Blog # 1 Turgenev!! :)

     While reading the text, it was obvious that Turgenev believe Capital punishment was made out to be overly dramatic and wrong on numerous levels. He shows his readers his opinion by describing the event of Tropmann's execution in full detail. Turgenev had excepted the invitation to the execution under false pretences, he didnn't know what he was in for and he only wanted to show people that he wasn't a coward. When he is at the event, the entire time all he feels is remorse, even though the man being executed is a convited murderer. Throughout the piece, Turgenev is amazed at how much entirtainment the community is getting from the whole process of the execution. The entire time leading up to the actual execution feels like years to Turgenev, he feels ansy and doesn't quite know what to do with himself. He is sickened as he witnesses his entire town seeking some type of joy on the behalf of someone's death. He doesn't understand why they are making it a celebration.

     Turgenev's thesis is, “As a punishment of myself-and as a lesson to others-I should now like to tell everything I saw, I intend to revive in my memory all the painful impressions of that night. It will not be only the reader’s curiosity that will be satisfied: he may derive some benefit from my story. ”.  The whole reason why Turgenev wrote this piece is to show readers how emotional this experience was for him and how shocked he was when he noticed others weren't as emotionally moved by the event. He does however acknowledge that there is another opinion out there on this issue but he chose not to write about it because capital punishment is such a huge problem amongst society that he would not be able to cover it all, also he wishes not to argue about it in this piece of writing.  The way Turgenev writes this almost gives the readers the same experience he had while at the execution and that is what he was attempting to do. He would rather have his readers be spared the experience because it's not needed, you get nothing from attending an event such as Troppman's execution. Unless you want to be desturbed emotionally or recieve some sort of pleasure from watching a man be decapitated.
     At the end of the essay, Turgenov asks his readers, "capital punishment itself -- could it possibly be justified?" When he says this it shows readers that he is really against public execution because he is asking is it can be justified, which tells us that he is unaware of if it really can be. So, in his position he doesn't see how it would be justified at all.
     I think that most people would disagree and they would say that it is justified because they would give the argument that what he did to other should be done to him. However, many people would argue that Tropmann deserved to die, but the people saying this probably have never witnessed a beheading. In order to have an opinion on the subject, I think people need to actually experience someone going through it. It's a harsh issue that is difficult to justify, but everyone will have their own opinion in the end.