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The Coup De Grace Analysis

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I believe that the actions of Captain Madwell in the short story “The Coup de Grace” were justified in the incident with Sergeant Halcrow. The soldier was mortally injured and it was going to impossible to save him. The story tells the reader that the soldier Sergeant Halcrow had been attacked by boars while he laid in agony. This shows to me that the wounded soldier has had a horrible day and ultimately he’s really just waiting for his death. Captain Madwell being the good friend he was, didn’t want to see his friend suffer anymore so he assisted in killing him. If I were to be put in the same position as Captain Madwell back then I would probably would have done the same thing. The reason I say so because this is your friend who you been …show more content…

The wild boars could have possibly come back and finished off Sergeant Halcrow. He was there with him while he died, so he didn’t have to die out there by himself. To me just the fact that you are relieving someone of pain, shows that you care about the wellbeing of others. It’s not easy to just kill someone, especially someone who you see as friend or grew up with like a brother. Someone who he actually liked and cared for. As a reader it’s easy to tell the action was from the heart not just a malicious act. If so he would have went around killing every half-dead soldier that was lying on the ground. If he were to kill the brother of the wounded soldier Major Halcrow this way I would feel a bit differently. These were two people who just basically demised each other and wouldn’t mind seeing the other die. I believe to fully understand you have to take yourself out of the 21st century. Put yourself in a soldier 's shoes from the anytime from 1800-1940, probably even later than that. If you got a severe injury in battle it was a big chance either you were going to be an amputee or die. Especially a time before we had helicopters, you may be miles away from camp to get medical care. After waiting all this time to receive treatment when you finally got there, it wasn’t much even doctors could do for

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