The Man He Killed
Repetition, Symbolism, and Word Play in Hardy’s “The Man He Killed” Because war is a mysterious entity, Thomas Hardy wrote “The Man He Killed” to emphasize the occasional inadequate reason for conflict, and the range of emotions someone may feel after engaging in conflict that an individual might feel unnecessary, and after taking a persons life simply because he was my “foe”, especially in the Boers Wars in which the British colonized South Africa, in which this poem is set. Hardy is able to convey the feeling of apprehension and shame however not renouncing his allegiance to the crown by using figurative language, and literary elements such as repetition, symbolism, and wordplay. Throughout the poem the narrator is speaking of war, although there is a lack of chaos and violence. He refers to war as “quaint and curious”(line 17). That changes the idea of war for the reader, and lures the reader to feel a lack of necessity for the battle, which is what the narrator feels. “And staring face to face, I shot him as he at me, and killed him in his place.” (lines 6-8) There is a recognizable absence of emotion here, as one might feel traumatized or regretful after taking a life, and we know war is not “quaint and curious” (line 17). War is meant to be bloody, and chaotic, which in most literature, it is. In “The Man He Killed” the altercation seems more like an execution or murder than a battle, causing the reader to question whether it was justified or not. Furthermore, repetition is used throughout the poem also and causes the reader to doubt the mans true feelings about war, and what he had done, “I shot him dead because – Because he was my foe, just so: my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although” (lines 9-12). The author chose to repeat the words because, and foe to let the reader know that he had to assure his own self of why he had just killed a man. “Because – Because he was my foe” (lines 9-10), the dash between the repeated because represents