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.

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

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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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A Hanging": George Orwell's Unheralded Literary Breakthrough

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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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George Orwell’s 5 greatest essays: No. 5, “A Hanging”

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For anyone interested in the politics of left and right -- and in political journalism as it is practiced at the highest level, George Orwell’s works are indispensable. This week, in the year marking the 110th anniversary of his birth, we present a personal list of his five greatest essays.

“A Hanging” is one of Orwell’s earliest essays, but already a demonstration of his superb and subtle craftsmanship. The piece, published in 1931 in John Middleton Murry’s literary magazine the Adelphi under Orwell’s real name, Eric Blair, was drawn from his experiences as a member of the Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927; whether it reports an actual event is uncertain, for Orwell himself sometimes called it “just a story.”

At the outset of his writing career, Orwell’s work displays his essential humanity and his skill at the presentation of textured detail -- the impatience of the jailer to get the hanging done, the intrusion of a mongrel dog trying to lick the prisoner, the ludicrous image of the “puny” prisoner guarded by six towering armed warders. Neither the condemned man’s name nor his crime is specified.

The most famous moment in the essay is the prisoner’s sudden sidestep to avoid a puddle in the path. “It is curious,” Orwell wrote, “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 man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working ... and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone -- one mind less, one world less.”

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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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A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell

Table of Contents

“A Hanging” is an essay written by George Orwell in 1931. It recounts his experience of witnessing a hanging during his time as a police officer in colonial Burma (now Myanmar). 

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- In this essay, Orwell explores themes of morality, justice, and the dehumanizing effects of capital punishment. The essay begins with a detailed description of the prison yard and the preparations for the execution. Orwell portrays the scene with vivid imagery, highlighting the tension and the somber atmosphere.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- As the essay progresses, Orwell describes the condemned man, a Hindu prisoner, with remarkable empathy. He emphasizes the man’s humanity by depicting his final moments and the subtle details of his appearance. 

Orwell contrasts the man’s vulnerability and fear with the casual indifference of the prison officials and spectators, who treat the event as a spectacle rather than a human tragedy.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Orwell reflects on the moral implications of the hanging and the role he played as a witness. He expresses his discomfort and unease about the act of taking a human life, even in the context of the death penalty. Orwell questions the necessity and efficacy of capital punishment, arguing that it does not serve as a deterrent and is merely a form of institutionalized violence.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Throughout the essay, Orwell emphasizes the dehumanizing effect of capital punishment on both the condemned and the executioners. 

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- He depicts the execution as a carefully choreographed process that strips the prisoner of his dignity and reduces him to a mere object. The essay highlights the psychological toll it takes on the prison officials, who are desensitized to the act of killing through their routine exposure to executions.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Orwell also criticizes the spectators, who gather to witness the hanging as a form of entertainment. He highlights their callousness and lack of empathy, describing how they joke and laugh while waiting for the event to unfold. Orwell argues that the act of witnessing an execution turns human beings into passive participants in an act of violence, contributing to a society that is desensitized to the suffering of others.

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A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- In the final part of the essay, Orwell recounts a small incident that occurs after the hanging. A small dog comes running onto the scene, wagging its tail and excitedly exploring the area, unaware of the tragedy that has just taken place. 

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Orwell uses this incident as a metaphor for the ignorance and indifference of the world outside the prison walls. He suggests that society, like the dog, remains oblivious to the human suffering caused by capital punishment.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- George Orwell’s essay “A Hanging” serves as a poignant critique of capital punishment and the dehumanizing effects it has on both the victims and those involved in its administration. 

Orwell vividly describes the atmosphere of the execution, the indifference of the prison staff, and the casualness with which the event is treated. Through his observations, Orwell raises profound questions about the nature of justice, the morality of taking a life, and the loss of humanity inherent in such acts.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Orwell’s personal reflections on the experience reveal his own sense of guilt and remorse, even though he was just a bystander. 

This highlights the profound impact witnessing an execution can have on an individual’s conscience, forcing them to confront the ethical implications of their own participation or complicity. The essay calls into question the entire system of capital punishment and challenges readers to consider the profound consequences of state-sanctioned violence.

A Hanging Essay Summary By George Orwell- Ultimately, “A Hanging” urges us to reflect on the inherent cruelty and injustice of capital punishment. Orwell’s eloquent portrayal of the execution scene and his introspective analysis serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving our shared humanity and fostering a more compassionate and just society.

Q: Who is George Orwell? 

Q: when was “a hanging” published .

A: “A Hanging” was first published in 1931.

Q: What is “A Hanging” about? 

A: “A Hanging” is an essay by George Orwell that recounts his personal experience of witnessing a hanging while serving as a colonial police officer in Burma during the British Empire. The essay reflects on the moral implications and dehumanizing nature of capital punishment. Orwell describes the scene of the execution, explores his own feelings of discomfort and repulsion, and raises questions about the arbitrary nature and injustice of the death penalty.

Q: What are the main themes of “A Hanging”? 

A: The main themes explored in “A Hanging” include dehumanization, morality and justice, and power and control. Orwell examines how the act of capital punishment degrades the humanity of both the condemned and those involved in the execution process. He raises moral questions about the death penalty, challenging its arbitrary nature and asserting its fundamental injustice. The essay also touches on power dynamics and the exercise of control by the state over the lives and deaths of its citizens.

Q: What is Orwell’s perspective on capital punishment in “A Hanging”? 

A: In “A Hanging,” Orwell presents a critical perspective on capital punishment. Through his personal experience of witnessing a hanging, he questions the morality of state-sanctioned killing and reflects on the arbitrary nature of the death penalty. Orwell argues that capital punishment is fundamentally unjust and emphasizes the potential for errors in the legal system. His narrative serves as a powerful critique of the dehumanizing effects of the death penalty and prompts readers to reconsider their attitudes toward this form of punishment.

Q: What is the significance of “A Hanging”? 

A: “A Hanging” is significant as a powerful critique of capital punishment. Orwell’s vivid and introspective narrative brings to light the dehumanizing effects of state-sanctioned killing and challenges the reader to confront the ethical and moral implications of the death penalty. The essay prompts us to question our own beliefs and assumptions about justice, empathy, and the value of human life. It continues to be relevant in ongoing discussions about the morality and effectiveness of capital punishment.

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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

• Categories: 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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• Deverell, W. F., & Igler, D. (2014). A companion to California history. Wiley Blackwell.
• 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.
• Rawls, J. J. (1999). California: An interpretive history. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Rohrbough, M. J. (1998). Days of gold: The California Gold Rush and the American nation. University of California Press.
• Sides, H. (2006). Blood and thunder: An epic of the American West. Anchor Books.
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by George Orwell

It was in Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard. We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages. Each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot of drinking water. In some of them brown silent men were squatting at the inner bars, with their blankets draped round them. These were the condemned men, due to be hanged within the next week or two.

One prisoner had been brought out of his cell. He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. He had a thick, sprouting moustache, absurdly too big for his body, rather like the moustache of a comic man on the films. Six tall Indian warders were guarding him and getting him ready for the gallows. Two of them stood by with rifles and fixed bayonets, while the others handcuffed him, passed a chain through his handcuffs and fixed it to their belts, and lashed his arms tight to his sides. They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was there. It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water. But he stood quite unresisting, yielding his arms limply to the ropes, as though he hardly noticed what was happening.

Eight o'clock struck and a bugle call, desolately thin in the wet air, floated from the distant barracks. The superintendent of the jail, who was standing apart from the rest of us, moodily prodding the gravel with his stick, raised his head at the sound. He was an army doctor, with a grey toothbrush moustache and a gruff voice. 'For God's sake hurry up, Francis,' he said irritably. 'The man ought to have been dead by this time. Aren't you ready yet?'

Francis, the head jailer, a fat Dravidian in a white drill suit and gold spectacles, waved his black hand. 'Yes sir, yes sir,' he bubbled. 'All iss satisfactorily prepared. The hangman iss waiting. We shall proceed.'

'Well, quick march, then. The prisoners can't get their breakfast till this job's over.'

We set out for the gallows. Two warders marched on either side of the prisoner, with their rifles at the slope; two others marched close against him, gripping him by arm and shoulder, as though at once pushing and supporting him. The rest of us, magistrates and the like, followed behind. Suddenly, when we had gone ten yards, the procession stopped short without any order or warning. 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. It was a large woolly dog, half Airedale, half pariah. For a moment it pranced round us, and then, before anyone could stop it, it had made a dash for the prisoner, and jumping up tried to lick his face. Everyone stood aghast, too taken aback even to grab at the dog.

'Who let that bloody brute in here?' said the superintendent angrily. 'Catch it, someone!'

A warder, detached from the escort, charged clumsily after the dog, but it danced and gambolled just out of his reach, taking everything as part of the game. A young Eurasian jailer picked up a handful of gravel and tried to stone the dog away, but it dodged the stones and came after us again. Its yaps echoed from the jail wails. The prisoner, in the grasp of the two warders, looked on incuriously, as though this was another formality of the hanging. It was several minutes before someone managed to catch the dog. Then we put my handkerchief through its collar and moved off once more, with the dog still straining and whimpering.

It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never straightens his knees. At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.

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 man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working - bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming - all toiling away in solemn foolery. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned - reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone - one mind less, one world less.

The gallows stood in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison, and overgrown with tall prickly weeds. It was a brick erection like three sides of a shed, with planking on top, and above that two beams and a crossbar with the rope dangling. The hangman, a grey-haired convict in the white uniform of the prison, was waiting beside his machine. He greeted us with a servile crouch as we entered. At a word from Francis the two warders, gripping the prisoner more closely than ever, half led, half pushed him to the gallows and helped him clumsily up the ladder. Then the hangman climbed up and fixed the rope round the prisoner's neck.

We stood waiting, five yards away. The warders had formed in a rough circle round the gallows. And then, when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out on his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of 'Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!', not urgent and fearful like a prayer or a cry for help, but steady, rhythmical, almost like the tolling of a bell. The dog answered the sound with a whine. The hangman, still standing on the gallows, produced a small cotton bag like a flour bag and drew it down over the prisoner's face. But the sound, muffled by the cloth, still persisted, over and over again: 'Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!'

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. Everyone had changed colour. The Indians had gone grey like bad coffee, and one or two of the bayonets were wavering. We looked at the lashed, hooded man on the drop, and listened to his cries - each cry another second of life; the same thought was in all our minds: oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise!

Suddenly the superintendent made up his mind. Throwing up his head he made a swift motion with his stick. 'Chalo!' he shouted almost fiercely.

There was a clanking noise, and then dead silence. The prisoner had vanished, and the rope was twisting on itself. I let go of the dog, and it galloped immediately to the back of the gallows; but when it got there it stopped short, barked, and then retreated into a corner of the yard, where it stood among the weeds, looking timorously out at us. We went round the gallows to inspect the prisoner's body. He was dangling with his toes pointed straight downwards, very slowly revolving, as dead as a stone.

The superintendent reached out with his stick and poked the bare body; it oscillated, slightly. 'He's all right,' said the superintendent. He backed out from under the gallows, and blew out a deep breath. The moody look had gone out of his face quite suddenly. He glanced at his wrist-watch. 'Eight minutes past eight. Well, that's all for this morning, thank God.'

The warders unfixed bayonets and marched away. The dog, sobered and conscious of having misbehaved itself, slipped after them. We walked out of the gallows yard, past the condemned cells with their waiting prisoners, into the big central yard of the prison. The convicts, under the command of warders armed with lathis, were already receiving their breakfast. They squatted in long rows, each man holding a tin pannikin, while two warders with buckets marched round ladling out rice; it seemed quite a homely, jolly scene, after the hanging. An enormous relief had come upon us now that the job was done. One felt an impulse to sing, to break into a run, to snigger. All at once everyone began chattering gaily.

The Eurasian boy walking beside me nodded towards the way we had come, with a knowing smile: 'Do you know, sir, our friend (he meant the dead man), when he heard his appeal had been dismissed, he pissed on the floor of his cell. From fright. - Kindly take one of my cigarettes, sir. Do you not admire my new silver case, sir? From the boxwallah, two rupees eight annas. Classy European style.'

Several people laughed - at what, nobody seemed certain.

Francis was walking by the superintendent, talking garrulously. 'Well, sir, all hass passed off with the utmost satisfactoriness. It wass all finished - flick! like that. It iss not always so - oah, no! I have known cases where the doctor wass obliged to go beneath the gallows and pull the prisoner's legs to ensure decease. Most disagreeable!'

'Wriggling about, eh? That's bad,' said the superintendent.

'Ach, sir, it iss worse when they become refractory! One man, I recall, clung to the bars of hiss cage when we went to take him out. You will scarcely credit, sir, that it took six warders to dislodge him, three pulling at each leg. We reasoned with him. "My dear fellow," we said, "think of all the pain and trouble you are causing to us!" But no, he would not listen! Ach, he wass very troublesome!'

I found that I was laughing quite loudly. Everyone was laughing. Even the superintendent grinned in a tolerant way. 'You'd better all come out and have a drink,' he said quite genially. 'I've got a bottle of whisky in the car. We could do with it.'

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.

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L.S.U.’s Kim Mulkey Courts Controversy With Style

Inside the coach’s winning fashion playbook.

By Vanessa Friedman

The smog of a Washington Post exposé may have been hanging over Kim Mulkey’s head during the L.S.U. game on Saturday afternoon, but the highest paid coach in women’s collegiate basketball wasn’t going to hide. How could you tell?

Well, in part because at the start of the N.C.A.A. tournament, she had given a news conference threatening a lawsuit about the article, thus calling to attention to it. In part because there she was, running up and down the sidelines and screaming her head off. And it part because … goodness, what was she wearing?

A gleaming pantsuit covered in a jumble of Op Art sequined squiggles, as if Big Bird had met Liberace and they’d teamed up for “Project Runway.”

Even in the context of basketball, a sport in which players and coaches understood the power of personal branding through clothes long before almost any other athletes, Ms. Mulkey stands out. More than perhaps anyone else in the league — possibly in all of women’s basketball — she has made her image a talking point, a reflection of her own larger-than-life personality and a tool to draw attention to her sport. She is basketball’s avatar of the Trumpian era, offering a new version of The Mulkey Show at every game and costuming herself for the moment. As her team meets the University of Iowa again in the Elite Eight, brand Mulkey will most likely be raising the stakes once more.

It would be wrong to call her clothes “fashion.” They have little to do with trends or silhouette. But love what she wears or hate it, love how she behaves or hate it, her sometimes ridiculous, always eye-catching outfits are, like her winning record, abrasive personality and problematic comments , impossible to ignore.

“She’s the OG example of how to capitalize on who you are,” said Sydney Bordonaro, a stylist who works with seven W.N.B.A. players and was herself a Division I basketball player. “How many eyes are on her during each game? How could you not take advantage of that opportunity? It’s priceless.”

As such, and as the women’s game becomes increasingly popular and new N.I.L. rules put a premium on the monetization of image and identity, Ms. Mulkey is fast becoming the author of a different kind of playbook. One that has made her a lightning rod not just because of her coaching style, but because of her style as a coach.

“She has built herself into a brand,” said Mitchell S. Jackson, the author of “Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion.” “It’s about ratings and about personality.”

A Brief History of Basketball Coach Fashion

It was the Lakers coach Pat Riley who set the tone for sideline fashion back in the 1980s when he adopted a wardrobe of Armani suits, using clothes to convey his ambition and polish. “He became the standard-bearer,” Mr. Jackson said. “But he also blended in.”

Pat Summitt, who spent 38 years as the women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, took a similar approach, becoming known for her shoulder pads and power suits. As Lindsay Gibbs, the founder of the newsletter Power Plays, pointed out, female coaches had long understood that “they were being scrutinized to a different level” and that what they wore was going to play a role whether they liked it or not.

Yet overall, it has been the men who have garnered much of the attention — perhaps because they also had the paychecks and the discretionary income. And perhaps because the W.N.B.A. has a long and fraught history with gender stereotyping, which for years saw the organization pushing classically “feminine” ideals, including offering hourlong makeup and hair tutorials for rookies to combat traditionalist nervousness about powerful female athletes and all they represent.

In recent years, and especially in the men’s game, the coaches have ceded the spotlight to the players, opting to dress in team apparel rather than designer clothes, even as their on-court stars have ended up on the front row of fashion shows. Ms. Mulkey is an alternative to all that.

And though she is not the only style-forward coach in the game — Dawn Staley of South Carolina , Adia Barnes of the University of Arizona, and Sydney Carter, the director of player development for the University of Texas are lauded for their image-making flair — Ms. Mulkey is the most extreme. She has been compared to a Who from Dr. Seuss’s Whoville , Ric Flair of WrestleMania and a flamingo . (Well, she has been called a “rare bird.”)

Whether you consider her looks merely “eccentric,” as Ms. Bordonaro does, or straight from “the Las Vegas clown section,” as Tom Broecker, the costume designer of “Saturday Night Live,” does, it may matter less than the fact that you consider them at all.

“She’s making a statement about her individuality and determination to be herself, no matter what,” Ms. Gibbs of Power Plays said. “It has become something people look out for, and she’s leaning in.”

Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle

Ms. Mulkey’s penchant for outré dress began to emerge during her 21 years at Baylor, in which she led her team to three national championships. During that time, she also courted controversy with comments dismissing the university’s sexual misconduct scandal and her treatment of her star player, Brittney Griner, who has talked publicly about being told to stay in the closet by her coach and to cover her tattoos. (Later, Ms. Mulkey did not speak up when Ms. Griner was imprisoned in Russia in 2022.) Still, her style was a lot more “normal, for want of a better word,” Ms. Gibbs said.

It was during L.S.U.’s run to the N.C.A.A. trophy last year that Ms. Mulkey vaulted from basketball fame to national fame, thanks in part to her penchant for sequins, feathers and lurid color combinations. She wore a black and white sequined polka-dot pantsuit, a Kelly green and hot pink plaid jacket with pink feathers on the sleeves, a rose-pink jacket with enormous … well, roses, on the sleeves and, for the final game, an allover sequined tiger-stripe pantsuit. (The tiger is the L.S.U. mascot.) Riding in the celebration parade afterward, she chose a purple sequined jacket with more tigers.

It is not a coincidence that one of Ms. Mulkey’s favorite labels is called Queen of Sparkles . Designed by Jaime Glas, it is sold at the Baton Rouge store Rodéo Boutique, where Ms Mulkey reportedly gets many of her outfits — or where Jennifer Roberts, the L.S.U. director of women’s basketball player personnel and influence, gets them for her. At this point, according to a 2023 article on her closet in the Louisiana daily The Advocate , she has 171 pairs of shoes and “29 glittery jackets.”

“Look, we’re from Louisiana,” Ms. Mulkey said , by way of explaining her taste. “We like sparkles, we like diamonds, we like Mardi Gras, we like to eat and we like to party.”

Whatever the reason, her choices have meant that even people with no particular interest in basketball (like the FUG girls ) have suddenly begun watching the games. “People tune in to see what she’s wearing,” Mr. Jackson said.

And Ms. Mulkey understands the stakes. When she gave that news conference about the Washington Post article at the start of the N.C.A.A. tournament, she left the sequins behind for the institutional security of a simple long-sleeve purple L.S.U. T-shirt. As if to remind everyone what a team player she really is.

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014. More about Vanessa Friedman

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