A Hanging
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The essay A Hanging (1931), by George Orwell, recounts an episode from his life as a policeman in Burma, wherein he observes a criminal being put to death. He is unmoved by what he sees, until he notices the condemned man sidestep to avoid a puddle as he is frog-marched to the gallows. On the march to the gallows, a small dog appears and runs towards the prisoner.
[edit] Context
Britain conquered Burma over sixty-two years (1824-1886), during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars occurred, and incorporated it to its Indian Empire. Burma was administered as an Indian province until 1937, when it became a separate, self-governing colony; Burmese independence was attained with the Aung San–Attlee agreement. Aung San was assassinated after the agreement was formal, but before it took effect and Burma was independent on January 4, 1948.
Strongly interested in the life of the working class, George Orwell (born 1903 in India to a middle-class family, but raised in Britain) was an Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927. Obliged to enforce the laws of an imperial power with which he grows to disagree, it developed his dislike of totalitarian regimes. His criticism of totalitarianism bore the fruit of Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm, from his Burmese years.
[edit] Discussion
Orwell paints a wonderfully intense picture of the man condemmed to death, the jailers walking away, and the dog's unpredictable actions amidst the solemn occasion. The execution's formality allows the participants to automatically and thoughtlessly conduct their business. The condemned man's automatic action of side-stepping the puddle, important to one's own continuing comfort later in the day, makes Orwell begin to think about the difference between being alive and being dead, and the horror of what is being done in killing the man. He is alive, his toenails are growing, his blood is pumping, yet he avoids wetting his feet in that moment while in the next moment he will be dead, gone from the world. Ultimately, Orwell contemplates how tradition and ritual prevent participants from thinking about their actions. Such ideas resonate through Orwell's writing through to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
