Journey's End by RC Sheriff

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Sherriff's "Journey's End"

On many occasions throughout the book of the play of "Journeys End",

Sherriff uses methods to re-create the overwhelming stress of trench

warfare. He describes every aspect of the trenches, the guns and the

whole life. With this understanding of the trenches, the audience are

helped in imagining what it must have been like to live there. In the

play, all the narrative writing in the book has had to have been left

out. Instead the directors must rely more on the acting and the

scenery, which is not to do with Sherriff's work and vision. However

the directors of these plays have to get the scenery correct if they

are going to make the audience understand the unbearable stress

suffered by the soldiers. Sherriff gives good guidance to the

directors in the large columns of narratives, which have already been

mentioned. With these the directors can strategically set the scenery

in certain position to gain maximum effect while also having the

benefit of knowing what the stage is meant to look like adding to the

overall effects.

The main way in which Sherriff re-creates the stress of warfare is in

his large chunks of narrative. These are found on many pages

throughout the book. He uses these to describe all about the lives of

the men and the feelings of everyone. An example of this is on the

first page where he introduces a very full-characterised captain. Of

course these passages help the directors to grasp some aspect of the

way the stage should look but also allows the reader to get his or her

own picture in her head. With so many descriptive words throughout the

book, it is hard not to imagine the front line in one way or another.

This method is very effective as it does give ...

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...the end

of the book he re introduces Stanhope as an inspiration and tries to

please him in many ways. Raleigh uses Stanhope has an idle to get him

through the stress. The other way in which he looks to avoid the

stress is by sending letters to his family, and having general

conversations like the one with Osborne where Raleigh finds out

Osborne played rugby for England.

Other generalised ways in which the men in the book deal with the

stress is through patriotism. Frequent jokes are made about the

Germans and many of the troops, including officers only stay and fight

because they feel the Germans are doing the world an injustice. Many

of the men believe they are fighting for the safety of Britain and

their families. The silence of the war is frequently mentioned

throughout the book and many of the men gather in unity and sing songs

to banish the quiet.

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