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The Worn-out Rope: The merciless punishment is unjustifiable in A Hanging

The rope cuts off the mans breath, but the true murderer is a prisoners judge. In
1931, A Hanging was published by George Orwell, a British police who served in Burma.
Orwell interprets the story of the Hindu prisoner being hung without mention to prisoners
biography and his crime. The execution happens during the morning, he depicts the prisoner
as an animal and hangs him due to capital punishment. After the prisoner died, Orwell,
superintendent, and warders went to hang out. The story illustrates how merciless punishment
is unjustifiable.
The author expresses gloomy tone to involve sympathize mood of reader and dark
atmosphere was used for describing the setting. In the beginning, Orwell describes the dark
atmosphere and bad surrounding of the prison as a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly
light, like yellow tinfoil, (1). Rainy in the morning makes the atmosphere become forlorn
and shows the bad environment around the prison. By using the word sickly, narrator
demonstrate a negative meaning to reflect the disgusting of the prisoners condition. The size
of the condemned cell; Each cell measured about ten feet by ten (3-4). This quote explains
how tiny of the condemned cell is. The captive needs to spend most in the condemned cell.
The size is too small even one person is still hard to stay. It makes the captive feel depress
and sorrow. Thus, he makes the mood become darker and shows the wrongness of prisoners
brutal treatment. Therefore, not only the gloomy tone and sympathize mood can show the
ruthless punishment but also the poetic device that he chooses can develop this idea too.
Orwell uses irony to explicit the uncompassionate of superintendent and warders
toward the prisoner. The superintendent and warder stood around the gallows and waited to
be the witness of this execution of the prisoners. Then the superintendent ordered the
hangman to kill the prisoner. Furthermore, the superintendent uses a stick and jab to check a

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dead body; Hes all right, said the superintendent (91). The prisoner is already death. This
shows how brutal and uncivil of him. Instead of regretting, he said it carelessly and pitiless.
Irony manifest the unjustifiable of destroying a human life. Also, the author describes the
prisoner in the moment that he walked avoid the puddle; And once, in spite of the men who
gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
(48-49). Orwell uses irony to clarify that even the prisoner almost to die but he still tries to
make himself avoid the uncomfortable situation. Which shows that the prisoner still has the
consciousness. The irony is not the only literary device used to unveil that merciless of
punishment is unjustifiable, Orwell also portrayed the unjustifiable punishment using the
simile.
The narrator uses simile to illustrate the unjustifiable atmosphere of the prison.
Orwell and warder saw the Hindu prisoner as an animal by described as the condemned cell,
a row an of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages (2-3). The author uses
the word Animal cages instead of condemned cells. The small area with the sunlight shine
through the double bar shows that the author compares the jail as an animal cages which
shows the bad living condition of the prisoner. In the cell only just a double bars that allow
the light to come in so, it is pretty dark in there. The jail does not create for human to live but
it creates to imprison the animal. All the prisoner should not deserve to stay in this
surrounding. Using simile makes the concept of humanity clearer. Orwell also described the
prisoner as an animal; It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back
into the water (14-15). The fish represents the prisoner who wants to escape from this
execution. The word water can be referred to life. He wants to survive same as the fish that
try to reach the water. Orwell not only shows the unjustifiable penalty by using the simile but
also uses the dog as a symbol of the authors subconscious to illustrate the wrongness.

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Orwell elaborates on the dog as the symbol of conscience to unveil the unjustifiable of
the merciless punishment. A dog appeared when the prisoner was about to get hanged;
Jumping up tried to lick his face. (34). The dog never knew that a prisoner is a prisoner, it
just wants to play with him. However, when warder took the dog out, it straining and
whimpering. The moment that the prisoner is going to die, he prays for his god and the dog
answered the prisoner with the sad sound; 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.(67-71). Even the
dog shows it emotion of sadness through his voice but all the people that stay in the gallows
do not show their emotion. They hope that this execution will be fast so, they can all have a
breakfast. After a prisoner was pass away, the warder lets a dog go and it runs to the gallows.
Also, it bark to the dead body; The dog, sobers and conscious of having misbehaves itself,
slipped after them (95-96). Even the dog recognize what is right or wrong, but the
superintendent and hiss minions didnt realize what they have done to take away the life of
healthy man. This obvious illustrated the merciless punishment.
After all, in A Hanging shows the merciless punishment through the story. The
sympathize mood is express through the surrounding of prison by using the word small
animal cage which can refer to disgusting and uncomfortable. That should not be the place
for the human to survive. Though the story the prisoner is treated like an animal not as the
human. The pitiless of the superintendent and warders that behave toward the prisoner. The
prisoner who wants to survive from the dead same as the fish that want to return to the water.
The dog represents the moral of the author. If the unjustifiable punishment still continue to be
legal, who has the say that this can violate humans legal rights to be alive?