Discuss and analyze the dramatic impact you feel the setting of the two selected plays has upon characters and audiences

  Journeys End challenges the expectations of middle classes during the war. Its trying to destroy all stereotypes depending on whether the characters were from upper, middle or working classes, how officers should be placed in their rightful rank instead of being placed higher up in the hierarchy due to their wealth. As we can see by the character Trotter and Mason whom both are very informal spoken characters as Trotter become an officer only due to the fact the rate of deaths rapidly increasing and Mason cooked the officers food.  On the other hand Accrington Pals describes the great opportunities woman had when the men went off to the war unlike back in the Victorian Era women were not allowed to own a bank account, but in 1918 women gained the vote.  The play has two different perspectives one being business, entrepreneur and the other being socialism. In the 1980s Margret Thatcher supported the Entrepreneur ideas how people should move on with their lives and try and achieve.  The two main characters are May Hassle who believes she should work and aim high where as Tom Hassle believes that he should go to war.

  Journeys End has a static setting and is set over a period of 5 days. The reason for this is that the characters are waiting upon attack; therefore it becomes more stressful and tense as if it were to be set over a period of months the audience would loose interest and characters would be expected to die. The set and the scenery doesn’t change as it takes place in the dugout. This enforces the claustrophobia that the soldiers must of experienced, how the conditions were prison like, the constant darkness causing stress. This lures in the audience, as they are intrigued to know how the characters are able to cope and survive in these harsh conditions.  In Accrington Pals the stage is divided into two parts one being where May works with the addition of lightning and sound to emphasize France, and the other side being England.  The drama is set over a period of two years. At the opening of the play, Act One the lines “clash come love” indicates the two different ideologies of the characters.

   One of the main themes of Journeys End is Class. The plays two main characters are Raleigh and Stanhope. These both have a past together; they both come from upper class backgrounds and have been provided with an education. Journeys end is set in a dugout. A dugout is a place where officers come off duty to sleep and eat. We can tell that the representation of the working class will not be portrayed due to the fact of its setting, but R.C Sherriff included two characters called Trotter and Mason who are both from working class backgrounds. Whereas in Accrington Pals explores the way working class woman coped during the war and how this gained them opportunities such as jobs and the right to vote.  Accrington is a real place but the story is fiction therefore it’s a far more believable portrayal of the working class society as women had to say goodbye to their loved ones who volunteered their services to their beloved country but their own experiences are contrasted with the women who are left behind who have been thrown into these rapid social changes.