the man he killed Flashcards
context
The Boer Wars were a
series of wars fought between the British
Empire and two Boer states (the South
African Republic and Orange in Free State)
in the area now known as South Africa. As with many wars
fought throughout the late 19th Century, the British fought in
order to consolidate their empire. Initially, the Boer side
fought effectively using guerrilla attacks, until harsh British
counter-measures forced the Boer leaders to yield.
language
Alongside the absence of colourful figurative
language, the inclusion of colloquial terms further enables the
reader to view the speaker and his foe as ordinary men. A prime
example is in the opening stanza, where the speaker imagines that
the two would ‘wet/ Right many a nipperkin’, implying that in a
different situation they may well drink together - ‘Nipperkin’ was a
term most used in the West Country. Another example is in stanza 4,
where the speaker suggests that the man he killed may have, like
he, ‘sold his traps’ (his belongings). These colloquialisms helps to
further contextualise the speaker and foe as common men, building
their connection to the reading public, thus aiding Hardy’s message.
structure
The poem is a dramatic monologue, which
moves to and from the friendly idea of two men drinking
together in a public house, to one brutally killing each other
on a battlefield. There appears to be a slow realization
(marked by the caesura) throughout chapters 3 and 4 that
the man killed was in fact not an enemy. Stanza 5 sums up
the futility of war and its effect on those doing the fighting.
how the conflict is presented
He claims that if he had met him in an inn then they would have drunk together. Instead, he reveals that during the war they both shot at each other, a conflict which ended with the speaker killing the man.
