Question

They can’t hang me twice.
i) Who says this?
ii) Why does the speaker say it?

Answer 1

Hint: The above question is from the play ‘If I Were You’, written by Douglas James. The play underscores the need of holding one's common sense and a calm mind in circumstances of emergency. Frenzy entangles matters yet a cool personality can assist one escape from any sharp corner easily.

Complete answer:
The play is an account of how Steven Gerrard gets away from an executioner through his sheer shrewdness. In this play, we see Gerrard is prepared to leave for practice when he experiences an intruder. In this way, after ending up in a fix, Gerrard figures out how to persuade the intruder to not kill him.

i) The intruder says that the police can’t hang him twice.

ii) The speaker says so because he wants to kill Gerrard for sure. The main reason behind his statement is that he has already murdered someone, so the police cannot hang him twice. Thus, there isn’t anything that can change his mind about murdering Gerrard.

In any case, the intruder doesn't prevail with regards to satisfying his arrangements since he is outmanoeuvred by Gerrard's wit. Gerrard ends up being more intelligent and clever eventually as he astutely turns the table on his side by tricking the intruder by making him apprehensive by the name of cops and causing him to accept that he, at the end of the day, was a lawbreaker.

Note: The title “If I Were You” is an apt name for this play. It refers to the wishful thinking of the intruder who wants to assume Steven Gerrard's identity to get away from the law. The intruder shared body resemblance with Gerrard so he intended to kill Gerrard and live under his name. In any case, Gerrard out-manoeuvres him by fooling him into the cabinet and giving him over to the police. Thus, the person who ended up being more brilliant toward the end was Gerrard.