Previous
Orwell
The prisoner is a Hindu man who faces execution on the morning the story takes place. He is quiet and surprisingly submissive, despite the guards’ obvious nerves as they restrain him. He does not fight back, nor does he try to escape. At first the men working at the prison treat the prisoner and his execution as a burden and chore, but when a dog breaks into the prison yard and treats everyone the same, the men grow uneasy. The prisoner is no different from them in the eyes of the dog, and when he side-steps a puddle, he demonstrates his capacity to think and reason, which affects Orwell deeply. On the gallows, the prisoner exacerbates his captors’ discomfort by chanting “Ram!” repeatedly. The prisoner’s apparent calm and acceptance further jars everyone, including the superintendent, who allows the prisoner time to continue his chant. Even after his death, the prisoner’s hanging body serves as a reminder of the colonizers’ injustice. At one point, a prison worker attempts to share a humiliating story about the late prisoner, and though Orwell and his peers laugh at the man’s reaction to his sentencing, it is clear the weight of what they have done bothers their consciences.
The Prisoner Quotes in A Hanging
The A Hanging quotes below are all either spoken by The Prisoner or refer to The Prisoner. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Hanging
Quotes
[The guards] crowded very close about [the prisoner], 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.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
A dreadful thing had happened—a dog, come goodness knows whence, had appeared in the yard. It came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us wagging its whole body, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together. […] For a moment it pranced round us, and then, before anyone could stop it, it had made a dash for the prisoner and, jumping up, tried to lick his face.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
And then, when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out to his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of “Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!” not urgent and fearful like a prayer or a cry for help, but steady, rhythmical, almost like the tolling of a bell. The dog answered the sound with a whine.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We looked at the lashed, hooded man on the drop, and listened to his cries—each cry another second of life; the same thought was in all our minds: oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise!
“Do you know, sir, our friend [he meant the dead man] when he heard his appeal had been dismissed he pissed on the floor of his cell. From fright. Kindly take one of my cigarettes, sir. Do you not admire my new silver case, sir? From the boxwalah, two rupees eight annas. Classy European style.”
We all began laughing again. At that moment Francis’ anecdote seemed extraordinarily funny. We all had a drink together, native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away.
Get the entire A Hanging LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Prisoner Quotes in A Hanging
The A Hanging quotes below are all either spoken by The Prisoner or refer to The Prisoner. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Hanging
Quotes
[The guards] crowded very close about [the prisoner], 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.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
A dreadful thing had happened—a dog, come goodness knows whence, had appeared in the yard. It came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us wagging its whole body, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together. […] For a moment it pranced round us, and then, before anyone could stop it, it had made a dash for the prisoner and, jumping up, tried to lick his face.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
And then, when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out to his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of “Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!” not urgent and fearful like a prayer or a cry for help, but steady, rhythmical, almost like the tolling of a bell. The dog answered the sound with a whine.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We looked at the lashed, hooded man on the drop, and listened to his cries—each cry another second of life; the same thought was in all our minds: oh, kill him quickly, get it over, stop that abominable noise!
“Do you know, sir, our friend [he meant the dead man] when he heard his appeal had been dismissed he pissed on the floor of his cell. From fright. Kindly take one of my cigarettes, sir. Do you not admire my new silver case, sir? From the boxwalah, two rupees eight annas. Classy European style.”
We all began laughing again. At that moment Francis’ anecdote seemed extraordinarily funny. We all had a drink together, native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away.
