Journey's End by R.C. Sheriff Essay

The uncertainty of war itself has a major impact on the characters throughout the novel. The boundaries between right and wrong are repeatedly broken, causing the characters to lose the basic morals they lived by before being sent to war. O’Brien describes the lack of clarity that comes with war through his characters actions. The soldiers often find temporary justification of the trauma they experience through more pain, such as when Rat Kiley deals with his grief and pain after losing his best friend Curt Lemon by repeatedly shooting a baby water buffalo. At any other time, we can assume

Journeys End was written with the intention of “letting the war speak”. The lives of the officers on the front line during 1917 are examined. A key theme that is explored throughout the play is the reactions of the mind and body, under the stress of the war. Each character represents the weakness of the human being in an individual way, but the character on which frailty is mainly focussed is Stanhope.

Unsanitary conditions lead to unsanitary

He is very thrilled to be going to war, but he got shocked by “how frightfully quiet it is”, he was expecting that it “was fighting all the time”. As Raleigh arrived his thoughts of war has changed quiet a lot. As everyone thinks, war is very noisy place, but he got surprised knowing that it is mostly quiet. Staying at the trenches also changed his idea of war; he thought that the soldiers were always battling. Throughout the play, Raleigh often says the word “Righto!” which shows his exhilaration of being a courageous soldier in war. The exclamation mark also confirms his excitement. After Raleigh’s first encounter with war, all his opinions about war change, he starts looking at war seriously knowing its apprehension. Raleigh “liked being up” in the battle field “better than down” in the trenches”, he prefers spending time in the support line with the other men instead of being with the officers that were as he thought celebrating when Osborne has just died. Raleigh loses his enthusiasm and eagerness, after Osborne’s death. Raleigh starts feeling responsible and keen on his

On Monday the 21st of September I went to see the play ‘War Horse’ at the New London Theatre. The play was directed by Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris and is written about the novel ‘War Horse’ by Michael Morpurgo. The play is about a horse, Joey. He is sold to the English cavalry and is shipped off to France were we serves in WW1. His owner, Albert desperate not to lose Joey, enlists in the army despite the fact that he is under aged. Albert embarks on a treacherous journey on a quest to find Joey. The play is based upon the horse’s perspectives and views. War Horse is trying to emphasis the strong brutality of war, and

How does Journey’s End end explore the ways in which the men in the play react to war?

War is a deadly conflict between countries that contributes to millions of tragic deaths of courageous soldiers who sacrificed their lives, time and energy in order to defend their country. R.C Sherriff, who wrote the dramatic play “Journey’s End” which is considered a play close to reality, served as a soldier in World War 1. “Journey’s End” is a play which talks about the World War 1 and how war caused soldiers to change. Moreover, war is a frightening experience that no soldier can fail to recall. With a life-threatening war comes a dramatic change in character.

Sherriff and Peter Whelan developed the protagonists in their plays to reflect the impact the war had, not just on the world, but also on the individuals involved in war. May Hassle and Dennis Stanhope were clearly affected greatly by war; May, by what the war took from her, Tom; and Stanhope, by what the war gave him.

Day after day, year after year he said nothing of his affection. “I am in love with you,” he whispered to the headstone before him. A tear trickled down his wrinkled cheek, and a muffled sob escaped him. He covered his face with his free hand while he clutched the dozen, red roses tighter with the other. As dusk drew near and wrapped her arms around the land, fireflies drifted out of wherever they hide during the hours of the day. The moon began to glow behind the distant horizon, and the first star appeared suddenly in the middle of the sky, but the man took no notice. He gently laid the roses on the ground in front of him and for the thousandth time, reread the simple words on the stone. “Marie Sutton,” it read, “1920-1980”. No one had ever known of any relatives, and she had died penniless, forcing the town to pay for the cost of her burial. After the slightly awkward funeral, someone had placed a tiny

Owen recalls his group being physically and mentally overwhelmed by the toil of battle in the first stanza of the poem using illustrative similes and alliteration, “Bent Double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-Kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge,” that presents a scene to the reader of soldiers who had gone to war with a strong nationalist idea, but ended up facing the horrible reality with induced shell shock (Owen 1-2). The language of the first stanza may surprise the reader, as it is barely appropriate for the glory of the battlefield where heroes are supposed to be found. As the soldiers lethargically persevere, or “marched asleep” through the blood that surrounded them, the slow rhythm of stanza allows the reader to somewhat empathize with the rugged troops to the point to where both sides may not have quickly grasped the grave calamity that is soon to occur, especially with the use of “softly” in “gas-shells dropping softly behind,” to prove that point (Owen

The speaker talks about how the soldiers look “like old beggars under sacks” and how they are “coughing like hags” (1, 2). The imagery in this poem gives a closer look at how the soldiers are feeling about the war. The soldiers are “drunk with fatigue” so tired they did not pay any heed to the dropping gas bombs (7). When the bomb drops on the group there is “an ecstasy of fumbling” to put gas masks on; these descriptions show how quickly the soldiers need to react (9). One soldier, still shouting the warning, began “flound’ring like a man in fire” (12).

The poem is centered towards a target audience of young men pre - war. The poem encourages young blood to join the army and fight for their country. The message and ideas of war are displayed in a rather positive, upbeat manner. Jessie Pope enforces her misleading messages through the use of language features, first of which is Rhyming. The useage or rhyming in prominent throughout the poem. A few examples of rhyme are ‘Fight? ...Tight?’ and ‘Played….Unafraid?’ The use of rhyme sets the tone of the text to a light hearted, safe vibe. Jessie Pope wants her target audience to feel safe when signing up to join war, and to mask the true horrors they would be signing themselves into. The rhyming of the text takes us back to our childhood from when we would read nursery rhymes. As children we didn’t think about the real meaning or darker origins of the story. We can see this reflected in the poem as the jolly tone masks the horrors of war that, with hindsight, we are aware of. Another method Pope used to mislead readers was the use of contrast. Jessie Pope made sure that her readers would feel ashamed if they were to not join the war. The line ‘Turn to himself in the show?’ is followed by ‘Who wants a seat in the stand?’. Pope uses litotes as an anti climax to downgrade the alternative option of not going to war. This creates a choice which only has one answer that would be accepted, go to war. This further illustrates the misleading approach to making young men go to war. Finally, Jessie Pope uses an extended metaphor to reinforce her misleading messages. Throughout the text, war is compared to a game. ‘Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid’ is directly comparing war to a game of rugby. Pope has used this to make connections between the audience's everyday lives and the new challenge of war. We view games as a fun time, which Pope used to give a fun tone to

In the play there are many mistakes that come with taking revenge. I believe revenge is bitter sweet and that everything will come back and end up poorly for the person seeking revenge. Revenge is something that will cause you to make mistakes or regrets in life. “How now, a rat? Dead for a

A Comparison in the Presentation of the ‘Horrors of War’ in Birdsong and A Journey’s End

Robert Browning, the author of Epilogue, incorporates poetic devices into this poem to illustrate the speaker's decision to go to war. Furthermore, he uses imagery, diction, and detail to show and support the tone of the poem. Browning expresses the tone with more than just one specific tone. In fact, Browning uses different emotions that represent the speaker’s defence for his patriotism. All of the speaker's emotions join in the poem to show what he was feeling as he was in war.