In “The Execution of Tropmann” Ivan Turgenev recreates an event fresh in his mind in the form of an autobiography. Tropmann is convicted of the murder of a man, his wife, and their six children and is going to be publicly executed in front of a huge audience. Turgenev gains an invitation to this somewhat exciting spectacle where he discovers the true brutality of capital punishment. Through the authors preferred tone and significant purpose in the text, he conveys his feelings towards capital punishment and the justice system as a whole.
First, throughout the majority of the text the tone is uneasy and slow. The author is trying to develop the characters, audience along with Tropmann, and the feeling towards the prison environment itself. Turgenev writes about discussing capital punishment, “but all this was so lifeless, so dull, so platitudinous, that even those who spoke did not feel like carrying on.” By using an uneasy tone the reader is able to understand the depressing mood inside the prison room and the characters too. The development of characters and environment through the sad tone contributed to the strengthening of Turgenev’s ideal. The tone the author used helped build a negative attitude towards capital punishment because it shows the harmful effects of the process itself in society.
Turgenev’s purpose of writing was to emphasize that capital punishment is inhumane and that the system of justice should be carried on a different way. The authors experience at Tropmann’s execution was considered a horrific sight. He compares the courtyard to the execution spot, “But I thanked him and went back to the prison courtyard, which seemed to me like a place of refuge from the horrors on the others side.” He explains that the horror is not the execution itself, but the process which it was carried about. The audience was excited to watch the execution, but should they be treating this like a show. Turgenev’s is mainly trying to persuade change in capital punishment, and that something as major as death should not be treated like a toy.
Turgenev makes strong points about capital punishment in his writing. A big argument was the question for what “moral purpose” could one gain from an experience such as execution. Any death of another person has moral purpose in society because it raises the thought of life and its importance; however execution is different because it is the taking of a life. It could just be compared to murder, which is what Turgenev argues as well. Another argument is the process that comes with capital punishment. Tropmann had to wait a night, while staring death in the face. Turgenev emphasizes this injustice because it is not necessary. In my opinion I believe that capital punishment is justified because crimes such as murder are outlawed for a reason which is to benefit the world. The justice system is flawed at times, but what other way to attack crime?
