The poem "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy is a poignant commentary on the brutality and futility of war. The speaker in the poem is a soldier who has killed another man in battle. As he reflects on the incident, he realizes that the man he killed was just like him, with similar hopes and dreams, and that he could have easily been in the other man's place.
The poem is structured as a dramatic monologue, with the speaker addressing the reader directly as he confesses his thoughts and feelings about the killing. The first stanza describes the scene of the battle, with the speaker saying that he "shot" the man "dead" because he was "enemies" with him. The use of the verb "shot" and the phrase "dead" convey the violence and finality of the act, emphasizing the gravity of the situation.
The second stanza is where the speaker begins to reflect on the man he killed. He says that the man was "young," "fair," and "just of his prime," suggesting that he was in the prime of his life and had much to live for. The speaker also notes that the man had "quaint and curious" buttons on his coat, perhaps indicating that he had a personal style or was a man of means.
In the third stanza, the speaker expresses his regret for killing the man, saying that he "had [him] dead" and that the man was "as brave" as he was. The use of the past tense "had" and the adjective "brave" suggest that the speaker is no longer in a state of combat and has had time to reflect on the implications of his actions. The speaker goes on to say that he and the man he killed could have been "friends" if they had "met" under different circumstances, implying that the only thing separating them was the fact that they were fighting on opposing sides of a war.
The final stanza of the poem is perhaps the most poignant, as the speaker says that he "should ask [the man's] pardon" if he "knew" him. This line suggests that the speaker is not only regretful for killing the man, but that he also recognizes the fundamental humanity of his enemy. The speaker goes on to say that he cannot ask for forgiveness because the man is "dead," indicating that the opportunity for reconciliation has been lost forever.
In conclusion, "The Man He Killed" is a powerful meditation on the senselessness of war and the human cost of violence. Through the speaker's reflections on the man he killed, Hardy highlights the fundamental similarities between enemies and the tragedy of lives lost in conflict. The poem serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of understanding and empathy in times of conflict.
The Man He Killed Themes
Now the speaker thinks that he become a killer as he fulfilled his responsibility as an infantryman. But this would take the poem outside the limited feeling and moral awareness of the speaker. One day, a knock is heard in his lonely hut. The old man feels that something is wrong here. What are they hiding from each other? The poem details what the soldiers feel while killing another soldier from the opposite side. The logic of this situation does not sit well with the speaker, however, because somewhere deep inside he realizes that the man he killed, like him, had been an ordinary man who had probably enlisted in the military just because he "Was out of work. The Boers, however, had lived for decades on the rugged terrain of the Transvaal, and they utilized their familiarity with the landscape to sustain a demoralizing guerilla war with the British for three years.
What exactly does the soldier mean by discribing war as "quaint" and "curious" in Thomas Hardy's poem "The Man He Killed?" I am asking both literally...
It sets an ironic, disillusioned tone that would become characteristic in the work of such World War I trench poets as Robert Graves, Hardy had very specific details in mind when imagining his speaker, and he succeeded in evoking them so believably that some critics have speculated that the poem may have been occasioned by a story the poet overheard in a tavern. In what ways might the dead man be different from the man who killed him? Such a movie is not so much entertaining as hypnotizing, absorbing. Its importance is marked not only by open statement in his poems, but also by the fact that the protagonists almost always appears as a solitary, an outsider, or an individual alienated from the life of his fellows. But since they met at war and shot at each other and he ended killing the other man. In the poem, Hardy puts himself in the perspective of a common people and asks bigger questions regarding the purpose of the war in general except destruction and loss. Yet he also remains profoundly blind to its political truth: that in the end, the places of the British and Boer soldiers are not interchangeable. Later, the old man tells the story of how he treated the Bible seller who came to his house.
killed the men
You can help us out by revising, improving and updating thissection. The speaker, being poor is enlisted as an infantryman for the frontline, who is supposed to take orders from the superior authority. Analysis of the poem. This indicates that either the speaker was quicker than his opponent, or that his aim was better. Recall that in the first part of the blind man, teenagers try to rob him, but they receive a sudden bloody rebuff. This is a hermetic thriller about how the past can trap a person, no matter how far he hides.
In Thomas Hardy's "The Man He Killed," what is the speaker's motivation to accomplish whatever this speaker is trying to accomplish?
. He has been in battle, and, "Ranged as infantry," has shot down another man and killed him. One can think of it as a word which describes antique shops, not a war, but it can also be taken to mean cunning. The old man and his guest move slowly through the stuffy space of the hut, as if circling in a dance â now approaching, then moving away. The matter-of-fact tone of the poem may serve as a contrast to the seriousness of the situation but it may also indicate that the speaker of the poem chooses to maintain a certain level of emotional distance even while considering disturbing subject matter. Without mentioning death in the first two sentences, a reader can understand that the author is describing a dead person and a reader can already agree that death is part of the themes in the story.
