Journey's End By RC Sheriff

1235 Words3 Pages

What methods does Sheriff use to encourage you to feel sympathy for Raleigh at different points in the play? Journey’s End, the play written by Sherriff during post-World War 1, tells the story of a company, serving under the British empire in the north of France near the Belgium border, in the city of St Quentin. The setting of the play is March 28, 1918, towards the end of the war. The playwright wishes to portray his message of antiwar through this play. By telling the story of Jimmy Raleigh and his tragic experience through war. Raleigh’s naivety and wish to become the hero he saw in “Stanhope” caused a sense of sympathy for the character, as it was what led him to join the war. At the beginning of the play, Sherriff portrays the character Raleigh as young, and very naive. …show more content…

This then helps the audience understand the vulnerable position Raleigh was in as he did not understand what war truly was. As a result, Sheriff encourages the audience to feel empathy towards Raleigh due to his naivety and vulnerability. Another extract from the play that shows Raleigh’s naivety is his first introduction. Here he says, "How frightfully quiet it is”, demonstrating that Raleigh has a very different idea of what the front line or war is. This quotation also intends to show how propaganda instills an unrealistic idea of what war is into people’s minds, this being that war is an action-filled adventure. Sherriff wishes to portray how young men volunteer on the front line with a very rudimentary concept of war. Where most die from careless mistakes or due to the wish to become a hero. When Raleigh stated that he “was frightfully keen to get into Denni’s regiment” and had “just got his MC and been made captain”. He looks splendid in this one! It sort of made me

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