Half Hanged Mary by Margaret Atwood Poem Analysis

In Maragret Atwood’s bitter poem to the modern society, the establishes her argument that everyone should be treated equally by using Mary Webster in “Half-Hanged Mary” to create tone: she then develops her argument by using comparison and imagery to change people’s actions toward those who are not considered normal and ultimately concludes her speech by calling attention to this problem so the modern society is aware of it. 

A rhetorical choice Atwood starts with is comparison which helps identify the purpose of this poem. Just as Mary was about to be hanged, she believed that she’ll “rub off” on the other women “like soot or gossip” if they were to help Mary out (Atwwod, 9 pm). Mary was accused of being a witch, which this was a rumor created by the men in the town and if the other women were to help her out, they too would have been seen as a witch and soon follow Mary’s fate. As the rumor goes around Mary feels the word hit like a bullet and she was even shocked that a false rumor about her went around town (Atwood, 9 pm). Mary was shocked by the rumor since in her opinion she did nothing witch like but the men of the town saw her as a threat. She was a single woman living a good life, she could have inspired other women to follow her lead, she was different from others; they needed to isolate her or get rid of her. This is why they treated her differently after the rumor, if she had stayed their social system would have been ruined, in the men's opinion. 

Comparison was another rhetorical choice Atwood had used was the creation of a sarcastic and bitter tone. When talk about witches goes around, they usually look at women since witches are women; Mary’s gender is what people look at and not what she is capable of (Atwood, 7 pm). In this section, the tone is very sarcastic since Mary’s gender is what helps identify a witch of a worshipper of the devil. Mary had thought that “birds of a feather flock together” but in reality that did not happen, the women in her town turned their backs on Mary (Atwood, 9 pm). A bitter tone was created since Mary had helped a lot of the women in her town survive and she even helped their children. Mary had thought since she had their back they would have hers but in the end that did not happen. Mary was declared different and if the others had helped her they would be considered different to and have to suffer; people care about what others think of them, this also helps when making a choice. The women did not want to be considered different so they just let Mary suffer if it meant they got to live a comfortable life. 

Imagery was the last rhetorical choice Atwood used in her poem with Mary. As Mary learned about the rumor she felt a lot of pain maybe not physically yet but menally and emotionally (Atwood, 7 pm). Atwood painted a picture on how Mary felt like being outcasted by people she grew up with. After Mary was hanged on the tree, she was fighting to live and she felt death sitting on her shoulder “like a crow” waiting for Mary to give up and just die. (Atwood, 12 midnight). Mary had a lot of time to speech and she decided that she would not die just to get her revenge on the townspeople for throwing her away like a broken toy. This imagery helps with people seeing the way Mary changed due to the fact that the townspeople’s actions changed Mary and she was reborn; the actions of others can influence a person to change for the worst or for the best. 

In “Half-Hanged Mary”, Atwood wants modern society to change the way people, who are considered different, are treated. Atwood wants everyone to be treated equally no matter gender, race, religion, and so many other characteristics that separate people from each other. We may all be different but over all we are all the same race, we are all human.