A Hanging George Orwell Analysis

The story “A Hanging” by George Orwell is about a hanging that was being placed in Burma in the 1920s, the man being hung was a Hindu man, also present was the Assistant Superintendent, head jailer, and other convicts. After the hanging took place George Orwell had an epiphany and became an Abolitionist and quit his job at the jail. Orwell’s Abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, the dog, the functionaries, their actions, words, and body language. The Hindu man, which was the prisoner that was going to be hung, was a small man with a sprouting moustache who looked as if he was from a comic (Orwell 99). The description of him implies that the man does not deserve what was going to be done to him and also that

He uses his own testimony to argue as to why capital punishment should be abolished which is his most important technique because he actually witnessed it. Orwell also uses common sense when he speaks about the wrongness of capital punishment after he sees the prisoner avoid a puddle (101). There are also analogies in this story, for example, when Orwell compares the prison cell as an animal cage and the prisoner as a fish out of water (99). Then we move onto Orwell’s credentials, one of the most important credential is the fact that he was actually there and once he saw the wrongness of what he was doing he quit his job and became an Abolitionist. Most argumentative points regarding the death penalty fall into three large categories, although Orwell only uses two of them. The most prominent one in Orwell’s story is the moral, ethical, and religious arguments which is seen throughout the story; for example, when Orwell expresses the unspeakable wrongness of capital punishment (101). The second one that is relevant in this story is the sociopolitical argument because it can run the risk of killing an innocent person; for example, when the prisoner chanted Ram which is a legendary god of Egypt (Orwell