A Hanging Flashcards
Imagery - almost vapour, fading - death is coming soon
Has excepted his fate
Doesn’t seen to realise whats happening, animalistic
“A puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes”
“Everyone stood aghast, too taken aback to even grab at the dog”
Symbolism - dog is symbol of life & vitality
Men are horrified something so happy and full of life has come when their about to kill a man.
Indescribable concept
Taking the life of a healthy man
Shocked tone
Turning point - emphases on how wrong death sentence is
“I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide”
“All the organs of him body were working…all toiling away in solemn foolery
Oxymoron/irony
Depicts irony as man is very much alive & healthy yet so close to death
Grave mood created
His body doesn’t know its about to die
Anaphora - reflection on what is lost when we kill a man
His perception of the world is lost - can never be recovered
Against death sentence
“One mind less, one world less”
“Reiterated cry of Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Not urgent and fearful or a cry for help, but steady, rhythmical, almost like the toiling of a bell”
Link to religion/identity
Man has excepted his fate - no loner afraid
Audience feel sympathy for prisoner - pushes them to be against the death sentence.
Cliché, generically dead - striped of identity
Orwell running out of ways to describe whats happening reverting to clichés
” very slowly revolving, as dead as a stone
“Several people laughed - at what, nobody was certain”
Hysteria in aftermath
Reaction to death is callous - they don’t know how to react
Relief that its over
Proves death sentence is still there, cant escape it
Bleak reminder if the act committed
Depicts how the death sentence has not only effected the prisoner but also the guards - they have been scarred by it.
“The dead man was a hundred yards away”
Repetition of condemned
Symbolic of how trapped they are
No salvation for prisoners
‘It was burma, a sodden morning of the rains, a sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanted over the high walls into the jail yard’.
Pathetic fallcy
Depressing atmosphere
Yellow - connotations of illness, poison, death
High wall - claustrophobic emphasis on how trapped prisoners are
Light struggling to get in
