Explication Of 'The Man He Killed'

Explication of "The Man He Killed"

In "The Man He Killed," Thomas Hardy demonstrates a sense of disgust for war, by comparing two men, who could have grown up together, and are now fighting against each other for someone else's cause. The speaker, a young man who has served his country and killed an opposing soldier, relates to the man he has killed. This is a closed form style poem with dark undertones of the senselessness of war. In the first stanza, the young man describes meeting the man he's killed in an ancient inn, rather than on a battlefield. He does not reveal himself as a soldier until the third stanza, and clearly in the last stanza when he mentions war. When he speaks of what he's done, "I shot him dead because--/Because he was my foe." he attempts to clarify, if not justify his reasoning for shooting another man. He mentions that he was also being shot at, but in the end, it was simply because the other man was his foe. He then illustrates the similarities that he shared with the soldier, "Off-hand like--just as I--/Was out of work--had sold his traps-/No other reason why." The last stanza states that war is
These two men are both of similar social status, background, and way of life. If they would have met in an inn many years before, or possibly after, they would be sharing drinks in a bar, as friends instead of foes. There is no reason for violence, for killing other people. War is the only reason why these men would ever kill another. The speaker does not want to kill the other man, but he is forced to, the man he is shooting is himself, or could be. He cannot justify his actions, though he attempts to. He pauses, and then states that the man was an enemy. He states that the other man was his foe twice, "Because he was my foe./Just so: my foe of course he was;" almost questioning that fact. He pauses at the end of that stanza again, as if he's not sure of what he's