What is the thesis of "A Hanging" by George Orwell?

George Orwell's thesis in "A Hanging" can be put in his own words:

I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.

It can also be paraphrased slightly more succinctly and precisely:

Capital punishment is an evil and grisly business.

Or somewhat less succinctly but more comprehensively:

Capital punishment is an evil and grisly business and everyone involved in it knows and feels its wrongness.

Orwell juxtaposes the squalid physical details of captivity and the preparations for the execution with his own sudden realization, occasioned by the condemned man stepping aside to avoid a puddle, of the wickedness of permanently destroying the consciousness of a healthy man, leaving, in the space of a few minutes "one mind less, one world less."

The way in which those involved in the hanging feel the wrongness of their task and the falseness of their position is emphasized throughout the essay by the uneasy manner in which they act and communicate, then by their relief and laughter when the man is dead.

I found that I was laughing quite loudly. Everyone was laughing. Even the superintendent grinned in a tolerant way. "You'd better all come out and have a drink," he said quite genially. "I've got a bottle of whisky in the car. We could do with it."

Orwell's focus on the shared laughter of relief at the end of the essay demonstrates the guilt and complicity of all the men who have taken part in the hanging. By mentioning that he was laughing along with the rest of them, having just told us what he has been thinking, Orwell invites us to speculate on the true state of mind of his laughing accomplices. They seem to be happy to distract themselves with anything: drink or gallows humor or false camaraderie, from reflecting on what they have just done.

What is the irony in George Orwell's "A Hanging"?

Situational irony is a literary technique in which a particular expectation is created by the author for their readers—yet something quite the opposite happens instead.

In this story, the narrator is preparing to witness a hanging. The mood is solemn, with careful detail given to the way the hanging is carried out. The accused doesn't fight those who have condemned him; he seems resolute in his fate. It even seems as though nature itself attempts to intervene in the ending of his life, as a dog unexpectedly emerges and attempts to lick the man's face. (This is ironic itself, as dogs are known to show no form of friendliness to strangers who are aggressive. This characterizes the condemned man as one whose spirit attracts the favor of an unknown dog.) The man is perfectly healthy and even sidesteps a puddle, not wanting to get his feet wet (ironic because within minutes, he will have no further need for those feet). His captors share no joy in this hanging; they wish to get it over with quickly and effectively.

Just before his death, the man begins to call out to his god, not in desperation but "like the tolling of a bell," over and over as the executioner stands ready. There is a building sense that this man will be rescued somehow. The superintendent doesn't immediately signal for the execution, and the man stands with a rope around his neck, tolling out his cry while time stretches on for him.

The irony is that he does die—and almost immediately afterward, the entire group is laughing. The mood that precedes his death and the mood following are sharply different. His death actually lightens the atmosphere as the group jokes about executions gone horribly wrong.

Irony is utilized by Orwell to convey the great burden of capital punishment; the implications of taking a human life which is not yet ready for death in its physical form have the power to corrupt the very souls of everyone involved in such punishments.

There are multiple instances of irony in George Orwell's short story "A Hanging." Perhaps the most significant example of irony involves the narrator's descriptions of the condemned man, a Hindu man of slight stature with an oversized mustache. This man is to be hanged and, common to narratives depicting the dehumanizing elements of colonialism, represents little more to his British (and allied Indian/Burmese) warders than one more miscreant who has run afoul of colonial rule and consequently been condemned to death. No crime is attributed to this unfortunate fellow, but he has apparently done something to incur the wrath of the British imperialists who govern his land. He is unremarkable and offers no resistance as he is led from his cell to the gallows. There is in Orwell's narrative, however, a moment that causes the author/narrator to reconsider the nature of his and his countrymen's being. As the prisoner is led to the gallows by his Indian warders, observed by their English master, the condemned convict gingerly side-steps a puddle. This seemingly innocuous act triggers in the narrator a revelation concerning the activities he is observing and of which he is complicit:

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.

As evident in Orwell's writings (see, for instance, his essay "Shooting an Elephant in Burma"), the author, raised to administer an empire, has been sensitized to the dehumanizing nature of imperialism. The act of imposing one's rule on another invariably proves degrading and destructive to ruler and ruled alike. The irony in "A Hanging," therefore, resides in the contrast between the "racially and morally superior" British and the dignity evident in the condemned prisoner. This man, who goes to his death chanting "Ram" (a demi-God to Hindus) over and over is treated as a subhuman by the British. The superintendent, a doctor by trade, confirms the success of the execution not by listening to the prisoner's heart, but by poking the dangling body with a stick while pronouncing, "He's all right." Another major instance of irony then follows as another of the subscripted Hindu subservient to the colonial masters offers the narrator a cigarette from his prized silver case, noting that this ostentatious example of material wealth represents "Classy European style."

To me, the major irony in this story takes place at the end of the story.  It has to do with the way that the various people react to what they have just done.

What is ironic, to me, is that they are pleased that the hanging went well.  It would have been bad, they say, if the man had been dangling, not dead, and have to have his legs pulled to help kill him.  But they do not talk about this as good for the sake of the dead man -- they are saying it is good because it makes it easier for them, the executioners.

To me, this is the irony -- they are not really concerned with the person they have just killed.  Instead, they are concerned with themselves and how the execution affects them.

What is the central theme of "A Hanging" by George Orwell?

In this disturbing story, Orwell explores and accentuates the trauma suffered by those who participate in and witness the taking of a human life. The mood is somber and has a surreal quality about it. The almost matter-of-fact narrative indicates that the speaker wishes not to become too intimately or emotionally involved in the situation but does, however, finds himself in a position where he, unfortunately, seems to have no choice because it is his duty.

The seemingly exaggerated precautions taken to lead the condemned man to his execution emphasize the unnatural nature of the incident. The condemned man is frail, small, and offers no resistance but is nevertheless heavily guarded and bound. It appears that he has accepted his fate and is calm. In contrast, his would-be executioners are anxious and unsettled. Their discomfort is a further indication that they are not happy about committing a distasteful and abnormal act.     

The prisoner's actions make the narrator realize the enormous brevity of life and brings into sharp focus our shared humanity. He insightfully grasps the fact that what is about to occur is a wasteful exercise. The disconcerting arrival of the dog and its playful acts deliberately contrasts the upsetting seriousness of an impending death with the exuberance of life. Its appearance unnerves the condemned man's captors because they are, at this moment, occupied with the business of death and do not want to be reminded of what life has to offer.

After the execution, the officers and others try to push the incident out of their minds by making jokes and laughing about previous executions. Their attempts are, however, a miserable failure. The tragic event of that day hangs on them like a heavy cloak, and even the superintendent's invitation that they should all have a drink does not lighten the mood. The repeated (almost hysterical) laughter of the narrator and the others illustrates how deeply traumatized they all are for having been party to an abomination.

In this story, Orwell adequately expresses his disdain for what he believes is a violation of all that is natural. Deliberately killing another human being for whatever reason is an atrocity and a crime against nature.

George Orwell's non-fiction text "A Hanging" provides his first hand account of the hanging of a Hindu man. The man, on the way to the gallows, sidesteps a puddle in order to insure that his feet do not get wet. Orwell found this curious given the man's fate (death). 

The text's theme revolves around the inhumane nature of the taking of a human life and one's recognition of the insignificant things in life. While the man may not truly consider the unnecessary sidestep, this action spoke loudly to Orwell. Compounded by a view into his mind, "I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man," Orwell's dialogue mirrors the sickening feeling which came over him during the experience. The opening of the text parallels Orwell's feelings of disgust with his heavy and emotion laden word choice: sodden, sickly, condemned, bare, and silent. 

Orwell, in recollecting his experience, does prove to posses a true poetically ironic "voice" when he includes the actions of the stray dog (although we as readers can only believe that the dog actually existed) as a doppelganger of himself. Although he seemed to have wished to speak out against the atrocity, being a policeman did not allow him the luxury. The dog, then, allows him the necessary interruption to the action to force readers to consider the crime against nature (the murder of the man). 

Orwell's theme, or concern, is that the life of any healthy man should never be taken from him (murder is a crime against nature). The use of the dog and the rainy day supports Orwell's stand that the hanging "upsets" nature. 

What is the main idea of George Orwell's "A Hanging"?

I am sure that there are many different ways to interpret George Orwell's essay "A Hanging." For me, though, the main idea is the surreal effect of seeing someone die and knowing that you are a part of it.

At the beginning of the essay, Orwell seems to be observing the whole process from a distance. He describes how the prisoners and the warders looked and what they said to each other, but he doesn't tell us what his own thoughts are. The fact that a man is about to die doesn't seem to feel real to him.

It isn't until the dog appears that we start to feel a shift in the essay. The dog has no clue what is going on; he doesn't know that the men are all taking another man off to the gallows to kill him. He is just happy to see everyone and is jumping all over them, as dogs do. Everyone is at a loss about what to do with the dog at first, partially because it seems too strange to have such a normal thing happening in such an abnormal scene, but then they manage to catch him and Orwell keeps him off to the side with his handkerchief: his first real involvement in this event.

The dog seemed to wake Orwell up to the humanity of everyone involved, but then the prisoner's actions take this a step further. When Orwell sees the man step around a puddle just like he himself would, just like anyone would, he realizes for the first time that this is a human being, and that they are about to end his life.

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. His nails would still be growing when he stood on the drop, when he was falling through the air with a tenth of a second to live. His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned — reasoned even about puddles. 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.

That being said, he doesn't stop the act from happening. The man is hanged, his life is taken and everyone who led him to the noose is responsible in their own way. Then, once he is dead, bizarrely, everyone is relieved. They begin to chat and laugh, none of them louder than Orwell himself, emphasizing how surreal it all is. Orwell is back to blocking out the reality of it, which is perhaps the only way he and the others can deal with the enormity of what they have just done.

What is the rising action in George Orwell's short story "A Hanging"?

In my opinion, the falling action is everything that happens after the man is hanged.  After that, the main tensions in the story start (at least a bit) to be resolved.

The main tension in the story is how the speaker will come to terms with the fact that he has participated in taking the life of a man.  In the rising action, we see him coming to realize this is a problem.

In the falling action, he and others try to laugh off their moral discomfort.  So the story ends with the speaker trying to ignore the basic tension he feels.  This is as much of a resolution as there is in this story.