An Orwellian Look at Capital Punishment

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Orwell’s reaction
Role of the dog
Reactions of the others present
Conclusion

Introduction

George Orwell although known for his “Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’, wrote two noteworthy essays, being,’ Shooting an Elephant’ and “A Hanging”. The latter stems from his time spent as an imperial police officer in Burma. However, it must be noted that this account of his having witnessed the hanging of a man is disputed as being fictitious, as Orwell has on three separate occasions mentioned to three different people that the account was not true, but was based on hearsay from a jail superintendent. Whatever may be the actuality of the basis of the theme, Orwell is at his plain blunt speaking best when he describes the horror of such an inhuman act in very detached terms. He writes this essay as a witness to the actual act and although he strives for a dispassionate tone, his disgust is purely ethical at the social injustice perpetrated.

Orwell’s reaction

His reaction to the actual hanging of a puny Hindu man borders on a strategy of remaining as a detached viewer and subconsciously, his gorge rises at the thought of a human being with a living mind and body going through the motions of life when in a few moments he would hang for some indeterminate crime. His capacity for ethical disgust is couched in unvarnished details that build up the horror of the capital punishment meted out by humans on another human being like themselves. The man who is about to be hanged although stoic about his fate makes the others uneasy in that only his death will give them a release from their obligation to see him hanged.

Role of the dog

By introducing a dog who suddenly bounds onto the scene, Orwell builds up a parallel drama in that it is a diversion from the morbidity of the moment. The dog is a distraction and delays the man’s hanging by a few moments until the dog is tied to a make-shift leash. Initially, the dog is happy and ‘wild with glee’ but after the hanging, it sobers down and is conscious of something that is disturbing and wrong and it slinks away in the end. While the prisoner chants,’Ram, Ram’ steadily the dog whines in the faint knowledge of some appeal to higher divinity. The overall picture painted is bleak wherein human beings and a beast share deep down guilt and disgust with what they have witnessed at the gallows.

Reactions of the others present

Moments before the execution, the enormity of the deed strikes all present- the Superintendent looks down and away from the gallows, the Indians turn grey at the prospect of the imminent death they are about to witness and several bayonets wavered from their military precision. The horror builds up when Orwell voices the innate thought going through their collective minds that if the abominable deed were finished, they would not have to listen to the condemned man’s reedy chant, which emphasized the seconds of his life ticking away futilely. This shows a different kind of horror in that although everyone detests the capital punishment being administered, they cannot wait to have it finished so that they are wordlessly exonerated of the hanging.

Conclusion

It can be said that although Orwell had politically re-educated himself, his capacity for ethical disgust at what he witnessed could not over-ride his disgust at the firsthand experience of social injustice. Capital punishment may have been a necessity to emphasize the empirical status of the British, but it did not make it right or justifiable in the author’s eyes or sensibilities.

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An Orwellian Look at Capital Punishment

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