Suwida Saelim 5761147

Pitilessness in human
Have you ever heard about the cruel execution in history? George Orwell was a British
author who composed a variety of journals and novels. He joined Indian imperial police in
Burma in 1920s. His experiences in this duty inspired him to write A Hanging, a short story
about the capital punishment which Orwell plays a key role in this story. Orwell is the person
who witnesses the situation from the beginning until the end. In the beginning of the story, the
narrator describes the atmosphere in a jail which were dark and gloomy. One of the Hindu
prisoners was taken out of his own cell by two warders in order to prepare him for a death
penalty, hanging. The narrator disagreed with the capital punishment, but he had no voice to
against the action. He can only watch that practice because he was only a young and new police
officer. While the Hindu prisoner was walking along the way to the gallows, he was guarded by
the six Indian warders. The hangman with white clothes prepared the machine for the death
penalty, and then a superintendent ordered the hangman to kill the Hindu prisoner. In his short
story, The Hanging, George Orwell uses characterization , symbolism and literary devices to
reveal the pitilessness of humankind.
Orwell uses characterization of superintendent, warders and others prisoner to reveal
unsympathetic of these characters to the Hindu prisoner. After they reach the gallows, the
prisoner realizes that he is going die and he prays to god Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!,(p.2) ,
--- 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!,(p. 2) the superintendent does not feel any compassion
to the prisoner. As you can see from the sentence above, he does not care how much the
prisoner tries to pray to god for help or calls for his last second of life. The superintendent still
wants to kill him as fast as he can for stopping that annoying noise, it is clearly illustrates in the
phrase stop that abominable noise!. Furthermore, the superintendent, warders, and other
prisoners continue to follow their routine after the death of the Hindu prisoner. Warders walk

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out from the gallows and other prisoners go to get their breakfast joyfully. As mentioned above,
"One felt an impulse to sing, to break into a run, to snigger. All at once everyone began
chattering gaily."(p. 2); they seem to be jovial with their first meal as the author uses the word
gaily, no one thinks about the cruel situation that just have done. Moreover, the narrator uses
the characterization in the last line to emphasize pitilessness. We all had a drink together,
native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away (p. 3); the
superintendent, warders, and the narrator have no sense of empathy. Moreover, they seem to be
relief with the death of the prisoner and eventually leave the prisoners death behind. Therefore,
the last sentence is well emphasized and summarized the authors opinion of unsympathetic.
In his short story A Hanging, Orwell uses a dog as a symbolism to demonstrate the
moment of compassionless. The symbol of dog is being used to interpret his feeling with the
capital punishment when he watches those situations. As the prisoner walks to the gallows, the
dog enters the dark in a serious situation between warders and prisoner who is going to die. The
dog responses to the prisoner, and think that they all are the same. As you can see from the text,
wild with glee at finding so many human beings together and it had made a dash for
the prisoner, and jumping up tried to lick his face.(p.1) These show the feeling of friendliness
and equality that the narrator has toward the prisoner. The superintendent is very angry about
the interruption of the dog so he orders the warder to drive out the dog, A warder detached
from the escort, charged clumsily after the dog.(p.1) This sentence clearly presents the
contradiction thoughts between the narrator and the superintendent. According to the sentences,
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,(p.2); the action of
the dog towards the prisoner, barks. It shows the narrators feeling towards prisoner which
demonstrate the disagreement with the capital punishment, and he also commiserates with
the prisoner. After the dog go into the back of the gallows, it steps back into the yard. This

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action can be linked to the perspective of the narrator after the death of the prisoner. As the dog
leave the scenes and never mentioned again, which can compare to the disappearance of
compassion of the narrators feeling.
A Hanging, George Orwell uses simile and irony as literary devices to display
the theme of merciless. From the beginning of the story, Orwell explains the gray and dark
atmosphere in the jail, and all the prisoners are in their own condemned cell. According to the
statement, We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double
bars, like small animal cages(p.1) and It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and
may jump back into the water.(p.1), it shows that the warders treat prisoners immorally and do
not have any sympathy, so the narrator compares the prisoner as an animal that is treated badly.
Therefore, the narrator uses simile as mentioned in this paragraph to emphasize inhumanity in
order to clarify an understanding on this theme.
Another literary device that shows in A Hanging is irony. After the death of the
prisoner, the superintendent uses his stick to verify his death and the author uses a variety of
irony to emphasize the callous subconscious of the superintendent. Towards the end of this short
story, Hes all right, said the superintendent(p.2); this above sentence is irony because the
superintendent says the opposite statement to reality, he was already died, but how can
superintendent says that the prisoner is alright. The aforementioned statement does not show
any empathy inside the superintendents mind. Additionally, they are all ready for their
breakfast, it seemed quite a homely, jolly scene after the hanging.(p.2); this statement depicts
the moment after one prisoner dies, everybody looks happy to eat their breakfast and no one
cares about ones life that is already missing. Thereby, these supporting evidences shows
inhumane of humankind.
In conclusion, in the short story A Hanging reveals theme of pitilessness of
humankinds by using symbolism, characterization, and literary devices. Orwell indicates the

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subconscious among character towards the Hindu prisoner in several ways including their
action, speech and symbol. Furthermore, aforementioned supporting evidences exhibit the
inhumanity among person that occur in the real world which is immoral. Therefore, everyone
has no right to threaten others life.