Journey's End Analysis

R.C Sheriff successfully describes the appalling effects of war on different soldiers “Journey’s End”, written by R. C. Sheriff in the early twentieth century, is considered as one of the most prominent dramatic war pieces in English Literature. Sheriff mainly portrays in his play, as it was written based on his experiences in World War 1, the melancholy of war and death. The writer aims in “Journey’s End” to provide a moral message of the nonsense and futility of war; this moral message is reflected efficiently in the characters’ feelings and behavior in the trenches with all the stress and the explosions. Consequently, Sheriff successfully manages to describe the appalling effects of war on different soldiers. In this essay, I will explore

He is introduced as a young excited soldier, who “only left school at the end of last summer term”. This suggests that he is inexperienced and enthusiastic having no clear idea of what, in actuality, are war conditions. As well as, we are told that Raleigh worships heroism and has looked up to Stanhope at school and spent summers with him; for that , when discussing this matter with Osborne, Stanhope shows his concerns about Raleigh being “a hero – worshipper.” However, after his first encounter with the reality of war and its horrors, he changes his perceptions and loses his glorious ideas and enthusiasm about war after Osborne’s death. During his tough conversation with Stanhope, we realize that Raleigh is appallingly affected by Osborne’s death by stating “Good God! Don’t you understand? How can I sit down and eat that –when ---when Osborne’s ----lying ---- out there”. This gives an idea that Raleigh is shocked by the reality of war, where, also, the punctuation used, in this quote, gives the impression of anxiety and nervousness when Raleigh has spoken it. On other words, Raleigh, who was enthusiastic about war, after living under real conditions of war, realizes that war is nonsense and

He is presented being a young “slightly built man in the early twenties, with a little moustache and a pallid face.” Hibbert is depicted as being a contrast to Stanhope, as he expresses his fear, terror and panic clearly, while Stanhope tries to hide them by heavily drinking whiskey. He expresses his fear through feigned neuralgia “trying to wriggle home” and escape war; Stanhope states that Hibbert has “decided to go home and spend the rest of the war in comfortable nerve hospitals.” These quotations illustrate that Hibbert is not able to cope well with war conditions nor able to accept being in the trenches. In addition, “he’s starving himself purposely” in order to fall sick and then, accordingly, will be sent away from war and stress, while Stanhope confirms that “he could eat if he wanted to.” This shows, again, Hibbert’s main purpose of feigning a multiple of sickness in order to escape the terrifying reality he lives being on the front lines. Furthermore, on page 57, while Hibbert is struggling to go to see the doctor and is being resisted by Stanhope, he declares that “ever since I came out here I’ve hated and loathed it. Every sound up there makes me all – cold and sick.” Hibbert, in this statement, is expressing his feelings of apprehension, hatred and fear that surrounded him ever since he joined war. Hibbert is a coward soldier, who