Tonw analysis

Tone in George Orwell 's A Hanging

George Orwell 's A Hanging ' is an essay that tells of the seemingly mundane events that occur on the day a prisoner is hanged . Orwell speaks of his experience of witnessing the delivery of a Hindu prisoner to the gallows , the execution itself , and a short time immediately after that

Orwell starts the narrative with a few somber , gloomy s : the sodden morning of the rains ' sickly yellow light ' the high walls , and condemned cells . like small animal cages ' His narration is full of implied

and understated emotion , which serves to highlight what he perceives to be the wrongness of what happened . Instead of imposing emotions upon the reader by describing what he felt , Orwell mostly omits his own feelings from the narrative and instead allows the reader to witness ' the events unfolding as Orwell had witnessed them himself , leaving the reader to respond to the narrative with his or her own emotions

In his cold and detailed exposition of his observations , Orwell brings to the foreground seemingly inconsequential details surrounding the execution . The superintendent , who says Well , quick march , then . The prisoners can 't get their breakfast till this job 's over ' and For God 's sake hurry up , Francis . The man ought to have been dead by this time ' seems to treat the coming hanging as nothing more than a chore to be quickly done with . By portraying the treatment of a life as unimportant , Orwell emphasizes the inhumanity and provokes the opposite sentiments in the reader

Orwell is unmoved by the condemned man 's plight until almost halfway into his narration . His first and most important emotional involvement in the events occurs when he sees the prisoner step aside to avoid a puddle . Stepping aside to avoid a puddle is a very human thing to do something that he and everyone else would be likely to do as well . The revelation he experiences upon witnessing the prisoner avoiding the puddle on his way to his own hanging is the most important event of the essay . It serves to convey the Orwell 's main intention of making the reader realize , as he did , the unspeakable wrongness ' of capital punishment . He is never more explicit with his views than when he speaks of "the unspeakable wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide

Unfeelingly Orwell describes the execution itself - the clanking noise the dead silence . the rope was twisting on itself ' The prisoner was dangling with his toes pointed straight downwards , very slowly revolving , as dead as a stone ' After the prisoner is hanged , the superintendent pokes the dead body and says He 's all right ' an unexpected and perhaps inappropriate utterance that again underscores the unspeakable wrongness ' by trivializing what just happened

Orwell does not simply state that the prisoner repeatedly uttered Ram ' right before being hanged , but himself keeps repeating the word to allow the reader to witness ' it as close to firsthand as possible The...