War in the Works of Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen
War has the ability to destroy not only countries and society, but families and individuals as well. Adverse effects are often the outcome of a war. It is not looked at in a positive way and often causes conflict. Through the works of Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and the 1992 Welsh film Hedd Wyn the effects of war are made apparent. All of them express their representations of war differently; however, the works have many similarities as well.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf shows the effects of war in simple and complex ways. Mrs. Dalloway has traveled to London to buy flowers for her party. The Great War had just ended and not only was the queen holding a party to celebrate its long awaited end, Clarissa Dalloway was also. While walking through the streets Mrs. Dalloway rejoiced in the noise and bustle of the city. All of this represented life, Woolf seemed to want to show her audience that regular everyday events in the city were meaningful and exciting, life can go on after war. Clarissa delighted in all of the clamor and bustle; she found it invigorating and exciting. Woolf is quick to show us a very different point of view with her intriguing character Septimus Warren Smith.
Septimus is an ex-soldier who was a casualty of the Great War. He suffers from shell shock and constantly thinks of killing himself. Septimus’ reality has completely been altered since he returned from war. The smallest noise, such as the car back firing, had the ability to send him into complete hysterics. Even though the war was over he lived in fear; his unconscious was haunting him. Septimus was insane and basically lived in his...
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...oth wanted to go to war; their lives were forever changed from this decision. Owen and Ellis were both uncertain about the war and why it was being fought, yet they both ended up there. Neither of them came home. All four have shown us the ugliness that war brings. Though they had their differences in why they went and how their lives’ turned out, they all experienced the wrath. Some experiences were fictional and others real, yet the portrayal and representation of war all boiled down to the same thing. It is ugly and effects the lives of everyone either directly or indirectly. Lives are forever changed in the presence of war. Woolf, Sassoon, Owen, and Ellis showed us this through their stories, poems, and personal experiences.
Work Cited
The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth Century, Volume 2C Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway.
Many war pieces express a distinct sense of truth, hatred, and anger that can be found in the style, tone, and imagery they possess. Incredible images are created in ones mind as war writings are read and heard. Works written by such writers as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and Tim OBrien really reach out to the audience by way of the authors choice of words and images that they use in their writing. These talented writers create very touching and heart-felt images as they write about the true occurrences, problems, feelings and emotions that soldiers encountered throughout times of war. It is by way of these writers words that the bloody truth of war is heard, rather than the glorified victories heard which overlook the pain that soldiers went through.
“Now every road and highway…was littered with the corpses of human beings and animals…the wounded were left to die. Children ran frantically, shrieking for their mothers…there was no food, water, soap, or medical supplies. Like polluted waters became carriers of disease (Kasenkina 93).” This is a typical scene of war demonstrated in literary works. In literature war is a very common, yet important subject and it is generally demonstrated in plays, short stories, and novels. Some of the pieces of literature in where war is shown include: The Crucible by Arthur Miller, “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and Leap to Freedom by Kasenkina. In these pieces of literature war is shown as a horrid event that always has both physically and psychologically bad outcomes. In many literary works including the ones mentioned above the good outcomes in war are misrepresented and suppressed by the bad outcomes in war.
... horrors of war such as, his parents who still view war as glamorous and idealistic. War takes a heavy toll on soldiers who fight in it and in these dangerous moments anybody would have gone insane. It takes a very special type of soldier to be able to handle both the psychological and physical challenges that a soldier has to face in everyday battle. A soldier such as this must be capable of handling the sight of a mutilated comrade and not immediately chatter to pieces. The author conveys this message in his extreme use of words with negative connotation such as shells, typhus, dysentery, and trenches. In this portion of the novel a great deal of emphasis is placed on the word death which is repeated several times and standing on its own it holds a great deal of negative connotations. Therefore, due to the severity of the situation and the extensive use of words with negative connotations the overall tone of the novel appeared to be very depressing or serious. This selection also demonstrates just how mythical the character of war that many individuals who have not experienced the tragedy of battle believe to be true by illustrating just how appalling and grim war is in reality.
Earnest Hemmingway once said "Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime." (Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference) War is a gruesome and tragic thing and affects people differently. Both Vonnegut and Hemmingway discus this idea in their novels A Farewell to Arms and Slaughterhouse Five. Both of the novels deal not only with war stories but other genres, be it a science fiction story in Vonnegut’s case or a love story in Hemingway’s. Despite all the similarities there are also very big differences in the depiction of war and the way the two characters cope with their shocking and different experiences. It is the way someone deals with these tragedies that is the true story. This essay will evaluate how the main characters in both novels deal with their experiences in different ways.
3 Woolf, Virginia: A sketch of the past , Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol.2 , sixth edition
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The increasing number of knowledge intensive research and development companies have turned to virtual teams in the recent past in order for them to generate the greatest competitive advantage from limited resources and labor. The geographically distributed teams must communicate via technology, and this has grown in prevalence as compared to the traditional teams in which all members were collocated and communicate face to face. Thus many organizations turn to virtual teams to reduce operational costs, embracing faster problem solving and innovate.
“They”, by Siegfried Sassoon, “Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, and the film Hedd Wynn directed by Paul Turner, were works written about World War I. These works were the author’s point of view about the war. The authors described how the war effected people during and after the war was over. The poem “They”, by Siegfried Sassoon was a poem written during World War I. The poem basically states that no man comes out of the war the same. People who go into war are facing death. Either the soldier comes out alive, or dead. The war will have some affect on a soldier in some way or another. This representation of war applies to Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway”, and the film Hedd Wynn. Both pieces consist of characters that went to war, and as a result died in the war. It seems as if the authors believe that if there is a war, there will be some kind of tragedy as a result. The tragedy isn’t always a bad thing. Either there will be Mental problems, physical problems, or death as the result. The poem “They” displays a war representation of change of human existence can be applied to the novel Mrs. Dalloway, and Hedd Wynn. Mrs. Dalloway, and Hedd Wynn representation of war was death.
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during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
This relates strongly with my long term professional goals. In the long run, I really wish to help as many people as I can by advancing pharmacy. It is a dream to be able to go to a developing country or be part of an organization such as the World Health Organization and spread the knowledge of pharmacy and bring h...
Since my early schooling days, science and mathematics have always fascinated me given that all components of the world are explained on the basis of these disciplines. In this regard, Pharmacy which is based on Chemistry and Mathematics has interested me a great deal as it has direct impacts on our daily lives. The more I have become familiar with the chemistry and mathematics knowledge involved in pharmacy, the more I have appreciated its significance in improving the lives of people in the community. Out of the many careers that one would opt to pursue, Pharmacy has stood out as the career that will enable me serve the society more directly and have a real impact in the quality of peoples’ lives by touching their health. In addition, I love a career that is challenging and one that I will be involved in even in old age. In this case, Pharmacy offers me this opportunity. My interest in Pharmacy has also developed from my personal health experiences and becoming aware of its expansiveness. Every time I have had to take medicine to cure an illness, I have become more interested to know how drugs are made and how the drug components work in the human body to alleviate pain and restore health. I desire to pursue a career in Pharmacy so as to gain practical experience in these aspects of research.
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World War I impacted poetry profoundly. Poets who served in the war were using poetry to share their horrific stories about the hardships they faced. These poets became known as “war poets.” They wrote about the traumatic, life changing experiences that haunted them once the war was over. Intense poems started emerging that portrayed the mental and physical struggles soldiers faced. Two examples of the impact that World War I had on poetry is seen in the poems “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and “Repression of War Experience” by Siegfried Sassoon.