In Thomas Hardy's poem, "The Man He Killed", the unnamed narrator describes a time when he killed a man during the Boer War of 1899- 1902. The speaker is conflicted with the idea of ​​fighting on the battlefield and even discovers the concept of what war truly is through human suffering, remorse, and guilt. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay 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 an age of mourning” (Clark pg. 326). The speaker kills a man and then regrets his remorseful decision. 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 matter. Crede Reference's sources state: "Hardy shared the contemporary interest in realism." This realism is also found within the poem. The narrator experiences what it is like to suffer for a human being accepting a situation for what it is. The phrase "I shot him as he shot me, and I killed him in his place", suggests that the narrator was the last one left in this double. This shows how quickly death can descend in a war. At the beginning of "The Man He Killed", the narrator describes how he is fighting in a war and seems to be struggling to understand it. He even appears to be a pacifist, or someone who believes war is too violent. Looking at the first verse, "If he and I had met in some old inn, we'd have sat and wet a lot of nipperkins!" it is clear that the speaker wanted to meet his enemy in a different circumstance rather than in a war zone. In fact, "nipperkin" in Merriam Webster's dictionary means a liquor container or vessel with a capacity of half a pint or less. So, imagine if the narrator met his enemy in a bar or an old tavern somewhere instead of on the battlefront. Maybe, just maybe they would become friends over chatting and drinks. But fate said otherwise. These men met in war as enemies! Although this nameless man was the narrator's enemy, the narrator regretted killing him. He believed he had no reason to kill this man, because he was just another person fighting for the good of his country. But death is inevitable and will happen to everyone sooner or later. In the third stanza, the speaker says “I shot him because…because he was my enemy.” It almost seems like there is hesitation or doubt about his reasoning. It could also be as if the speaker does not see this person as his “enemy”, but as his own friend. It shows the speaker 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 tragic losses that seem to be beyond their control" (Badertscher pg. 1-3). Although the speaker is fighting in the war, it is his duty to kill his enemies. The speaker's stammer suggests his motive, which is innocent. Yes, he fought innocently for his country, but humanistically speaking he felt guilty. The speaker then describes how he killed this man in the war. He also tries to rationalize why she did such a thing to him. After all, the speaker didn't even know this man. So what did he do to deserve to be killed? In another example, Eric Badertscher's biography of "Thomas Hardy",.