Capital punishment also known as the “death penalty” was not abolished in Canada until 1976 when the House of Commons passed the bill. By then, Canada had hung 710 people since capital punishment started in 1859. It’s been 50 years since two men hung in Toronto’s Don Jail, the last to received capital punishment in Canada. Knowing that in the short story “Two Fishermen” by Morley Callaghan there was death by hanging it would lead one to believe the story took place between 1859 and 1976. But to narrow it down even more the reader reads, “The sheriff pulled him into the automobile”-(Callaghan 4), letting us know cars were common enough that the sheriff had one. Now the first car ever built in Canada was in 1876 but cars weren’t normalized till about 1904. So if this story indeed took place in Canada it would lead one to believe it took place between the years 1904 and 1976.

Now in the short story “Two Fishermen” Thomas Delaney was hung, for murdering the man who horrifically molested his wife. I personally believe although what Thomas did was not right, no one deserves to die. I don’t believe we should let Thomas go and let him free after knowing what he did to one man even if he was defending his wife, but taking another person’s life because they took someone else’s or hurt someone you love is not right, a great man once said, “an eye for an eye, makes the whole world blind”-(Mohandas Gandhi). Knowing why Thomas did what he did, and knowing he didn’t do it because he wanted to kill for sport, I think a logical and sensible thing is to put Thomas in therapy of some sort. But this story being set in between 1907 and 1976 therapy wasn’t evolved enough and he probably would have just rotted in prison. So no never take a life for a life but for Thomas Delaney I think the death penalty was his best option.