why does the new hangman refuses to carry out his duty of executing the prisoner in the play 'the new hangman'by Laurence housman
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Answer:
The play ‘The New Hangman’ is a criticism of death penalty. The playwright wants to say that the death penalty is inhuman and monstrous. His view becomes clear when the new hangman refuses to carry out his duty of hanging a prisoner. He gives a number of reasons for not hanging the
prisoner. First, he thinks that hanging a person is inhuman. It is murder in cold blood. A hangman murders his fellow human beings for money. It is unjust and terrible. Secondly, sometimes the condemned prisoners are innocent. He thinks that the truth often appears clearer at the gallows than in the witness box. If judges were present at the time of hanging,
they would change many of their verdicts.
Thirdly, the hangman thinks that it is unjust to give a man the duty of hanging others. People expect a hangman to do the execution. But no other man is prepared to this job. For all these reasons, the
hangman refuses to hang the prisoner. He expresses the general feeling that death penalty is out of date in a civilized society
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