Kashmir University BA Ist Semester English Notes Download Pdf
UNIT I: ONE ACT PLAY
The New Hangman: Laurence Housman
LAURENCE HOUSMAN (1867-1936), an English writer and artist, was born on 18th June, 1867. Having studied at South Kensington, he first made reputation as a book illustrator. Some of his best pictorial work may be seen in the editions of Meredith’s Jump to Glory Jane (1892), The Weird Tales of Jonas Lie (1892), Jane Barlow’s Land of Elfintoun (1894), Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market (1893), Werewolf (1896), by his sister, Miss Clemence Housman, Shelley’s Sensitive Plant (1898), and his own Farm in Fairyland (1894).
His designs were engraved on wood by Miss Housman. His volumes of verse include Green Arras (1896), Rue (1899), Spikenard (1898) and Mendicant Rhymes (1906); and the mysticism which characterizes the devotional poems in Spikenard recurs in his half-allegorical tales, All Fellows (1896), The Blue Moon (1904) and The Cloak of Friendship (1906). His nativity play, Bethlehem, was presented in the Great Hall of London University at South Kensington for a week in December 1902. In 1900 he published anonymously An Englishwoman’s Love Letters, which created a temporary sensation; and he followed this essay in popular fiction by the novels A Modern Antaeus (1901) and Sabrina Warham (1904).
On the 23rd of December 1904 his fantastic play Prunella, written in collaboration with Mr Granville Barker, was produced at the Court Theatre. His brother, Alfred Edward Housman (b. 1859), an accomplished scholar, professor of Latin at University College, London, is known as a poet by his striking lyrical series, A Shropshire Lad (1896).
He worked as a book illustrator and his best-known works includes Goblin Market (1893), The Sensitive Plant (1898) and The Blue Moon (1904). After his eyesight began to fail, he turned to writing books and plays, including Angels and Ministers (1921), Little Plays of St. Francis (1922) and Victoria Regina (1937). A committed socialist and pacifist, in 1907, he joined with Henry Nevinson and Henry Brailsford to form the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. His autobiography, The Unexpected Years, appeared in 1937.
Housman was a strong supporter of the Peace Pledge Union. In 1945, the organization opened Housmans Bookshop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, and it became a major source of literature on pacifism. Laurence Housman, who lived with his sister in Street, Somerset, died on 20th February 1959.
Laurence Housman has been called ” so brilliantly versatile that there is hardly a field of letters which he has left untried and unadorned.” Versatile he most certainly was, and distinguished not only as a writer, but as an artist and social reformer also. His literary output was immense, and his place in English literature would probably have been more significant had he permitted himself time to polish one work before launching into the next.
Housman was conscious of this when, in a scene imagining his own death-bed, he causes himself to say: ” My brother used to say that I wrote faster than he could read. He wrote two books – of poems – better than all mine put together.” Nonetheless, though Laurence was inclined to regard himself merely as “the brother of the ‘Shropshire Lad'”, he was very much more than that.
Kashmir University BA Ist Semester English Notes Download Pdf
Q: -Write a summary of the Play “The New Hangman: Laurence Housman”. OR Discuss why hangman accepted the job of hanging a person in the play, if he was not supposed to perform if? Or Why does the new hangman refuse to carry out his duty of hanging a prisoner?
Ans: – This play is a criticism of death penalty. It begins in the office of a jail. There are the second warder and the third warder (the officials who control the prisoners in a jail). The second warder is talking to someone on the telephone. On finishing the talk, he puts down the receiver. Then the third warder asks him whether the new hangman has joined. The second warder tells him that the new hangman has come, but looks very queer. At this the third warder says that perhaps the hangman is nervous. Perhaps it is his first chance of being the hangman.
Just then the jail’s governor enters the room. Both the warders salute him. The second warder tells him that the hangman has come, but the Sheriff (a police officer) has not yet come. He also tells that some time before, there was a telephone call from the Sheriff. He ordered that they (warder and other officials) should start doing their work (the hanging of the criminal) even without him. Then the second warder looks towards the corridor. He says that the new hangman is coming. The new hangman enters the office. The governor asks him whether everything is ready.
The hangman replies that everything is ready. The governor asks him where his assistant is. The hangman replies that he has not brought his assistant. He says that on that day, he will not need any assistant. In an aside, the second warder tells the third that the new hangman appears very queer. The head warder tells him that he is very nervous. The governor asks the head warder how is the man who is to be hanged. The head warder tells him that he is very upset and has been weeping for the whole night. The governor asks the head warder to give two large measure of wine to the prisoner to keep his spirits up. Then the head warder leaves the office.
Just then the Chaplain enters the office. He is intoxicated and does not want to share the work of execution. He appears very nervous. The governor rebukes him that he has no sense of decency. The Chaplain replies that a man cannot have decency if one is going to hang a man. He says that he had known all this would happen to him in the jail, he would not have become a Chaplain. He says that he cannot face an execution. At this the new hangman tells him that he will not have to face execution ‘today’. He also says that if no other person is ready to do the hanging, there would be no hanging that day.
The governor asks the hangman what he means. The hangman replies that he will not hang anyone. The governor asks him angrily why he took the job of a hangman when he was not willing to hang a man. At this the hangman replies that he took up the job to see whether anyone would do the hanging if he refuses to do so. The governor asks him why he applied for the post of a hangman when he did not want to hang a person. At this the hangman replies that he did so in order to save someone’s life. He wants to shame a few other persons also from taking part in the job of hanging. The governor asks him why he is putting all of them in an awkward position.
Now the hangman tells him that he is bent on putting another man (the prisoner) even in a more awkward position. The governor tells him that he is not doing it, the law is compelling him to do it. The hangman says that laws are made by those human beings who want others to do those things which they themselves do not want to do. The governor says that he can be dismissed from services for this. The hangman says that some social institutions will give him a lot of money for giving up the job of a hangman at the call of his conscience. He tells the governor that the last man whom he hanged was innocent. If the judges were to see how innocent people were hanged according to their verdict, they would also dislike giving death penalty.
The governor is in a peculiar position. He asks the warders whether they would like to do the hanging. Both the warders refuse to do so. The hangman asks the governor why he himself or the Chaplain do not do it. The bell is ringing. The governor orders to stop the bell. He talks to the commissioner on the telephone and tells him that the hangman has refused to do the hanging and no other person is ready to do it. The governor is worried about the reaction of the people because this news will be published in the newspapers. The commissioner says that he will contact the home ministry. He asks the governor to wait till then.
The new hangman bids good bye to the governor and goes out. The Chaplain tells the governor that he is shocked at the hangman’s conduct. The head warder enters the office. The governor asks him to tell the prisoner that there is hope for him. They hear a noise from outside. The second warder tells the governor that the hangman is giving a speech before a big crowd. He has become popular among people. The governor is worried what the home office will say about this.
Q: -Write a theme of the play “The New Hangman: Laurence Housman”
Ans: – This play conveys an important message. The main theme of the play is the evil of death sentence. It tells us that it is immoral to hang a person. In this play a hanging is to take place. The date and time of the hanging has been fixed. But at the fixed time, the hangman refuses to do the hanging. The governor asks a number of other persons to act as a hangman. But nobody agrees to hang the prisoner. The warders, the head warder and the Chaplain, all refuse to do the hanging.
The hangman feels that hanging a man is a murder in cold blood. But this murder has got the sanction of the law. The society also does not approve of the death sentence. It hates the hangman. He says that everybody hates him. He has to live under a false name. No decent person likes to have contact with him. No decent girl wishes to marry a hangman.
The hangman in the play criticises the practice of hanging an accused. He says that sometimes an innocent person is hanged. He believes that the truth shows clearer on the platform than in the court. He says that if the judge and juries were present at the time of hanging, they would be compelled to change their views about death sentence. Thus, the play conveys the theme that death sentence is evil and should be abolished.
Kashmir University BA Ist Semester English Notes Download Pdf
Q: -Write a Character-Sketch of The Chaplain? Or Chaplain is a coward person. Do you agree?
Ans: – The Chaplain is the most important character in the play. He appears to be a weak and timid man. His duty is to be present at the time of a hanging. He has to pray for the soul of the person who is being hanged. But the Chaplain gets confused when he is called upon to help in the hanging of a person. He finds it difficult to face the horrible scene of hanging. So, when he reports for duty, he is drunk. He does so to fortify his heart.
The Chaplain is a simple man. He is a God-fearing man. He comes drunk. But he prays to God to forgive him for his drinking. He says that he has been compelled to drink. He tries to drown his conscience in wine. He tells the governor that he cannot face the hanging.
He says that he would not have become a Chaplain if he had known that he would have to assist a hangman in hanging. The Chaplain replies that a man cannot have decency if one is going to hang a man. He says that he cannot face an execution. At this the new hangman tells him that he will not have to face execution ‘today’. He also says that if no other person is ready to do the hanging, there would be no hanging that day.
Like the hangman, the Chaplain is also against the practice of hanging. He feels that it is immoral to hang a man. But he has not the courage to say these things. Outwardly, he tells the hangman that he should do his job. But inwardly, he is happy that the hanging has been postponed.
Q: -Write aCharacter-Sketch of The Hangman?
Ans: – The hangman is the central character in the play. The play is named after him. When he appears in the play, he appears somewhat strange. He is a young man with a thin face. He is a bit nervous. He is not new to his job as previously he was an assistant to a hangman for five years.
The hangman has clear and firm views on death sentence. He has seen innocent people being hanged. He feels that sometimes truth shows clearer at the gallows than in the court. He thinks that it is immoral to hang a person.
Even though he takes up the job of a hangman, he considers that hanging is killing a person in cold blood. But hanging has got legal sanctions. He gives a number of reasons for not hanging the prisoner. First, he thinks that hanging a person is inhuman. It is a 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 do 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.
The hangman is a bold man. It is his duty to hang the accused. But he boldly refuses to hang the prisoner. He knows that he will be dismissed from his job. But he does not care. He knows that nobody likes to do this evil job. He tells the governor that everything is ready. Now only a lever has to be pressed. Even a child can do it. The governor becomes very angry with hangman. Even then the hangman is firm in his decision. Everybody in the play hates the job of hanging a man. But only the hangman has the courage to speak against it.
His boldness makes him famous. Outside the prison, a crowd of people gather and cheer him. Thus, the hangman is an interesting character.
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