Summary Of Half Hanging By Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s Half-Hanged Mary portrays an event in
Mary Webster’s life, who, in the late 1600s, was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to hang. Atwood illustrates profound thoughts reflecting the ones of Webster. Though she feels indignant towards the people of her community, she understands the reason for some of their actions, at first she thinks that its God will for the problem she’s in, she begins to feel resent towards God and questions his motives. How can greed lead to violence? “I was hanged for living alone…a weedy farm in my own name, and a surefire way to cure warts; Oh yes and breasts, and a sweet pear hidden in my body.”(7:00pm) Webster illustrates that the reason behind her accusation is that she’s a single women, who

“The bonnets come to stare, the dark skirts also, [and] the upturned faces in between…I can see their fear. You were my friend, you too, I cured your baby Mrs., and flushed yours out of you, non-wife, to save your life.”(9:00pm) Webster shows her feelings towards the ones she helped, who she considers friends. In which she uses synecdoche to represent her friends as the bonnets and dark skirts staring. “Help me down? You don’t dare. I might rub off on you, like soot or gossip.”(9:00pm) although she feels betrayed by her friends, she knows they can’t help her, the quote depicts that if they attempt to rescue her, they will be considered an associate and therefore be put in the same position as her. This settles into the topic of human nature, and how it perceives the situation, at the moment, Webster is feeling betrayed, wanting someone to help her survive. All humans have instincts to survive, and that thought was her attempts on survival. Though, human nature isn’t all about instinct, not since the prehistoric times anyway. Human nature has implemented empathy that’s helping her understand why her friends can’t and shouldn’t assist her. One could only imagine how torn she must’ve felt during the predicament, the hatred of the men of her community, and anger yet relief towards her

“My throat is taut against a rope, choking off words and air…Death sits on my shoulder like a crow…or like a dark angel, insidious in his glossy feathers, whispering to me to be easy on myself…trust me he says, caressing me, why suffer?”(12:00am) Webster feels deaths presence and uses personification to represent death as a crow and dark angel. One the dark angel would take her life away, and crows appearing is a sign of someone or something nearing death. “Wind seethes in the leaves around me the tree exude night birds yell inside my ears like stabbed hearts my hearts…Most will have only one death. I will have two.”(3:00am) This entire section of the poem has no punctuation, it just seems to continue as if she’s saying it word after word with no emotion it seems to have no syntax until it ends at the last two statements. This shows possible signs that she is reaching a point where blood isn’t circulating properly, when this happens, people tend to act abnormal, even though she’s in pain, she’s fighting for her life, and she’s winning. Mary was later taken down from her rope and found to be alive, she’s won. “Surprise, Surprise: I was still