

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A Hanging Analysis

“A Hanging” (1931) is a short essay of George Orwell which discusses the execution of a prisoner. The background is set in 1920’s Burma when Orwell was posted there for five long years as a member of the IIP or Indian Imperial Police.

In this essay, Orwell shares his harrowing experience of watching a Hindu prisoner getting executed. It was also the turning point of Orwell’s life. After that, his point of view towards capital punishment changed for the rest of his life. He was a very sympathetic man; moreover, he was a nature lover.

Later he repents that what do people get by destroying a healthy and conscious man. It shows how affectionate he was towards humanity.

In this essay, Orwell took the help of imageries, vivid physical descriptions, and irony to bring out the cruelty of execution. Besides showcasing the humans’ inhumanity, he bears an implicit tone of condemnation towards capitalist punishment.

Table of Contents

A Hanging Substance

This essay of Orwell captures a prisoner’s journey who is destined to be executed by his guards. Finally, the judgment day arrives, and the prisoner is taken out of his cell towards the gallows where he will be hanged. He cries out, “Ram!” several times just before his execution.

Such kind of unpredictable incident shocked the guards for which his execution got delayed. After a few moments, the guards dropped the floor, and his neck was snapped brutally. Mantle of silence covered the whole courtyard for a few minutes.

Then the joyful dialogues of the guards broke the dead silence like a bolt from the blue. They seemed to remain unaffected by what just happened in the courtyard.

Imagery used

George Orwell takes the help of imageries to highlight the cruel condition of the imprisoned people. Besides that, Orwell focuses on the outrage of capital punishment and also seeks sympathy for these troubles. Orwell begins by drawing a dark picture of the jail atmosphere.

He describes the weather as “a sodden morning of the rains” with the touch of “a sickly light, like yellow tinfoil.” It sets a gloomy tone for the rest of the essay. Such a type of menacing atmosphere creates a dingy and disturbing mood, which ultimately reflects the dispirited life of the prisoners.

By wrapping the jail in cold and overcast emotions, Orwell exaggerates the brutality of execution and also kindles sympathy in the reader’s mind. Orwell also described the prisons as “small animal cages,” which signifies the terrible prison conditions. By showing these horrible conditions of the prisoners with the help of several imageries, Orwell brings out the callous brutality of execution.

A Hanging Physical Descriptions

George Orwell took the help of physical description to portray the ruthlessness of capital punishment. He also humanizes the prisoners by talking about the “unspeakable wrongness” they used to face in prison. Orwell deliberately makes the prisoner weak in appearance, which also puts stress on the fact of being tortured.

His revolution against capitalist punishment reaches its peak when he says that the prisoner was the same man, “walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world.” He makes an apt summary of the whole act by saying, “cutting a life short when it is in full tide.”

A Hanging Irony

George Orwell uses irony in his essay to show the overshadowed sadness that lies in the prisoners. Irony has been the key instrument for him to criticize the apathetic attitude towards the brutal act of execution and, ultimately, death.

The remark of the guard after the execution that “He’s alright” shows the inhumanity of the capitalist people. Instead of feeling sympathy for the prisoner, the guard chose to make this comment, which ironically brings out the widespread practice of hanging.

Orwell was able to contrast life from death so meticulously just because he used irony in it. Like when he goes on to say that ” … the dead man was a hundred yards away”, me makes a clear difference between life and death and also how easily death can take over upon life.

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Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s A Hanging

June 21, 2018

A Hanging by George Orwell Summary and Analysis

Burma, now known as Myanmar, was an important influence on George Orwell’s works and life. Orwell was born in India to a father who worked as an overseer of the colonial opium business (Osborne, 2013). George Orwell’s real name was Eric Arthur Blair. His first novel ‘Burmese Days’ was published in 1934. While the novel mostly records the insidious effect of Orwell’s job as a policeman in Burma on his life, it also demonstrates his sensitivity to the local culture and lifestyle. A love for the Burmese forests is evident in his works like ‘ Burmese Days’ and ‘ Shooting an Elephant ’.   Lawrence Osborne notes in her 2015 article for NewYork Times that Orwell was posted at Irrawaddy Delta in 1924 where he did crime scene forensics and surveillance.

The job helped him gain valuable insights into the inner working pattern of the Police States.   However, the monotonous life inside the jungles influenced Orwell in other ways too. Burma was among the most violent parts of the British ruled Asia. Dacoits and armed gangs infested its waterways and looted the local people. Burma was an important episode in Orwell’s life and an even important influence on his literary career, which took perfect shape in his last two novels ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’.  ‘A Hanging’ is one of his essays looking at life inside those Burmese jungles from a candid and blunt angle. While his candid portrayal of the situation engages, it also evokes fury against the British rule. Orwell treats the entire scene with brutal honesty and directness. From the prisoner’s calm demeanor when he is about to be executed to every small sound and movement inside the prison campus, Orwell captures each scene like a skilled photographer, bringing to light the inhuman treatment of prisoners and an utter lack of concern among the British officials for the lives and well being of the convicts.

His detailed and clear portrayal of an entire hanging episode is the central feature of his work. Orwell treats every small action and movement with precision and focus, that reading the chapter feels almost like a first hand visit. Starting with the depiction of the local weather, a rainy morning in Burma, Orwell takes us through the events at a slow pace. He depicts the entire episode with clarity. His portrayal of the settings especially increases the charm of his work. Those condemned cells inside which local people waited for death to arrive were ten by ten in size with a plank bed and a pot of water. Convicted men waited for their final moment holding those iron bars. The prison had a poorly lit and damp courtyard. Orwell gives us a small description of the settings before the focus shifts to the convict. It was a Hindu man with a   shaved head who instead of resisting execution, appeared frighteningly calm throughout.

The convict’s face was serious and calm. The writer felt deeply for the convict who might have been a revolutionary or a criminal. However, the patience with which the convict chanted Ram, Ram, made him appear one of the revolutionaries who accepted death with pride while fighting against the British. He could also be an ordinary Hindu native who had revolted against the British or committed some other crime. What made everything look comic was that while the man was not trying to resist his execution, six tall guards were walking alongside him as if he could fly away the next moment. This also shows, he must be a prisoner of some stature. The guards held close to him as if he would slip like a fish from their hands. Orwell does not offer any information on the prisoner’s background. None of his relatives were visiting him and except his appearance which showed he was a Hindu, there is no mention of his offense. He was handcuffed but resisted in no manner and his calm and contained attitude left the guards feeling uneasy. Orwell uses rich imagery and similes to describe the event and give the readers a detailed picture of the hanging.

The bugle call at eight o’clock seemed to have woken the superintendent up who asked the head jailer Francis why things were not ready yet. The hanging had to be completed by now. The head jailer was a fat Dravidian who rushed at the superintendent’s call. The team marched but its march was suddenly halted by a dog, which pranced around them and reached for the prisoner at the center trying to lick his face. The dog was difficult to control and the superintendent was angry. They brought the dog under control with great difficulty and moved on. The dog in the essay symbolizes approaching death and the stinky prison cells symbolize hell. Orwell shows that the convict has already been through hell and that could have forced him to accept death with patience.

It was forty yards to the gallows, Orwell notes, who was keenly watching the prisoner who showed no concern or curiosity.   He walked instead like a King followed by his men and with dignity and pride. He was gripped by guards from both sides. While walking, he stepped aside to avoid   a puddle made by the previous night’s rain. This suddenly made Orwell realize something. They were going to destroy one life and that was seriously irresponsible. It was bad to cut a life short when it was in full tide.  This action also showed that the prisoner was in no mood to make any fuss and wanted to depart from this world in peace. Life can be brutal and the prisoner must have realized it in his last moments, which was the reason behind his extraordinary calm. If he tried to resist his execution, it would have made his death ugly. The small puddle signifies a big change in the prisoner’s life and that’s why he sidestepped it while walking so as to avoid ruining the beauty of his last moments.

This man was not dying. He was being murdered in the name of the law or as Orwell calls it ‘Solemn foolery’. Orwell’s tone grows guilty, emotional, and sarcastic at this point as he wakes up to the moment’s reality.   Orwell thinks of the last few moments that the man was going to spend in human company. His nails would still be growing and his mind still thinking till finally… “ with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone — one mind less, one world less ”. Here the use of anaphora deepens the psychological impact of Orwell’s words. The gallows were in a small yard separated from the main prison. Orwell notes the details of the surrounding area which was overgrown with weeds. The proceedings began and the hangman fixed the rope round the prisoner’s neck. In his last moments, the prisoner started chanting the name of his Lord Rama. There was no fear in his voice. It was rhythmic like the tolling of a bell. Even after the hangman pulled the cloth over his face, his chanting continued. However, the noise had started ringing in the minds of the people surrounding him and some of them started shaking out of fear. The superintendent allowed the prisoner some more time to chant his Lord’s name.   His voice was terrifying the audience and Indian guards had grown black as coffee. It was as if the dying man would leave behind a curse and the fear had turned their faces black. Everyone had the same thought that let’s just finish it and stop that abominable noise. The sound of Ram, Ram, Ram.. had started ringing inside their minds and their veins could have burst. The prisoner’s calm demeanor was already a test of their patience and now his chanting had disrupted their stability.

Suddenly, the superintendent ordered the hangman and it happened. The superintendent checked the dangling body for signs of life and then as he backed out of the gallows, the look on his face had changed. As they moved back to the prison yard, the scene was jollier there. Breakfast was being served and after the hanging was over, everyone was feeling relieved as if ready to break into a song.   A Eurasian boy walking by the author’s side told him that the poor guy (the convict who had been hanged) had pissed on the floor of his cell out of fright learning his appeal had been dismissed. While nobody believed him, they still gave a hearty laugh. The head jailor was talking to the superintendent about the hangings that had occurred previously and that this one had taken place quite peacefully.   The superintendent and the jailor kept talking about how things get clumsy sometimes when the prisoner did not cooperate and tried to delay the process. Orwell suddenly grew conscious that he was laughing like everyone else. The gloomy scene of death had not quite left him. The superintendent decided to serve everyone whiskey he had brought with himself. The party moved on joking and laughing. The natives and Europeans, all had a drink together a hundred yards from where the prisoner lay dead. Orwell is standing among the wolves and cannot act like a sheep. He knows that any signs of dissatisfaction on his face would be visible instantly and spell trouble for him. However, deep inside his heart, fury was surging and while he joined the British folks, he could not help picturing them as drinking the dead convict’s blood. There are some similarities between this essay and Orwell’s 1984 , in which the lead character Winston is constantly worried about his facial expressions for fear of demonstrating dissatisfaction or disloyalty against the party.

Orwell’s work gives us   a naked portrayal of the British Raj. A death has occurred and no one is affected. People on the scene enjoy a break after the execution as if a burden is off their shoulders. This pattern gave birth to a   kind of distaste that Orwell has clearly expressed in many of his works. Everything happening under British rule was comic and insensitive.  The author has expressed his moral dilemma in several of his works including ‘Shooting an Elephant’. He is himself one of the hated colonialists in Burma. Orwell had realized the evil in imperialism and felt guilty about how the oppressors were treating the local people. This guilt is clearly expressed in ‘A Hanging’ and grows highlighted at various points. Orwell realizes that his duty was against his personal values at the point he sees his colleagues are going to brutally cut off a life in full tide. Again he realizes that he is laughing like the rest of the pack. The characters of the Eurasian Boy and Jailor Francis also highlight the irony of the situation. The tone of the essay is sarcastic and while the author himself remains a part of these proceedings, he cannot help feeling guilty and low. He feels for the Burmese people and even for himself whom the imperialists had forced to be the part of a brutal and inhuman system. Orwell could never agree with its actions and felt that this kind of moral decline was not good for the white man himself.   Orwell saw British Raj as tyrannical and the distaste kept growing in him and later found a stronger expression in 1984.

Literary devices used in A Hanging:

Examples of Similes:

A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil; gone grey like bad coffee.

Eight o’clock struck and a bugle call, desolately thin in the wet air, floated from the distant barracks. 

It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water

Symbols in A Hanging:

Dog: The dog symbolizes approaching death and the condition of prisoners under British rule.

The puddle: The small puddle symbolizes calm before storm, life before death and the mental peace that comes from detachment.

Prison and the gallows: The prison symbolizes the oppression of the Burmese population at the hands of the British and their denial of freedom to the locals; entire Burma could be seen as a large prison created by British rule where people were trapped like a fish in a fishing net. The gallows symbolize the grip of the British on the nation and the punishing life under British rule.

Use of Irony in a Hanging:

The condition of the Burman prisoners portrayed in the essay is tragic and the role of British officials is comic. The author gets to see and feel the awkwardness associated with death at the hanging. Ironically, he cannot stop it or even say what is in his heart. He has got to follow the rules and cannot interfere with the proceedings. Everyone feels sick about the hanging. The bad feeling lasts until the hanging is over. After that, they celebrate it with a drink. The local people are being tried and hanged by foreign rulers who do not have any right to do it. Orwell’s writing also shows that none of the prisoners has received a fair trial. Their fates are ironic because all form of resistance fails. They are hanged and the party ends with a drink to wipe out the distaste resulting from witnessing a death.

In the case of Orwell, he is facing a moral dilemma. A sick feeling strikes everyone when the poor creature chants Ram, Ram, Ram. The Superintendent allows him more time before they hang him. The silence with which the man accepts his fate and does not make any fuss is a sign that resistance against the British rule was brutally crushed. The irony is that while the man would not resist, he shows his disapproval of the British rule by calmly accepting the death sentence imposed upon him. Orwell does not know where will this irony end because it can be over only with the overthrow of British rule. He has to laugh and drink with the British folks. He ironically recognizes he has grown used to this way of life. However, the death of the poor convict also wakes him to the reality of the British Raj and how ironic or rather tragic it is to be a part of such a cruel and reckless herd that destroys innocent lives only to express its own superiority and might.  Moreover, the poor man’s death makes him ask of himself if his death was more ironic or it is the British Raaj. Orwell’s work raises several questions which neither those imperialists and nor the people they ruled would have been able to answer conveniently.

However, Orwell’s account of a prisoner’s hanging in Burma is deeply unsettling and not because it evokes sympathy for the simple and poor prisoner but because it helps us peer deeper and understand the level of atrocity and the kind of horror, the imperialists could perpetrate without feeling its weight on their hearts and consciences. A hanging takes the form of a procession or the last ritual and then ends in a party. No one is even the slightest concerned for the life that was cut short. None except George Orwell even seems to be thinking since the weight of their acts could fall on their hearts. As if a century later, the imperialists would rise from their graves to bear the responsibility of the horrors they had perpetrated and apologize for every rule of humanity they broke or every person, society and nation they cheated; Orwell makes us realize that these imperialists were cheating less developed nations of their most precious assets and that they were worse than the dacoits that lived inside the Burmese Jungles. Seen from the eyes of George Orwell, those sins look even unpardonable.

• https://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/orwell.html
• https://orwell.ru/library/articles/hanging/english/e_hanging

A Hanging by George Orwell : Summary and Questions

Table of Contents

A Hanging by George Orwell

Introduction The essay ‘ A Hanging’ by George Orwell describes an incident of hanging one prisoner. Orwell describes the event in his usual dramatic and ironic style. The essay is remarkable for the vivid characters that Orwell has portrayed. Like ‘Shooting an Elephant’, the incident of hanging takes place in Burma where he worked for some time. The essay comments on the unavoidability of and the submission to death.

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Summary The writer describes the event of hanging one prisoner in Burma. The prisoner was a Hindu, with shaven head, vague liquid eyes and a thick sprouting moustache. Though confronted with death, the prisoner was not bothered by the fear of death. He just neglected the warders who were taking him to the gallows. The warders were accompanied by an army doctor, a jailer, a superintendent. The doctor was in a hurry to take the prisoner to the gallows because till the job was not over, the prisoners couldn’t get their breakfast. As the procession proceeded further, a dreadful thing took place. One large woolly dog jumped on the prisoner. Everybody stood aghast because of the strange event. The angry superintendent ordered to catch the dog. The prisoner paid no attention even to this strange incident. When the dog was caught by someone, the procession resumed.

The prisoner walked quite steadily. The writer was stunned by the thought that after some moments this healthy, conscious man was going to die, who at that moment was alive just like all other people in the prison were alive. The writer, then, in an elaborate way describes how the prisoner was pushed to the gallows.

As the hangman fixed the rope round the prisoner’s neck, the final drama began. Even up to that moment the prisoner was behaving courageously. He started to cry out to the god, “Ram! Ram! Ram !” But it wasn’t urgent and fearful prayer. It was rather steady rhythmical, “almost like the tolling of bell”. The incessant call of Ram! Ram!” was making restless to everyone. That’s why the same thought was in everyone’s mind: “oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise !”

Suddenly the superintendent gave an order and everything stopped. Everyone felt relieved from the unknown burden. The superintendent confirmed the death of the prisoner. The final moments of the prisoner’s hanging were so torturous that when he was dead, everyone started to laugh for no reason. The jailer told the superintendent that everything was okay because he had seen cases where the doctor had to confirm the death by pulling the prisoner’s legs. The courageous nature of the prisoner was also torn by the Eurasian boy who was walking beside the writer. He told the writer that when the prisoner heard his appeal had been dismissed and the death sentence was finalized, he pissed on the floor. Towards the end of the essay, all together enjoy a drink offered by the superintendent and burst into laughter recalling the anecdote told by the jailer.

Chief features Brevity or shortness is an important feature of an essay. But this compactness does not arise from the superficiality or lack of knowledge of its author. In the present essay, the writer has captured a very limited time span, to be precise, it is hardly of eight minutes. It begins at eight ‘o clock and ends at eight minutes past eight. But the drama that has taken place during these eight minutes throws light on the varied human tendencies.

It is expected that a person who is confronting death must be frightened. But in the essay, it happens in the other way. The prisoner walks to the gallows steadily and starts to call out the god in a rhythmical tone. He is not at all afraid of death, on the contrary, the jailer, the doctor, the writer and the other people are upset because of the continuous chant of the words in a solemn tone. Though death is an ultimate truth, everyone is scared of death. Naturally, we wonder about the prisoner’s courage. But then we are told that the prisoner was also an ordinary man because when he had heard the news about the dismissal of his news, he was terrified by the thought of death and had urinated in the cell.

The present essay is personal in nature and informal in tone. The style is simple and yet dignified. The language is the language of everyday speech. The emphatic utterance of ‘is’ (‘iss’) by the jailer or the order given by the superintendent to the hangman (‘Chalo’) makes the language more lively. The essay is also remarkable for the writer’s minute observations. He describes the jail or the characters with the utmost details.

Check your progress:-

Choose the correct option: 1. Francis was the name of……… . a. the doctor b. the prisoner c. the head jailer d. the superintendent 2. The prisoner’s procession towards gallows stopped suddenly, because……… . a. the prisoner’s death sentence was cancelled. b. the gallows was not prepared. c. a dog appeared in the yard. d. the prisoner was already dead. 3. When the rope was fixed around the prisoner’s neck, the prisoner……… . a. became unconscious b. started to cry. c. urinated. d. started his prayer incessantly. 4. When the prisoner was hung, everyone ……… . a. felt very sad b. started to laugh unnecessarily c. abused the prisoner. d. saluted the prisoner. 5. When the prisoner heard the dismissal of his appeal……… . a. he cried b. he urinated on the floor in the cell c. he went mad d. he remained calm and quiet.

Keys to check your progress. 1. (c), 2. (c), 3. (d), 4. (b), 5. (b)

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“A Hanging” Essay by George Orwell Essay

Features of writing, orwell’s attitude, personal reflection.

George Orwell’s works are a vivid example of acute social dystopia and pressing problems associated with interaction among people. Many of his major works became great literary masterpieces, but in addition to novels, the author also wrote small essays, where he also raised topical issues. As an object of analysis, his work “A Hanging” in the genre of a first-person narrative short story will be considered. When an employee of the British Imperial Police in the 1920s, Orwell witnessed many controversial and even frightening events and incidents, and one of them formed the basis of this essay. Undisguised tension and hyperrealism are the characteristic features of “A Hanging,” and the author’s inner experiences, along with his emotional assessment of what happens, allow conveying a wide range of feelings that affect the reader.

One of the remarkable features of this work is the style of presentation. Orwell (2000) resorts to a first-person narrative technique, which allows readers to immerse themselves in the story as deeply as possible and evaluate it through the eyes of the author himself. Many sentences are short and non-exhaustive to create additional intrigue and increase tension. Orwell (2000) resorts to various literary techniques, in particular, comparisons and subtexts, to emphasize some ideas. For instance, the author constantly compares the weather of that day with various everyday aspects in order to describe the situation in detail (Orwell, 2000).

The dog that appears on the path of the procession ​​may be the personification of a thirst for life, which the prisoner does not show but keeps in himself (Orwell, 2000). All these techniques help to better reflect the tension of the situation and convey the observer’s emotions.

The emphasis on details is an additional tool that allows focusing readers’ attention on specific nuances of the narrative. The position of the prisoner’s hands, the location of the guards, the executioner’s appearance, and other unique elements of the story that Orwell (2000) presents help create an atmosphere of immersion. As a result, despite a small volume of this essay, the narrative is detailed and covers a short time period with the greatest possible accuracy.

When evaluating the author’s attitude to the story, readers may notice how ambiguous the narrator’s feelings are. He does not hide anxiety, and when the prisoner who is constantly repeating the name of his God is brought to the gallows, a climax sets in, and the emotions of Orwell (2000) are sharpened. It is felt in the narrative that he takes part in this entire procedure reluctantly and has no choice but to accompany the prisoner to the place of his execution. The remarks regarding convict’s stepping over a puddle in the yard prove that Orwell (2000) is concerned about the injustice of the world and the laws that take away a physically healthy person’s life. As a result, before the execution, mixed feelings of anxiety and hopelessness are traced in the author’s narrative.

After the execution, a radical change in the author’s mood reflects his relief and desire to forget about the tense situation. Both Orwell (2000) and his colleagues laugh out loud and discuss extraneous topics, and this abrupt shift in the tone of the story indicates that the author does not want to recall recent events. Accordingly, one can note that any execution is a test for the narrator who is ready to forget this experience immediately.

“A Hanging” is one of the successful works written by Orwell (2000), and the brevity of this story cannot be considered a flaw. The author conveys a wide range of feelings and captivates readers with a tense plot, which, at the same time, reflects a short period of the prisoner’s transfer to the place of execution (Orwell, 2000). The applied literary techniques provide a clear picture of the situation and help understand the experiences that may accompany such a procedure.

Although there is no clearly defined introduction or conclusion in the work, the essay allows readers to understand the situation quickly, and additional details are not needed in order to feel the tension. The author’s attitude is obvious, and it is noticeable that Orwell (2000), who performs his duty, is not ready to accept the reality in which a person is deprived of life by force. Therefore, despite the fact that this essay does not apply to the dystopian genre, vivid details highlight social vices and reflect how controversial laws may be.

The story of “A Hanging” is a vivid example of Orwell’s work, and the realism of the essay makes it possible to feel the whole depth of emotions experienced by the author. The features of writing allow plunge into the atmosphere of the narrative and perceive all the events described as clearly as possible. The author’s attitude is also obvious because fear, misunderstanding, and subsequent relief are transmitted openly. This essay does not belong to the dystopian genre, but it also addresses acute social problems and raises the essential issues of human rights and freedoms.

Orwell, G. (2000). Essays . London, UK: Penguin Books.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Hanging — A Review of George Orwell’s writing in A Hanging

A Review of George Orwell’s Writing in a Hanging

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Words: 927 |

Published: Jan 15, 2019

Words: 927 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited:

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• Gudde, E. G. (1998). California gold camp names: Origins of geographic names of interest to gold-seekers. University of California Press.
• Hittell, T. H. (2011). A history of the city of San Francisco and incidentally of the state of California. Applewood Books.
• Lingenfelter, R. E. (1978). The rush to California: A bibliography of the literature on the gold rush in California and the overland journey to the gold fields, 1848-1852. University of California Press.
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