1st Blog Post

     “The Penalty of Death” H.L. Menken manages to make a biting critique of those who support the death penalty while keeping his tone informal enough to make his satire evident. His manipulation of language allowed him to create a wry commentary on the judicial system, specifically capital punishment. His attitude and intentions are made clear throughout with his sarcastic overtone showcase the disdain he feels towards the idea of killing criminals, no matter the crime. The manner in which he handles this topic is indicative of the time period. This essay was written in 1926, during both the Progressive Era and the Roaring Twenties. This was a time period known for its revolutionary and frivolous nature. So, it comes as no surprise that author would oppose the death penalty and advocate for a change but still wish to handle this delicate matter with humor.

     Also indicative of the time period is his use of biblical allusions to showcase how disingenuous he believes Christians who are proponents of the capital punishment to be. The idea of revenge goes completely against the turn the other cheek mentality Christianity is intended to teach. When he states “Christianity is adjourned, and even saints reach for their sidearms.”  he is in effect undermining the tenants of the religion as well as the moral fortitude of those are members of the faith. This would appeal to the oppressed peoples such as women and African Americans who consistently had the bible used to excuse their lower status in society. Those who are acutely aware of hypocritical aspects of the faith will be more likely to empathize with this criminal after hearing this because they too have been cast away due to zealots misinterpreting or ignoring the values Christianity preaches.

     He continues to highlights the hypocrisy of the death penalty when he brings up the time that criminals have to wait before dying as the most grievous aspect of capital punishment rather than the actual dying. It insinuates a lack of the proponents understanding of the issue at hand. “Unhappily, a murderer, under the irrational American system, is tortured for what, to him, must seem a whole series of eternities. For months on end he sits in prison while his lawyers carry on their idiotic buffoonery with writs, injunctions, mandamuses, and appeals. In order to get his money (or that of his friends) they have to feed him with hope.” When Menken calls out the lawyer for his cruelty he does not acknowledge that no one in any other profession, whether they do it for the love of the craft or simply to pay the bills, can continue to keep servicing a client who cannot pay them. It is not a matter of the lawyer being cruel but the lawyer’s survival. He shows that those in favor of the death penalty would rather hold lawyers and judges accountable for these criminals’ fates rather than addressing the blood lust of those who demand the death of criminals. He hints at the irony of those citizens so offended by these murderers that they are willing to become murderers themselves.

     Earlier in the passage Menken uses parallel structure to compare the hangman to many other virtuous but unpleasant professions “There are, indeed, many other jobs that are unpleasant, and yet no one thinks of abolishing them--that of the plumber, that of the soldier, that of the garbage-man, that of the priest hearing confessions, that of the sand-hog, and so on. Moreover, what evidence is there that any actual hangman complains of his work? I have heard none. On the contrary, I have known many who delighted in their ancient art, and practiced it proudly.” to show that being a hangman is an honorable career path. Menken does not say it directly, but the juxtaposition with such esteemed occupations raises the status of the hangman. There is an ingrained respect that people have for priest and servicemen that is now linked to the hangman. This comparison along with the criticism of the lawyers depicts proponents as willfully ignorant people who can judge the lawyer for defending the criminal and praise the hangman who sealed his fate.

     That irony is explained thoroughly in his detailed explanation on the importance of katharsis. The examples used for katharisis represent it as a base impulse. While he says that we should give into it since it a natural human reaction, after reading how evil and childish it makes the person look one would hope to be above such juvenile and hurtful acts. Menken uses the allegory of the child and the teacher to show the pettiness of those clamoring for the death penalty. The image of a spoiled child harming an unwitting teacher is meant to reveal that these people are unable to view this issue from an adult perspective and analyze why they want this person to die. The Shopkeeper A example presents the victim of the crime as an equal to the criminal. Their vindication does not come from reparations but from the pain he was able to have inflicted on another person, “Thereafter A can sleep. More, he has pleasant dreams. He pictures B chained to the wall of a dungeon…”.  More time is spent explaining the masochistic joy A gets from imagining B’s suffering than it does discussing how A was wronged by B in the first place. This shifts the focus onto A’s transgression rather than B’s. 

     Menken’s used his understanding of the social moirés and political issues of the time to take an issue that would usually have a lot of support and show the immorality of its underbelly. The idea of killing those who have killed and ridding society of their violence seems like a good idea but he reveals that those criminals bring society as a whole down to their level making everyone who allows this to continue a murderer. He plays on his audience’s individual sense of morality by implicating them in what he sees as a crime. H.L. Menken manipulates the burgeoning disassociation of America and Christianity and utilized people’s desire to seem avant-garde and compassionate in tangent with sardonic diction to make people pity those whose behavior is inexcusable.