The Man He Killed Poem Analysis

Words: 950
Pages: 4
Open Document
“I shot him dead because- because he was my foe.” This quote is stated in the poem “The Man He Killed” By Thomas Hardy. In war potential friends can be torn apart, you could kill someone you were friends with and the guy you killed may have been family or someone you might have known. These stories both say something about war, how people turn against anyone. In both “The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy both use situational irony to prove that anything can happen in the war.

Both “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy both show similarities and differences throughout the text by using Situational Irony proving that war can tear potential friends and family apart. A …show more content…
Also the difference in “The Sniper” is he shot someone that he knew, and in “The Man He Killed” he shot someone he didn’t know. The Republican sniper feels remorse after shooting the other man on the other roof. “The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse”(O’Flarity 208). The sniper was very remorse after shooting the other man, the battle died in his eyes. Also after shooting a potential friend he became very remorse. Another example “But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place”(Hardy 2). Not to mention they were face to face, staring at each other. After shooting him he feels a great deal of remorse. In “ The Sniper” he shot his brother. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother face”(O’Flarity 208). The sniper turned over the dead body, looked at the face and looked into his brother's eyes. Additionally the man that he shot, could have been a potential friend not a family member. “Had he and I but met, By some ancient old inn, We should have sat us down to wet, Right many a nipperkin”(Hardy 1). He's saying that if they have met in a bar they would have had a cold one, and talked and possibly became friends.In conclusion, “The Man He Killed” and “The Sniper” are two different storylines, both using Situational …show more content…
They both have a difference in “The Sniper” is that war can tear families apart, and in “The Man He Killed” the difference is that war can tear potential friends apart.War is painful,scary, and suffering. “The revolver went off with the concussion and the bullet whizzed past the sniper’s head. He was frightened back to his senses by the shock”(O’Flaherty 208). The Republican Sniper was in his own little world, and suddenly the revolver went off and he snaps back into reality. An example in “The Sniper” the republican sniper shots his brother, and it’s gonna tear the family apart. “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face” (O’Flaherty 208). The republican sniper turned over the body on the ground, and saw his brother face. Not to mention that the the character in this poem went through something almost the same as the Republican Sniper. “I shot him dead because-because he was my foe, Just so: my foe of course he was; that's clear enough; although”(Hardy 3). The only reason he shot the other guy was because he was his foe and maybe they could have been friends. In conclusion, war tears family and potential friends apart. War is also painful, scary and
Show More

Related Documents: The Man He Killed Poem Analysis

Essay on Whatever: World War Ii and Stanza

u require a crowd of people wearing sandals, a cock that crows, a cloak to dissect, a sponge, some vinegar and one man to hammer the nails home.Or you can take a length of steel, shaped and chased in a traditional way, and attempt to pierce the metal cage he wears. But for this you need white horses, English trees, men with bows and arrows, at least two flags, a prince, and a castle to hold your banquet in.Dispensing with nobility, you may, if the wind allows, blow gas…

Words 3943 - Pages 16

Anglo Saxon Jahan Essay example

Islamic University Chittagong. Anglo-Saxon Period to the Renaissance “The Pride Place of Beowulf and Hrothgar” Name: Koshnoor Jahan Id no:N-123263 The Pride Place of Beowulf and Hrothgar: The king of the Danes (Scyldings) is a wise and great man, but he has lost some of his strength with age. In his prime, Hrothgar built the Scyldings into a powerful military and social entity, symbolized by the erection of his great mead-hall, Heorot. More a palace, Heorot is decorated with gold and fine tapestries…

Words 1019 - Pages 5

Essay on tell tale heart

by the disappearance of his parents. He was adopted by a merchant of Richmond and received a British education since 1815 After a brief attempt to join the army, he decided to devote himself to writing. His first poems did not win any particular success, he moved in with his aunt in Baltimore, whose daughter he then married. In 1838 he published the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and the extraordinary stories in 1839, were considered the success of his work. He found it very difficult to integrate…

Words 943 - Pages 4

Odysseus Greek Hero

the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Fitzgerald, change and move far away from what they were once about. The Odyssey is a great example of how tales shift, for it was originally about a great, heroic, Greek man named Odysseus's journey back home from the Trojan War. It is narrated by the great poet Homer. During this rigorous journey back home, Odysseus encounters multiple challenges that vary in difficulty, from fighting cyclops to navigating the deadly sea. In addition, he also meets…

Words 1363 - Pages 6

Poetry Paper Feb 2012

but at the end of my readings and analysis I felt as if I understood the authors and their emotions. Trying to compare and contrast them was a new and challenging experience for me with poetry but it ended up being fun and enlightening. When it comes to what Roethke would think of Plath’s poem, I feel as if Roethke would feel bad for Plath’s persona and tone in her poem and the sadness that was conveyed by the narrator. The feelings toward the father in Plath’s poem are totally opposite to Roethke’s…

Words 1412 - Pages 6

Literary Journal

described Desiree as a young white women from Louisiana. 2. I believe that Desiree is a white woman that is from Louisiana even though her husband may not agree. 3. Armand falls in love with Desiree thinking she is white although later on in the story he finds out the baby is not all white and blames her. 4. Back in those times this really reveals that if you were not full blooded white then you were considered a nobody. 5. Desiree’s son is never named because that is the whole point of the story…

Words 1707 - Pages 7

A Critical Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

A Critical Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet Dave Beaston Hamlet. Is he an insane madman or a revengeful, scheming, genius? There are many conflicting ideas and theories on this subject, and hopefully this paper may be of some assistance in clearing up the confusion. The paper is divided into three separate analytic sections beginning with the beginning of Hamlet's so called madness, and why it may have occurred. Next, is an analysis of why Hamlet delays revenging his father's death.…

Words 1158 - Pages 5

The Resurrection Of Romanticism In Poe's The Masque Of Red Death

country where the story takes place. The prince of the country, Prince Prospero, feels hopeful, although the disease is spreading throughout his country rapidly. He locks the gates of his palace so that the plague cannot reach him, and after several months of the plague ravaging the country, he throws an extravagant masquerade ball. He decorates the different rooms in his house in different colors, starting with blue, moving to purple, and the seventh room being black and red. In this room, there…

Words 2239 - Pages 9

Natural Environment and Human Beings Essay

binary, anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. The purpose of this essay is to give comparable analysis related to ecocritical concepts to analyze the two texts covering the debates in the subject of ecocriticism. In the article of “what is ‘wilderness’? Why protect it? A mission for the future...”, Boyes mainly discussed some historical events in Africa that aimed to protect wilderness areas in Africa and he also gave some suggestions and explanations of why people should protect those wild areas…

Words 2081 - Pages 9

Juxtaposition In The Outsiders

deaths creates a picturesque image of both the hero and the hoodlum. Johnny dies as a result of an injury he obtained after helping Ponyboy rescue several children from a burning building. They had spent a great deal of time together after the murder of Bob Sheldon, where Johnny killed the Soc with a switchblade after he attempted to drown Ponyboy in a fountain. Despite the fact that Johnny has killed, Ponyboy still seems to invite the reader of his story to understand this as a fairly regular occurrence…

Words 1376 - Pages 6