Learning Intention
• Read ‘A Hanging’ by George Orwell.• Determine what the main theme of the essay is.
• Begin to analyse language and effect – and consider how to make your own writing better.
A Hanging
George Orwell
Born in East India in 1903
Worked in Burma as part of the Indian Imperial Police.
Famous for ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’.
‘A Hanging’ is taken from a collection of essays entitled ‘Burmese Days’.
George Orwell
ThemeWhat is the main message? What are the big
ideas of the essay?Genre
What kind of text is it? Setting
Where is it set? When is it set? Why is this relevant?
CharacterWho is the main character? Who else features?
Why?Plot
What happens?
The basics
Narrative StructureFirst/Second/Third personCircular/Development/foreshadowing/flashback
ImageryPersonificationMetaphorSimileOnomatopoeiaAlliteration
Sentence StructurePunctuationWord orderSentence lengthRepetitionLists
Word Choice
Prose Techniques – The Big Four
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 plan 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.
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.
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. The 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.
The StructureFour main sections.1. Lead up to key event
Description of settingDescription of prisonerDescription of
Superintendant/Head jailer Journey to the gallows Incident with the dog
Structure2. Orwell’s View “It is curious, but till that moment I
had never realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man … 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 in his body were working … all toiling away in solemn foolery. 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.”
Structure3. The Hanging Description of overgrown gallows
area Description of gallows Prisoner climbing gallows Prisoner chanting Tension builds/delay/impatient
response Final order Description of dead body
Structure4. The AftermathSuperintendant changedFrancis gossipingLaughterDrinkingEnding
Pair workIn pairs you are going to be given a question
(or two!) to answer about the text.
You will then share your answers with your group as a whole.
Once you are all agreed on having the best answers to each of your questions, we will feed back as a class and see what kind of notes we have.
Look at paragraph 1 With specific reference to word choice and
imagery show how Orwell creates a very particular mood in the opening paragraph of his account.
Mood/atmosphere: …? “sodden”
Suggests… “sickly light like yellow tinfoil”
Suggests… “condemned”
Suggests… “like small animal cages”
Suggests…“brown silent men were squatting at the inner bars”Suggests…
2. In what sense does the opening set the tone for the rest of the piece?
The opening depicts a scene which….
This sets the tone as…
The setting is important because…
Look at the description of the prisoner (One prisoner…)1. Which words and phrases are particularly effective in
helping you to create a vivid picture of the condemned prisoner? Describe your emotional response (as a reader) to the man and his predicament.• “Hindu”
• Effective because… as a reader I felt…• “puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes”
• Effective because… makes us feel…• “a thick sprouting moustache…absurdly too big for his body, rather like
the moustache of a comic man on the films.”• Effective because…
• “he stood quite unresisting”• “yielding his arms limply to the ropes, as though he hardly noticed what
was happening.”
2. How successful is Orwell in describing the physical and emotional reactions of the warders? Again, answer with close reference to the text.
“lashed his arms tight to his sides.”What does this suggest?
“crowded very close about him”
“hands always on him in a careful caressing grip”
“it was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water.”
OxymoronJuxtaposition IronyDramatic IronyDark/Black humourComic reliefStream of consciousness
Literary Terms
Look at the paragraph describing the superintendent and head jailerDescribe your reaction to the superintendent and the head jailer in light of what they do and say. Is Orwell trying to convey a specific point in his description of these two men?
Essay QuestionIt has been argued that most prose reflects mankind’s pessimism and obsession with the dark side of life.
By close reference to one essay, short story or novel show whether you agree or disagree with this view.
Using the essay plan work out a PLAN for this essay.
Make sure you are answering the question for every point you make.
