1. The Man he Killed
Thomas Hardy
1902

3. Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 Hardy lived in the Victorian Age
The Victorian Age is characterized by :
Industrial growth
Rise of power of the Middle Class
Tendency of the New Science to undermine deeply held religious convictions (Darwin)
Military and political changes, expansion of the British Empire
Poetry reflected the sensibility , intellectual and moral values
Contemporary social problems were often a topic

4. Queen Victoria ( 1819-1901), Empress of India

5. Form & Content Form : Dramatic Monologue
Speaker : I-form, a young soldier
Topic : speaker tries to explain to himself and to others why he killed another soldier from the opposing side
Tone : conversational; he is addressing us personally in an informal way, pleading with us to understand his action, but also pessimistic; reflects dark side of man: his capacity for violence and cruelty

6. A young soldier

7. half-a-crown

8. Theme(s) and Background
Senselessness and futility of war
Anti-war sentiment “organized inhumanity”
He rationalizes his killing, conversational tone, he’s pleading as it were with us to understand his action
The killed man is a mirror image of himself
Humans are often victims of sheer circumstances and fate
Which war ? 1st Boer War or 2nd Boer War (Both The British versus Transvaal and Oranje Vrijstaat)

9. The Second Boer War ( )