Narrator and point of view

The short story “A Hanging” by George Orwell is a first-person account, of a narrator who is a witness to the hanging of a convict. The narrator’s knowledge is limited and subjective.

Although the story is written in the past tense (suggesting the narrated events have already happened), the narrator limits himself to his perspective at the time of the events: “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” (ll. 68-69)

Furthermore, he does not know what the other characters are feeling or thinking. He can only make subjective assumptions about them based on what he observes: “…listened to his cries - each cry another second of life; the same thought was in all our minds: oh, kill him ...