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'''A Hanging''' is a 1931 essay written by George Orwell. In it, he recounts an episode from his time as a police officer in Burma in which observes a criminal being executed. 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.

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Context

Discussion

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Context

Britain conquered Burma over a period of sixty-two years (1824 - 1886), during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars took place, and incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Burma was administered as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony; independence was attained as a result of the Aung San–Attlee agreement which guaranteed Burmese independence. Aung San was assassinated after the agreement was formalized, but before it took effect and Burma attained its independence on January 4, 1948.
With a strong interest in the lives of the working class, George Orwell (born 1903 in India to a middle-class family but brought up in Britain) held the post of 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, Orwell's distaste for totalitarian regimes developed. His criticisms of totalitarianism that came to fruition in Nineteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm have their foundations in his years in Burma.

Discussion

Orwell paints a both wonderful and intense picture of this man condemned to death, the others walking away and the unpredictable actions of a dog in the midst of this solemn occasion. The formality and formulaic qualities of the event give the participants a way to automatically conduct their business, without thought. The condemned man conducting an activity as automatic yet important to one's own continuing comfort for later in the day of avoiding the puddle makes Orwell begin to think about the differences between alive and dead, and the horrors of what is being done in killing this man. He is alive, his toenails are growing, blood is pumping, he wants to avoid getting his feet wet in this moment, and in the next, he will be gone. Ultimately, Orwell contemplates the ways that tradition and ritual prevent participants from thinking about their actions. Such ideas can be seen to resonate through Orwell's writing all the way through Nineteen Eighty-Four.

External links

★ Text of "''A Hanging''"

★ "Orwell's Burma", an essay in ''Time''