Observe the sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme - How satisfactory do you find Part 1 of the play to be?

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Coursework - Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

How satisfactory do you find Part 1 of the play to be?

The structure of the play is certainly strange; McGuinness placed the end at the beginning, with the seven fellow soldiers dead. However, this is intended to emphasise the point of Old Pyper's loneliness and regret. The imagery of the solitary Old Pyper, now an old man, is intended to remain with, and perhaps haunt the audience throughout the play, until the reasons are uncovered towards the end.

The passion and anger with which Old Pyper rambles within the first few lines of the play aim to intrigue the audience; perhaps they suggest insanity. This notion is supported by the fact that although he is alone in the room, Old Pyper appears to be talking to a number of people, as if they were in the room with him, which of course they are when they appear as ghosts later on in the scene. Those he refers to are his fallen comrades from the first day of the Somme, and it is soon clear that he was the only one to survive,