Stanhope's Relationship with Raleigh in Journey's End by RC Sheriff

Stanhope's Relationship with Raleigh in Journey's End

Write about the presentation of Stanhope’s relationship with Raleigh

in Act Two Scene One, Act Three Scene Two and Act Three Scene Three.

Journey’s end by R.C.Sherriff is an incredible play about how the

horrifying conditions in W.W.I affected men physically and

psychologically. The audience really feel for the soldiers as the

author has made the concept of the war so emotionally involving for

the reader. The main character is called Dennis Stanhope, and another

attention-grabbing character is Jimmy Raleigh. R.C.Sherriff has used

the relationship between Stanhope and Raleigh to convey the effect of

the awful conditions the war had on the depth of the suffering the

solders involved experienced. Stanhope and Raleigh have an extremely

interesting relationship. Stanhope is a peculiar character; he is an

alcoholic and seems to be fighting a constant battle with his mind.

When he is ‘sober’ he is short and snappy but when he has had a few

whiskeys he opens up and is able to have long deep conversations that

you can tell he’s really thought about. Stanhope fools a lot of people

into thinking he is really brave all the time, but really he’s just

drunk all the time. The whisky gives him a constant flow of ‘Dutch

Courage’.

Raleigh is also a very interesting character who hero worships

Stanhope. Raleigh’s sister and Stanhope are engaged. It is hard to

think of Raleigh as a man, as he still only seems like a young boy; he

has only just left school. Raleigh really looks up to Stanhope and

asked his Uncle to be sent to the same dugout as Stanhope. This

probably isn’t just because of his hero worship, but also to feel safe

as Stanhope looked after and looked ou...

... middle of paper ...

...mforted him when Raleigh was scared. Before when Stanhope

was scared, Raleigh didn’t comfort him because he didn’t realise he

was scared, Raleigh just bugged him, where as when Raleigh was scared

Stanhope realised and helped him.

R.C Sheriff has portrayed the emotions of the solders in the script

and their body language so well that the reader feels the emotions of

the solders. He has also included a good set of characters, which I

think all work exceptionally well together and are what make the play

as tremendous as it is.

R.C Sheriff is likely to of been one of the characters in the play,

maybe Stanhope or likely experienced highly similar things to what he

has expressed in ‘Journey’s End’, as he has written about it extremely

passionately that the audience feel the emotions of the soldiers so

deeply, this is what makes the play as grand as it is.