jrneys end

Camaraderie/friendship softens hierarchy and class

Play never pretneds army equal, mason “sir”, stanhope captain - officers separate

sherriff - comissions intially only taken freom recognized public schools, actually private/exlclsuive - when due to manpower ciisis had to lower bar, so wide “practically in different wrodls”

stanhope treats inferiors - “always..with the men, cheering them on with jokes” like with “kids at cshool” - trotter, vernacular, drops h sounds - possible alienation but part of circle - raleigh “makes things feel - natural”, osborne - “genuine sort of chap”

although hierarchy, close practical dependence between officers and men, distinctions still “recognised” but “without resentment”

Osborne and stanhope “the one man could trust, “best frined” - comradery between enemies

osborne tells anectode of germans uspsending fire at “wipers and instructing brits to “carry” injured man
challenged simplistic wartime jingoisitic hostility - events uch as christimas truce of 194, overcoming enmity, camaraderie universal

cameraderie essential for survival, acts as substitute for family

dugout space btu almost home - opening stage direction “a table”, “bedsw”, “bottles holding the candles”, “a few tattered magazine pictures ined to the wall” - more l ike rough makeshift home, everyday domestic life

Osborne - emotional regulator for men - paternal, welcomes “bewildered raleigh” takes off pack and offers drink, symbolic of way comradeship takes away emiotional load of war

“uncle” - dependable older relative rather than simply senior officer

sherriff - juniors lived “in close personal touch withs oldiers in the ranks”, best led through understanding of mens “spiritual loneliness”

3.2 - 3.1 ends on death, stanho9pe “dead and expressionless” - 3.2 starts midway between conversation, they “burst into laughter”, trotter “coughing and weezing”

sherriff - “quit nights of communion between man and officer”, “their homes, work, hoeps and ambitions”

raleigh asks - stanhope says “to forget, you little fool - to forget!” and “goes to dark corner by osbornes bed” seeking warmth and compassion, even now needs camaraderie

camaraderie amplifies tragedy of play - losses felt intimately by those around them

ww1 - death everywhere, british armies and empire suffered 900k military deaths, germany lost over 2 million, millions more wounded or mentally


men desenstisied “three minnies in the trench”, “they left the bloomin ‘oles for us to fill in” - however although constant danger normalies, camaraderie means hit with enourmes force


Raleigh - “how can i sit down and eat that - when osborne’s- lying -out- there” broken syntax shows giref completely broken him, personala nd unbearable, only known for 2 days but strength and speed of comradeshiop in trenches, where men depended on each other intensely

“sits with lowered head, looking at the palms of his hands” - trying and failing to process

stanhpe similary strong reaction, dependence on osborne

“expressioknless and dead” voice and asks raleigh “must you sit on osborne’s bed” - stanhope so affected by death of “one man coulkd trust” and osbrone not just another officer killed, but emotional centre of world

psychological strain more broadly - by 1918, officially 80,000 cases of shellshcok - historically truthful

death of raleigh - “jimmy” - only time, “blighty one” - tenderness and procteivness not elsewhere - juxtaposes attitute towards hibbert, “spineless little coward” - stays in final moments, war blunts men to shellfire and statistics but not personal loss - resonated sttongly in 1928
“not so much a play as a memorial to the dead “- not absrtract wartime suffering, but reminder of reality

Camaraderie double edged- sustains men butm also makes bereavement devastating

Constant threat of death

try to make comofrtable with “table”, “beds”, “bottles holding candles”, “few tattered magazine pictureses, “ but “50 yards” away from frontline and walls only “dedaden sounds of war” - death built into setting

Typical system in lines, front support and reserve- linked by communciaton traenches, IWM notes frotnline sat immediately behind no mans lkand, barbed wire only 20 yards in front, so dugout proximity makes death feel constant and inescapable

“minnie” from minenwerfer, trench mortar for heavy artillery including parepts, dugouts, machine guns

“i know, and they left the bloomin ‘oles for us to fillin” - shrug off threat of death, more concerned about tidying up

exemplified by osbrone response to hardys sarcastic reminder “i’ll make a note in my diary” - dry understatemnet

Broader culture of gallows humor,- national army museum, cope with “grim realities of war”, wipers times as example - produced from february 1916 finding damaged printing press in ypres, mocked war with deliberately dry understatement - first editorial remarked “acquired printong outfit(slightly soiled)” - dignficant since officres surrounded by a constant rthreat of death, leading them to become inured

death changes raleigh

before raid raleigh naive and idealistic:

finds raid “frightfully exciting” and happy chosen “specially” - juxtaposes with other cahracter, trotter says “damn rdiculous” - stanhope, “it’s rotten ot send a fellow whos’ only just arrived”, osborne calls it “murder”- does not really understad threats of war


Innonce linked to wider culture of wartime propaganda - 1915 football batalion poster, “PLAY the GREATER GAME and JOIN the FOOTBALL BATTALION” - military service tnto competitve performance

after raid and osborne death,c ompletely broken
walks “as though he were asleep, his hands are bleeding”

“raleigh sits with lowered head, looking at palms of his hands” - trying to reconcile war sold to him in propaganda with expriencing, clearly not up to this point appreciated frineds can just die - invetibale

due to propaganda skirts over concept of death- “who’s oor the game - worst case cscenario is “come back with ac rutch” - complete trivialistaion ofreal threats

Death changes stanhope

also young man, described as “despite stars of rank[…] no more than a boy” - strtaight out of school

junior officers in ww1 extremely young, IWm notes secondl ieutenants only often teenagres, each expected to leaad 30 men

stanhope - “pale and haggard” after osbornes death “experssionles snad dead” - so affected by death of “one man could trust” and “best friend”< even sitting on bed(arbitrarily allocated) feels like violation
camaraderia makes moment tragic, - osborne centre of his world
by 1918 - army registered 80,000 cases of shellshock - significant because men die and survivors do not remain unchanged

Death exposes dehumanising nature of war

colonel and brigadier much less in line fo fire

clearest in aftermatho f rade, “spelidid stanhope! we’ve got all we weanted - 20th wurtemburgers” -o verly positive toen and compelte ignorance of osbornes death almost chilling

raids to capture prisoners,g ain intelligence, seize documents and destroy evenmy positions- shown by bitter rpsonse “how awfully ince - if the brigadier’s plaesed”

ww1 - basic unit was battalion, 500 to 1000 men commanded by lietuanatn colonel, brigade 3 battalions, 3500 to 4000 men(led by brigadier) - in control of thousands, saw them as chess pieces

colonl - “i’m very sorr. poor osborne"!” and then “words trail away, fidgets uneasily” - no admission of responsibility
raleigh catatonic state - “walking as though he wer asleep” but colonel praises him, emotionally tone deaf “i’ll get you an MC for this! splendid"!”


mc, created 1914 awarded for “exemplary gallantry” to cpatains and officers, but feels hollow and inedaqueta beside osbornes death and raleighs shock

sits him on bed then walks off - have a good rest, i must be off “quick glance at stanhope” - symoblic of all leaders in war who sent men to die

not to mention “other six men” even

Stanhope shows the cost of duty

other characters repeatedly insit on his value
osbrone “ a long way the best comapny commander we’ve got”

“there isnt a man to touch im aws commander of men” - dutiful officer on which company depends

“came out straight from school - when he was eightenn” and “never had rest”, constantly fulfilling duty

junior officers extremely yong, steenages expected to lead platoons of 30 men - much odler than themselves, public schools nd univiersrities recuriting groudns - so stanhopes youtha nd authority recognisable

but responsiblity detrimental to stanhope

“because he’s stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits, he’s called a drunkard” - commitment led to sustained psychological attrition


trencehs - british and commonwealth soldiers entitled to rum ration of 2.5 fluid oucnes(70ml) in rpesence of officer, rum may isused before attacks, or whiskey

maeks him paranoid and unstable - anecdote todlby hardy, “silly little argument”

stanhope" “ jumped up and knocked all glasses off the table” then “came to and cried”


“if i went up those steps into the frontline without being doped with whiskey, i’d go mad with fright” - needs alcholl

lieutenant colonel JSY rogers, medical officer to 4th black watch told 1922 enquiry into shellshock - “had it not been for rum ration i d not think we should have won the war”

duty to others rather than duty to country

duty presnted to each other rather than patriotism in propaganda, commited and reliant on each other


"ww1 propaganda - 1914 kitchener poster “your country needs you”
1915 poster - “the empire needs men!” presents enlistment as imperial obligation and pope’s poem whos’ for the game tells men “your country is looking and calling for you”

duty underpinds entire play - seen when osborne says come because “stanhope asked to come over”

stanhope “looking after men coming in” - osborne doing duty by doing favor for stanhope

reinforced, stanhope calmly divides up watch “hibbert can do from two till four and i’ll go on from then till stand-to” - duty to be routine, shared and collective not glamorous heroism

typical day at front began with “stand to arms” at dawn - then weapons cleaned, sentries posted, men rested or repaired trencbhes, then another stand to at dusk - duty in trenches matter of constant rota

stanhope revered beause of commitemnt to other men “he’s always up in the frontline with the men!”

IWM notes junior officres taught ohow to “control and care for men”

so stanhope angry when raleigh eats with men after osbornes deatrh
“my officers work together. i’ll have no damn prigs” -private feeling cannot be allowed to break the group

hibbert tries to shirk responsibility

frightened and overwhelmed “every sound up there makes me cold and sick”

“can’t bear it any longer”, begging stanhope to “let him go”

appear to be symptoms of shellshock, coined during ww1 to describe psychological and physical trauma suffered by soldiers exposed to intense artillery bombardment - not sherriff painting hibbert as villain

sherriff kenw of it personally - in letter to mother dated 17 april 1917, wrote doctro believd atatck of neuralgia caused by “nerves being out of order”

however complicated - stanhope “feels exactly the same, we all feel liek you do”
80,000 cases + more unregistered

hibbert foil to stanhope,both feel strain of war, stanhope goes on “sticking it”, hibbert tries to escape, failing in duty to others

stanhope frames issue as duty “if tyou went - and left osbrone and trotter and raleigh, to do you work…could you ever look a man straight in the face again?”

what makes hiberrt shameful attempt to leave burden to everyone else

stanhope threates to shoot "- “it is a hell of a disgrac- to die like that”

army judged failures of duty extremely harshly - original shot at dawn memorial had 306 posts, one for each british and commonwealth soldier executed for offencies eg coowardice, desertion, disobeyiong order, sleeping at post


stanhopes later appear makes it clearer - “dont you think it worth standing in with men like taht? it’s othe only decent thing a man can do” - not patriotic heriosim, btu solidarity and simply human decency - repaed emphasis on “sticking it”