Depiction of War in Thomas Hardy’s 'The Man He Killed'

In Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Man He Killed,” the unnamed narrator depicts a time of when he killed a man during The Boer War of 1899 to 1902. The speaker is conflicted with the idea of fighting on the battefield and he even discovers the concept of what war is truly like through human suffering, regret, and guilt.

Thomas Hardy, a poet, created himself to be one of the most famous English authors of his time. He wrote many themed poems based on sadness and tragedy. In fact, according to scholar Indy Clark in “Thomas Hardy”, “Hardy lived in a era of mourning” (Clark pg. 326). The speaker kills a man and then later regrets his remorseful decision. With that being said, Hardy writes this poem as a way to express that death is inevitable and to show his readers that war can become a personal issue. Credo Reference sources say, “Hardy shared the contemporary interest in realism.” This realism is also found within the poem. The narrator experiences what it is like for a human to suffer through accepting a situation for what it is. The line, “I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place,” proposes that the narrator was the very last one standing in this dual. This shows just how fast death can go down in a war.

In the start of “The Man He Killed”, the narrator is describes how he is fighting in a war and he seems that he is struggling to comprehend it. It even seems almost as if he is a pacifist, or someone who believes that war it too violent. Looking at the first stanza, 'Had he and I but met by some old ancient inn, we should have sat us down to wet right many a nipperkin!” it is clear that the speaker desired to meet his enemy in a different circumstance rather than a warzone. In fact, “nipperkin” in the Merriam Webster Dictionary means, a liquor container or vessel with a capacity of a half pint or less. So, just imagine if the narrator met his enemy in a bar or an old tavern of some place instead of a battlefront. Maybe, just maybe they would have became friends over some conversation and some drinks. But, fate said otherwise. These men met each other in war as enemies! Though this nameless man was the narrator’s enemy, the narrator regretted that he killed him. He believed he had zero reason to kill this man, for he was just another person fighting for the sake of his own country. But, death is inevitable and it will happen to everyone sooner or later.

In the third stanza, the speaker says “I shot him because — because he was my foe.” It almost sounds as if there is hesitation or doubt of his reasoning. It may even be as if the speaker does not see this person as his “foe” but as his own friend. It shows that the speaker is stumbling over his words and finding a way to explain why he killed him. According to Eric Badertscher, “In most of his poems, his characters suffer from tragic losses that seem to be beyond their control” (Badertscher pg 1-3). Though the speaker is fighting in the war, it is his duty to kill his enemies. The speaker's stuttering suggests his motive, his motive being innocent. Yes, he fought innocently for his country, but humanistically speaking he felt guilty. The speaker then describes how he killed this man in war. He also tries to rationalize why he did such a thing to him. After all, the speaker did not even know this man. So, what did he do to deserve to be killed?

In another example, the biography of “Thomas Hardy” by Eric Badertscher, Eric describes Hardy as “prolific and real.” Many of his poems were sad and mysterious, in fact. Analyzing the poem, the theme is clearly conveying a violent and dark tone. After the narrator kills the man he is left feeling a sense of despair and also, this murder altered his perceptions of this war. The line,” Just so: my foe of course he was; That's clear enough; although” suggests that the only reason he killed someone was because that was his enemy and only his enemy.

In a nutshell, if the narrator would have met his enemy in a different situation, at a bar even, he may have bought him a couple drinks and befriended him. But, since he met this man he shot and killed in a war zone, it was his only duty to kill him. What Hardy is trying to convey in this poem is that war is violent and soldiers have to partake in things they do not want to. War is overall, messy and violent.