Setting

The short story “A Hanging” by George Orwell is set in Burma (today’s Myanmar) during the time when the country was a British colony. Considering the fact that Orwell served as a policeman in Imperialist Burma in the 1920s, and the story was published in 1931, most probably the events in the story unfold during the 1920s. Also, the events take place over less than an hour.

Physical setting

The main physical setting includes two places, the jail and the gallows where prisoners are hanged. The prison is described before the execution:

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Social setting

The social setting is focused on the dehumanising impact of prisons, but also on cultural aspects related to Burma being an imperial colony.

The story depicts in detail the treatment of prisoners and their execution, revealing how, in those times, prisoners were kept in miserable conditions, in cells “like small animal cages” (l. 4).

The execution process is depicted as a bureaucratic one. Official witnesses have to be present, and the superintendent is obsessed with respecting the timetable of the execution. Furthermore, except for the moment when the convict is executed, when “everyone had changed colour” (ll. 105-107), all those running the prison or involved in the judicial system prefer not to think about or analyse the event.

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