“The Man He Killed” by Thomas
Hardy
Had he and I but met
By some old ancient
inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to
face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my
foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as
I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow
down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a
crown.
We have lots of irony:
of place (the bar vs. the battlefield); of theme (friends vs. enemies in
war); verbal irony: "quaint and curious war is" and "that's
clear enought" are classic understatement.
We have an
unreliable (naive) narrator / speaker: he does not know who
he is and why things are.
We also have a
imbedded narrator: all of this is being overheard by a
narrator in the bar, so the narrator is like the reader, an indirect
source.
We have imagery,
mainly to do with the price of things ("half a crown", "sold his
traps")
We have
character foils (reflections of each other): "But ranged as
infantry,/ And staring face to face, / I shot at him as he at me, / And killed him in
his place." Are they friends or foes?
We have a
logical fallacy (circular reasoning): "I shot him dead
because--/Because he was my foe, / Just so: my foe of course he was; / That's clear
enough; although."
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