“Journey’s End” by R.C Sherriff Essay

moves End is a play about British soldiers in World War One, and the answers the contend has on them, both physically and custodytally. The play explores more aspects of war life, including fri shoemakers lastship, alcoholism, class boundaries and the lifestyle of the workforce in the trenches. This essay explores how the play shows the effects of war on those involved, looking at usance of dialogue, lighting, support and some other key dramatic devices. The essay allow for mainly focus on make 3, Scene 2 of the play, scarcely relevant quotes from other gibes in Journeys End giveing to a fault be employ to help illustrate points.Stanhope, the Commander of the company, is a prime example of how the war effected many in notifyigent, able immature men. The auditory modality knows Stanhope is a good officer and is well respected from in the ancestry dialogue in the play. For example, in execution 1 Scene 1, Osborne says, Hes a long way the best company commander wev e got, and Hardy agrees.Stanhope is also a humorous man, and stool get on real well with his fellow officers. For example, at the beginning of tour 3 Scene 2, he has all the men in stitches, relating tales of mischief with women.However, he appears to only be in a good climate when he has been drinking, which he does a lot. We know this beca phthisis in the in truth firstly scene of Journeys End, Hardy discusses Stanhopes drinking habits with Osborne, apothegm, I never did see a youngster put away the whisky he does. One of the main effects of the war on Stanhope is his drinking. He drinks for Dutch courage on the battlefield, and in guess 1 he confesses this to Osborne, saying If I went up those steps into the front line without being drugged up with whisky Id go mad with daunt. This quote tells the audience that Stanhope has come to depend upon drinking to help him cope, and sure as shooting has some kind of alcohol problem. The excessive drinking also greatly affects hi s temper, and he has fierce whim swings throughout the play. An example of one of these style changes is the contrast between hisjolly, merry demeanour at the beginning of Act 3 Scene 2, and the undiluted rage he expresses later on in the scene when he confronts capital of North Carolina about his failure to figure dinner. These changes in his demeanour are shown by the changes in tone and vividness of his voice throughout Act 3 Scene 2. At the fount of his confrontation with capital of North Carolina, he speaks in a fairly mild, controlled tone of voice. closeness is indicated by the demonstrate directions to create tension, for example thither is silence turf out for the the rumble of the guns, creates a distinct impression of awkwardness and fraught tension. The use of silence also contrasts strongly with the way Stanhope yells angrily at capital of North Carolina later on in the scene. These sound devices both grab the audiences anxiety, and show them comely how enrage d Stanhope is.Even the sight of Raleigh appears to anger Stanhope. This is because Stanhope was at school with him, and is engaged to his sister. Stanhope is paranoid that Raleigh leave behind tell his sister about his drinking habit, and seeing a known face from the outside world has rattled him because he is so utilise to the routine of war. After Osborne, whom he was very close to, is killed du nimbus a raid, the men do not openly grieve, hardly try and act unremarkably to keep their morale up, and puzzle a dinner with cigars and champagne to keep back the successful raid. Raleigh refuses to go to dinner, which greatly angers Stanhope. By the end of Act 3 Scene 2, Stanhope is absolutely livid with fury. The last line he shouts For Gods sake, get out is then followed by silence, which is a very effective device in grabbing the audiences attention and creating a mood of fear and apprehension. Overall, Act 3 Scene 2 is most effective in showing an audience just how untold of an impact the war has had on Stanhope and his personality.Raleigh is some other character who is greatly effected by war, except, unlike Stanhope who has been been in the trenches a long time, Raleigh is very in imaged, which makes him appear highly naive and vulnerable. Raleighs first reaction upon entering the trenches (Act 1) is that of surprise. He has been expecting more noise and excitement, and says to Osborne, How frightfully cool off it isTo begin with, Raleigh is very eager to go out and fight, but Osbornes deathafter the raid has a big effect on him. He cannot understand how the men can sit, eating o.k. forage and drinking champagne ,when one of their closest companions has been killed. However, Raleigh does not realise that the reason why they are doing this is to try and help themselves to depart the tragedy that has occurred, and to boost morale amongst the men. Raleigh has misunderstood the situation, and only realises his faulting at the end of Act 3 Scene 2 , when Stanhope shouts, You think theres no limit to what a man can make up? Raleigh tries to apologise, but Stanhope is too incensed with rage to listen.By the end of that particular scene, even though Raleigh has only been at war for a week, he is already a changed person. His short battle experience has erased whatever distorted expectations he has had before, and he now knows about the bumpy realities of life in the trenches. We know this because of his obvious change in mood and personality- by Act 3 Scene 2 he says a lot less than he has beforehand, and stage directions tell us at one point, Raleigh speaks in a low, halting voice. R.C Sherriff has chosen to alter his speech and tone of voice to show the audience clearly how the raid has affected Stanhope as a person.Osborne is a character who is very much aware of the realities of trench warfare, as the oldest and one of the most go through officers in the Company. In Act 1 the stage directions describe Osborne as hard as nails- physically and emotionally strong. He is a father figure for the other officers, and is affectionately known as Uncle. Osborne is also a loyal and caring friend. The audience knows this because in Act 1 he defends Stanhope to Hardy, who is criticising the Commanders drinking patterns. He also puts Stanhope to bum when he is drunk, which shows that he has a caring nature. He and Stanhope are extremely good friends- the war has brought them very close.Dialogue throughout the play shows that Osborne tends to use short sentences, such(prenominal) as Oh?, and I see. He is more of a listener than a talker, and that comes across in the conversations he has with other characters. It is quite a possible that he has always been a quiet man, but the war could hit ca utilizehim to become even quieter and more withdrawn.In Act 3 Scene 1, before he goes out during the raid, Osborne gives Stanhope his watch and ring with a letter to give to his wife, just in case anything should overtak e to him. Stanhope reassures him, Youre coming back, old man , and the two men express emotion as they go their separate ways. However, neither of them really know if Osborne will come back alive or not, and this fear and uncertainty is another effect the war has on the men and their lives.Throughout the play, lighting is used to set the mood and display to the audience as realistically as possible what it was like for the men nutriment in the dugouts. There is myopic light for most of the play, just dim yellow candles. On the very first page of the play, lighting is described in some detail. Phrases such as, A pale glimmer of moonlight, and the misty grey barricade give the idea of a gloomy, shadowy atmosphere. The lack of light must(prenominal) have affected the mens sense of time and place. In the play, Trotter keeps a calendar so he can tell what day it is, and how long it is until the raid. However, in Act 3 Scene 2, the stage directions say, The dugout is lit quite festiv ely with an unusual amount of candles. At the beginning of this scene, the lighting reflects the bright, jolly mood of the men, and contrasts strongly with that of the previous scene.The sounds and props used in this scene are also very different to that of Act 3 Scene 1. The sound of laughter replaces the sound of heavy guns, which lightens the mood and relieves tension considerably. There are empty champagne bottles on the table, which shows they have been enjoying themselves. The food described in this scene (roast chicken), is very different to the food the men consume in earlier scenes. In Act One, when Osborne asks what sense of smell soup they are having, Mason replies, Its yellow soup sir. most(prenominal) of the officers came from upper/middle class public school backgrounds, so quite a big effect on them would be having to eat small-scale portions of revolting, non- nutritious food. It would also be a major change for many of the men not having washing facilities, and h aving to survive in appalling living conditions. Many men would have suffered from acute boredomwhen nothing was release on, so many (like Stanhope) reverted to drinking or smoking heavily just for something to do. The war affected all the men involved in so many different ways, but obviously the main effect was that so many of them lost their lives in battle.At the end of the play, Osborne and Raleigh have both been killed but Stanhope lives. The deaths of Raleigh and Osborne show that war is indiscriminate, and death can occur at anytime to anyone, regardless of age or experience. Raleigh is a young, inexperienced newcomer, and Osborne is an experienced senior officer, but they both die deep down a few days.Journeys End shows the effects of the war on the men involved very realistically, using dramatic devices such as sound, dialogue, props and lighting very effectively. It paints a clear picture in the lectors mind of what it was like in the trenches, and how the men were affe cted by battle.