Feelings about War

Throughout history, wars have always occurred. They can be between civilizations, or within civilizations. When a war takes place, people have conflicting feelings. It is reflected through literature, in poems and in stories. In the poem "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy and the story "The History of a Campaign That Failed" by Mark Twain, the authors used specific literary elements and techniques to help convey their feelings about war.

The poem "The Man He Killed", was written in stanzas that had a rhyming scheme in the first and third sentence, and the second and fourth. The poem takes place in wartime. There are two characters, both of them soldiers in opposing sides of the war. The narrator starts off describing a scenario. In stanza one, Hardy speaks of a scenario where they could have met at an ancient inn. They could have sat and drink, and tell each other stories. "But put as infantry… And killed him in his place", the real situation is of wartime and two strangers are standing face to face. "I shot him dead because – Because he was my foe, Just so; my foe, of course, he was; That’s clear enough…". The narrator reiterated the point that the guy that was killed was an enemy, and because he was an enemy, he was killed. The feeling of the poem is of remorse and guilt. "Quaint and curious war is", is an alliteration, and another literary technique the narrator uses to describe how extremely peculiar war is.

The story "The History of a Campaign That Failed" by Mark Twain takes place in wartime as well. There was foreshadowing with the imagery the speaker uses, "… veiled moonlight, which was only just strong enough to enable us to mark the general shape of objects." There was an uneasy feeling for the people in the woods. There was motion when the people heard hoof-beats of a horse. People scattered behind the front wall. The main character is the narrator, and was a soldier. The speaker was dazed with fright. A distorted figure came off his horse. Somebody shouted "Fire", so the speaker let off a shot. There was a big cheer, and he felt like a hero at first. However, when they went outside to see the fallen enemy, there was no weapon on him. "The man was not in uniform, and was not armed." He was a stranger in the country. "The thought shot through me that I was a murder… a man who had never done me any harm". There wasn’t much information about the man that died, but it was obvious that he wasn’t a soldier of war. "I would rather he had stabbed me than done that." That is a feeling of remorse, as well as guilt. He knew what he did was wrong, and he would have rather himself got hurt instead of the stranger.

In both literary pieces, the setting takes place during wartime. Both main characters showed guilt and remorse. The only difference is that the person killed in the poem was a soldier, so the narrator was justified to kill, however the person killed in the short story was a civilian. Under different circumstances, the strangers could have been friends. In the story, the main character wished that he was stabbed instead, if it would bring the dead stranger back. "All war must just it – the killing of strangers against whom you feel no personal animosity". That implies that people that killed during a time of war shouldn’t feel guilty because it is justified. "Stranger whom in other circumstances, you would help if you found them in trouble", signifies that if it was any other time, the person would be treated kindly. The main feeling towards war in both pieces is one of remorse.

When a war occurs, people will treat the enemy with hostility, whether they knew them personally or not. "And it seemed an epitome of war", was the dead stranger represented by war.