The Man He Killed edexcel 4-The-Poetry-Anthology

The Man He Killed

Your Edexcel GCSE English Literarature Conflict Anthology includes 15 poems. In your exam you will be given one poem – printed in full – and asked to compare it to another one from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will need to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, if you understand these four essential things about each poem, you will be able to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem

• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey

• How the poet uses poetic methods to convey these ideas and messages

• How the ideas and themes in each poem compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of the other poems in the anthology

Here is a guide to Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Man He Killed’, from the Conflict Anthology. It includes the following sections:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an analysis of the poet’s techniques and methods

• Context: an exploration of the poem’s context in relation to its themes

What to compare it to: suggestions about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Overview

This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell

• An explanation of the poem, section-by-section

• An outline of Hardy’s intention and message in each of these sections

‘The Man He Killed’ in a nutshell

‘The Man He Killed’ is a dramatic monologue, narrated by an unnamed soldier. He recounts his experience of killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield and reflects that, if he had met the man he killed under different circumstances, the two of them might have been friends. The speaker’s lack of conviction about killing the man is emphasised by his sense of identification with him, although he also recognises that he was his enemy. The poem criticises the way that war forces soldiers to simply follow orders, without knowing or understanding the reasons for their actions. Hardy also implies that it is usually working class men who are put in this position. 

‘The Man He Killed’ breakdown

Lines 1–4

“‘Had he and I but met

By some old ancient inn, 

We should have sat us down to wet 

Right many a nipperkin!”

Explanation

• If the speaker had met the man he killed near a pub, they would probably have shared quite a few drinks:

  • A “nipperkin” is a measure of drink, so it’s like saying “quite a few pints”

Hardy’s intention

• The speaker contrasts the situation that actually happened with what might have happened (“Had he and I but met”) in different circumstances

• The speaker and the man he killed would probably (“should”) have been friends

• Hardy’s use of the dialect words “wet” (drink) and “nipperkin” suggests the two men would have had a lot in common, including their working class backgrounds

• Hardy is showing, right from the start, the speaker’s uncertainty about his actions:

  • This opens up the subject of the irrationality and futility of war

Lines 5–8

“‘But ranged as infantry, 

And staring face to face, 

I shot at him as he at me, 

And killed him in his place.”

Explanation

• Because the two men were enemy soldiers in an infantry regiment, they shot at each other

• The speaker killed the other man where he stood

Hardy’s intention

• Hardy introduces the circumstances in which the two men actually met

• They were both soldiers in infantry regiments, on opposite sides (“ranged”) in the conflict

• Standing “face to face” emphasises their opposition, while “staring” could suggest fear or horror

• The line describing the two men shooting at each other is very evenly balanced, with four syllables describing each man’s action:

  • This highlights their mutual enmity, but also how much they are alike

• The construction of “killed him in his place” also implies how easy it would be to switch the subject round to read “killed me in my place”:

  • This reinforces the commonality between the speaker and his enemy

Lines 9–16

“‘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.”

Explanation

• The speaker shot the man because he was his enemy

• That’s clear to the speaker, even though he seems to need to convince himself of it

• However, the man he killed may have decided to enlist (’list) in the army on the spur of the moment, just like the speaker did

• He may have had similar reasons to the speaker, like being out of work, or selling his belongings (“traps” broadly means “stuff”), or some other reason that wasn’t serious

Hardy’s intention

• These lines show the speaker attempting to make sense of the situation that he and the man he killed found themselves in

• First of all, the speaker reminds himself that he shot the man because he was his enemy

• He then settles on a definite reason for killing the man:

  • But he seems to need to justify it to himself when he says “Just so” to emphasise it, then repeats his statement

  • “Just so” may also imply that his action was “just” the way it was, because that’s what happens in war 

• The line ending “although” leads straight into the following stanza, suggesting that the speaker can’t think about the man he killed as only an enemy

• He returns to the the things that made them alike

• The sequence of possible similarities that follows shows the speaker creating more parallels between himself and the man he killed

• The similarities identified by the speaker emphasise his belief that the man he killed had the same rural, working-class background as himself

• The one reason for enlisting that the speaker doesn’t identify is patriotism, showing that he did not himself enlist for patriotic reasons

Lines 13–20

“‘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.’”

Explanation

• War is unusual and odd 

• In war, you shoot somebody that you would buy a drink or lend money to in other circumstances

Hardy’s intention

• These lines take the poem full-circle, back to the beginning, with the speaker asserting that, in different circumstances, he would have been friends with the man he killed 

• The use of “quaint” and “curious” understate the gravity of the speaker’s experience, and are likely to be intended as ironic

In fact, war has been a devastating experience for the speaker, and the trauma of killing a man who he believes was just like himself still haunts him

Writer’s methods

Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is important to take an integrated approach to AO2. That means you should only consider how the poet is presenting their ideas to help you understand why they have made those choices. Think about how Hardy’s language, structure and form contribute to his theme, message and intention. 

Focusing on theme, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. In the following sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, including the intentions behind Hardy’s choices of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

Hardy’s dramatic monologue has five four-line stanzas, all of which have a regular rhyming scheme of ABAB. The third line of each stanza is slightly longer than the others at eight syllables. The poem’s regular rhythm gives it a conversational, even chatty tone, which contradicts its violent subject. This contributes to the poem’s irony, and also makes it more noticeable when the regular rhythm is broken. Drawing attention to his theme of the futility of war in such a subtle way reveals Hardy’s sophisticated use of form, even when his language is simple and straightforward. 

Structure

The structure of the poem is cyclical. The speaker discusses the friendship that might have existed between the two men, then identifies that he was an enemy soldier, and finally comes back to the idea of friendship. This puts greater emphasis on the similarities between the two men and, therefore, the futility of their conflict. The cyclical structure also implies that there is no solution to the speaker’s anxiety and that war fails to provide any answers; it can only perpetuate a cycle of destruction and doubt. 

Language

Hardy’s use of simple language reflects his speaker’s character, which makes his anti-war message very direct. The violence and futility of war is conveyed by language illustrating the speaker’s desperately grim situation, in which he could either kill or be killed. Hardy’s use of dialect words suggests his speaker is a working man from Dorset. This presents him as an everyman figure who represents the feelings of ordinary soldiers. It also highlights ideas about social class.