Fear in Journey's End by RC Sheriff

Fear in Journey's End

The definition of ‘fear’ is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused

by the presence or imminence of danger. ‘Fear’ is reflected by the

continual tension throughout the play. All the characters deal with

fear in their own different ways. This reflects their personality and

gives us an outline of how they really deal with the troubles, which

arise during their experiences in a dangerous surrounding, and also,

by dealing with the outcomes that they have to face in life. Stanhope

deals with pain and fear through expressing his anger and also by his

drinking habits. Hibbert deals with fear by trying to run away from

it. Osborne talks about unnecessary topics, such as rugby, to hide his

fears. Throughout the play, we see displacement tactics becoming one

of the main themes, because all the characters use diversion tactics

as their way of viewing things in an attempt, not to make the problem

seem so harsh. Raleigh is the odd one out, because he is the youngest

and is a new soldier, as he only joined the battalion at the beginning

of the play. He therefore does not yet know about the dangers in war

and living in the trenches. We therefore see no sense of fear in him,

as he is totally unaware of the situation he is getting himself into.

I am now going to explain the ways in which the characters in

Journey’s End interact and speak to each other, also through actions,

while dealing with fear.

Stanhope is one of the main characters that we see having to deal with

fear the most. He is the one who is struggling, as we see him

permanently stressed and worn out. As the company commander, he has to

deal with many problems that are forced upon him, until he becomes

troubled himself. These proble...

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...ghout the play, we see them mainly using

displacement tactics as their way of hiding from the truth. They try

as hard as possible to be in full denial of their surroundings. Such

as Hibbert, who went to the full extent of dealing with fear and found

that he could not cope it anymore and therefore tried to run away.

This shows signs of anxiousness in Hibbert. Stanhope is the main

character and the company commander, and therefore, I find that his

fears are more forceful and influential than the others. He therefore

becomes distressed and finds it hard to deal with his fears. In

Journey’s End the main fear in which all the characters agonize, is

the idea of war. This whole story is based around the horrors and

actions which take place during war, and we therefore get involved in

the scenery of war and become very familiar of what the characters

must feel.