A Hanging by George Orwell Summary and

Analysis
Burma, now known as Myanmar, was an important influence on George
Orwell’s works and life. The southeast Asian country has featured over and
again in Orwell’s works and particularly in his three novels, Burmese Days,
Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell was born in India to a father who worked as an
overseer of the colonial opium business (Osborne, 2013). George Orwell’s real
name was Eric Arthur Blair. His first novel ‘Burmese Days’ was published in
1934. While the novel mostly records the insidious effect of Orwell’s job as a
policeman in Burma on his life, it also demonstrates his sensitivity to the local
culture and lifestyle. A love for the Burmese forests is evident in his works like
‘Burmese Days’ and ‘Shooting an Elephant’.  Lawrence Osborne notes in her
2015 article for New York Times that Orwell was posted at Irrawaddy Delta in
1924 where he did crime scene forensics and surveillance.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

The job helped him gain valuable insights into the inner working pattern of
the Police States.  However, the monotonous life inside the jungles influenced
Orwell in other ways too. Burma was among the most violent parts of the
British ruled Asia. Dacoits and armed gangs infested its waterways and looted
the local people. Burma was an important episode in Orwell’s life and an even
important influence on his literary career which took perfect shape in his last
two novels ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’.  ‘A Hanging’ is one of his essays looking
at life inside those Burmese jungles from an angle that is both candid and
blunt. While his candid portrayal of the situation engages, it also evokes fury
against the British rule. Orwell treats the entire scene with brutal honesty and
directness. From the calm demeanor of the prisoner to be hanged to every
small sound and movement inside the prison campus, Orwell captures each
scene like a skilled photographer bringing to light the inhuman treatment of
prisoners and lack of concern among the British officials for the lives and well
being of the convicts.
His detailed and clear portrayal of an entire hanging episode is the central
feature of Orwell’s work. He treats every small action and movement with
precision and focus, which makes the readers feel like being present inside the
prison camps and witnessing the event with their own eyes. Starting with the
depiction of the local weather, rainy morning in Burma, Orwell takes us
through the events at a slow pace. He depicts the entire episode with clarity.
His portrayal of the settings especially increases the charm of his work. Those
condemned cells inside which local people waited for death to arrive were ten
by ten in size with a plank bed and a pot of water. Convicted men waited for
their final moment holding those iron bars. The prison had a poorly lit and
damp courtyard. Orwell gives us a small description of the settings before
moving on to the convict. It was a Hindu with a shaved head who did not
show any particular resistance while he was being taken to be hanged.
The face of the convict was serious and calm. The writer felt deeply for the
convict who might have been a revolutionary or a criminal. However, the
patience with which he chanted Ram, Ram made him appear one of the
revolutionaries who accepted death with pride while fighting against the
British. He could also be an ordinary Hindu native who had revolted against
the British or committed some other major crime. What made everything look
so comic was that while the man was in no way trying to resist his execution,
six tall guards were walking alongside him. This also shows he must be a
prisoner of some stature. The guards held close to him as if he would slip like
a fish from their hands. Orwell does not offer any information on the prisoner’s
background. None of his relatives were visiting him and except his appearance
which showed he was a Hindu, there is no mention of his offense. He was
handcuffed but resisted in no manner and his calm and contained attitude left
the guards feeling uneasy. Orwell uses rich imagery and similes to describe the
event and give the readers a clear picture of the hanging.
The bugle call at eight o’clock seemed to have woken the superintendent up
who asked the head jailer Francis why things were not ready yet. The hanging
had to be completed by now. The head jailer was a fat Dravidian who rushed
at the superintendent’s call. The team marched but its march was suddenly
halted by a dog which pranced around them and then reached for the
prisoner at the center trying to lick his face. The dog was difficult to control
and the superintendent was angry. They brought the dog under control with
great difficulty and then moved on. The dog in the essay symbolizes
approaching death and the stinky prison cells are hell. It was forty yards to the
gallows, notes Orwell who was keenly watching the prisoner who showed no
concern or curiosity.  He walked instead like a King followed by his men and
with dignity and pride. He was gripped by guards from both sides. While
walking, he stepped aside to avoid a puddle made by the previous night’s rain.
This suddenly made Orwell realize something. They were going to destroy one
life and that was seriously irresponsible. It was bad to cut a life short when it
was in full tide. This action also showed that the prisoner was in no mood to
make any fuss and wanted to depart from this world in peace.
This man was not dying. He was being murdered in the name of the law or as
Orwell calls it ‘Solemn foolery’. Orwell’s tone grows guilty, emotional, and
sarcastic at this point as he wakes up to reality.  Orwell thinks of the last few
moments that the man was going to spend in human company. His nails
would still be growing and his mind still thinking till finally… “with a sudden
snap, one of us would be gone — one mind less, one world less”. Here the use of
anaphora deepens the psychological impact of Orwell’s words. The gallows
were in a small yard separated from the main prison. Orwell notes the details
of the surrounding area which was overgrown with weeds. The proceedings
began and the hangman fixed the rope round the prisoner’s neck. In his last
moments, the prisoner started chanting the name of his Lord Rama. There was
no fear in his voice. It was rhythmic like the tolling of a bell. Even after the
hangman pulled the cloth over his face, his chanting continued. However, the
noise had started ringing in the minds of the people surrounding him and
some of them even started shaking. The superintendent allowed the prisoner
some more time to chant his Lord’s name.  His voice was terrifying the
audience and Indian guards had grown black as coffee. It was as if the dying
man would curse them and the fear had turned their faces black. Everyone had
the same thought that let’s just finish it and stop that abominable noise. The
sound of Ram, Ram, Ram.. had started ringing inside their minds.
Suddenly, the superintendent ordered the hangman and it happened. The
superintendent checked the dangling body for signs of life and then as he
backed out of the gallows, the look on his face had changed. As they moved
back to the prison yard, the scene was jollier there. Breakfast was being served
and after the hanging was over, everyone was feeling relieved as if ready to
break into a song.  A Eurasian boy walking by the author’s side told him that
the poor guy (the convict who had been hanged) had pissed on the floor of
his cell out of fright learning his appeal had been dismissed. While nobody
believed him, they still gave a hearty laugh. The head jailor was talking to the
superintendent about the hangings that had occurred previously and that this
one had taken place quite peacefully.  The superintendent and the jailor kept
talking about how things get clumsy sometimes when the prisoner did not
cooperate and tried to delay the process. Orwell suddenly grew conscious
that he was laughing like everyone else. The gloomy scene of death had not
quite left him. The superintendent decided to serve everyone whiskey he had
brought with himself. The party moved on joking and laughing. The natives
and Europeans all had a drink together a hundred yards from where the
prisoner lay dead. Orwell is standing among the wolves and cannot try to act
like a sheep. He knows that any signs of dissatisfaction on his face would be
visible instantly and spell trouble for him. However, deep inside his heart, fury
was surging and while he joined the British folks, he could not help picturing
them as drinking the dead convict’s blood.
 
Orwell’s work gives us a naked portrayal of the British Raj. A death has
occurred and no one is affected. People on the scene later have fun like a
burden is off their shoulders. This pattern gave birth to a  kind of distaste that
Orwell has clearly expressed in many of his works. Everything happening under
British rule was comic and insensitive.  The author has expressed his moral
dilemma in several of his works including ‘Shooting an Elephant’. He is himself
one of the hated colonialists in Burma. Orwell had realized the evil in
imperialism and felt guilty about how the oppressors were treating the local
people. This guilt is clearly expressed in ‘A Hanging’ and grows highlighted at
various points. Orwell realizes that his duty was against his personal values at
the point he sees his colleagues are going to brutally cut off life in full tide.
Again he realizes that he is laughing like the rest of the pack. The characters of
the Eurasian Boy and Jailor Francis also highlight the irony of the situation. The
tone of the essay is sarcastic and while the author himself gets to be a part of
these proceedings, he cannot help feeling guilty and low. He feels for the
Burmese people and even for himself whom the imperialists had forced to be
the part of a brutal and sinful system. Orwell could never agree with its actions
and felt that this kind of moral decline was not good for the white man
himself.  Orwell saw British Raj as tyrannical and the distaste kept growing in
him and later found stronger expression in 1984.
Literary devices used in A Hanging:
Examples of Similes:
A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil; gone grey like bad coffee.
Imagery:
Eight o’clock struck and a bugle call, desolately thin in the wet air, floated from
the distant barracks. 
It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the
water
Symbols in A Hanging:
Dog: The dog symbolizes approaching death and the condition of prisoners
under British rule.

The puddle: The small puddle symbolizes calm before storm, life before death
and mental peace that comes from detachment.

Prison and the gallows: The prison symbolizes the oppression of the Burmese
population at the hands of the British and their denial of freedom to the locals;
entire Burma could be seen as a large prison created by British rule where
people were trapped like a fish in a fishing net. The gallows symbolize the grip
of the British on the nation and the punishing life under British rule.

Use of Irony in a Hanging:

The condition of the Burman prisoners portrayed in the essay is tragic and the
role of British officials is comic. The author gets to see and feel the
awkwardness associated with death at the hanging. Ironically, he cannot stop
it or even say what is in his heart. He has got to follow the rules and cannot
interfere with the proceedings. Everyone feels sick about the hanging. The bad
feeling lasts until the hanging is over. After that, they celebrate it with a drink.
The local people are being tried and hanged by foreign rulers who do not
have any right to do it. Orwell’s writing also shows that none of the prisoners
has received a fair trial. Their fates are ironic because all form of resistance
fails. They are hanged and the party ends with a drink to wipe out the distaste
resulting from witnessing a death.

In the case of Orwell, he is facing a moral dilemma. A sick feeling strikes

everyone when the poor creature chants Ram, Ram, Ram. The Superintendent
allows him more time before they hang him. The silence with which the man
accepts his fate and does not make any fuss is a sign that resistance against
the British rule was brutally crushed. The irony is that while the man would not
resist, he shows his disapproval of the British rule by calmly accepting the
death sentence imposed upon him. Orwell does not know where will this irony
end because it can be over only with the overthrow of British rule. He has to
laugh and drink with the British folks. He ironically recognizes he has grown
used to this way of life. However, the death of the poor convict also wakes him
to the reality of the British Raj and how ironic or rather tragic it is to be a part
of such a cruel and reckless herd that destroys innocent lives only to express
its own superiority and might.  Moreover, the poor man’s death makes him ask
of himself if his death was more ironic or it is the British Raaj. Orwell’s work
raises several questions which neither those imperialists and nor the people
they ruled would have been able to answer conveniently.

However, Orwell’s account of a prisoner’s hanging in Burma is deeply

unsettling and not because it evokes sympathy for the simple and poor
prisoner but because it helps us peer deeper and understand the level of
atrocity and the kind of horror, the imperialists could perpetrate without
feeling its weight on their hearts and consciences. A hanging takes the form of
a procession or the last ritual and then ends in a party. No one is even the
slightest concerned for the life that was cut short. None except George Orwell
even seems to be thinking since the weight of their acts could fall on their
hearts. As if a century later, the imperialists would rise from their graves to
bear the responsibility of the horrors they had perpetrated and apologize for
every rule of humanity they broke or every person, society and nation they
cheated; Orwell makes us realize that these imperialists were cheating less
developed nations of their most precious assets and that they were worse than
the dacoits that lived inside the Burmese Jungles. Seen from the eyes of
George Orwell, those sins look even unpardonable.