How does R. C. Sherriff successfully convey the effects of war on different characters? Journey’s End is a biographical play written by R. C. Sherriff ten years after the 1st World War ended. The writer was an officer in a regiment during World War 1. The reason the author decided to write a play instead of a novel is to convey the characters’ different personalities and clearly show the effects of war. The play takes place in the trenches of World War One on Monday 18th of March 1918, which was three days before the German attack in France. War’s horrendous tragedies has the ability to alter a soldier’s personality, point of view, opinions and even beliefs. Therefore, the following text is the analysis of how the author successfully conveys the effects of war on different characters in the play. …show more content…
C. Sherriff portrayed the most vivid effects on Stanhope, the commander of the company during the World War. The three years Stanhope spent in those trenches and on the front line, turned him into a drunkard who uses alcohol as his only coping method during the war. He drinks and smokes every day in order to distract himself from the horrific scenes of men being killed in front of him and from the fact that he could die any minute. Raleigh says, “…he caught some chaps in a study with a bottle of whisky. Lord! The roof nearly blew off. He gave them a dozen each with a cricket stump.” On the other hand, during the war, Hardy expresses, “but I never did see a youngster put away the whisky he does.” At some point, Stanhope says, “Damn the soup! Bring some whisky!” These quotes effectively express how the mighty war has the ability to differ a person’s point of view in various ways; considering he used to hate drinking and smoking. The war damaged him in a way that changed his life forever. Men his own age getting shot or blown up creates frightfully intense images of violence in his