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.
 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’.
 Theme
 What 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?
 Character
 Who is the main character? Who else features? Why?
 Plot
 What happens?
 Narrative Structure
 First/Second/Third person
 Circular/Development/foreshadowing/flashback
 Imagery
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Personification
Metaphor
Simile
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
 Sentence Structure
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Punctuation
Word order
Sentence length
Repetition
Lists
 Word Choice
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 Structure
Four main sections.
1. Lead up to key event
 Description of setting
 Description of prisoner
 Description of
Superintendant/Head jailer
 Journey to the gallows
 Incident with the dog
Structure
2. 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.”
Structure
3. 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
Structure
4. The Aftermath
 Superintendant changed
 Francis gossiping
 Laughter
 Drinking
 Ending
Pair work
In 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”
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“sickly light like yellow tinfoil”
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Suggests…
“condemned”
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Suggests…
Suggests…
“like small animal cages”
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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
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.”
 Oxymoron
 Juxtaposition
 Irony
 Dramatic Irony
 Dark/Black humour
 Comic relief
 Stream of consciousness
Look at the paragraph describing the superintendent and head
jailer
Describe 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 Question
It 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.