Another example of the stresses of war on Sassoon in the first chapter is when he throws away his medal for ‘saving lives’. To receive a medal in war is widely regarded as a great honour to any man. Sassoon may have threw it away as he may feel that its ironic and degrading that he risks his and saves others lives, and all he gets in return is a medal.
However, the beginning of ‘Journey’s End’ is very different “he came to supper with us and drank a whole bottle in one hour and 14 minutes”. The men in ‘Journeys End’ use alcohol as an escape route of war all throughout the play. Alcohol, usually “whiskey” is a way to forget about the war the men drink while they are drinking in the trenches anticipating an attack. Sheriff presents this in a negative way.
At the beginning of the play we also learn of the stressful conditions that the men have to live in “the rats know your boots”. The other conditions consisted of mud made beds and they drank whiskey to take the taste of the water away. “A dug-out got blown up and came down in the men’s tea”. This is when Hardy is talking to Osbourne and is an example of humour as the men are more worried about their tea then the war. However, this gives the impression to the audience that war isn’t that bad. ‘Journeys End’ actually took place in the trenches and Sheriff took part in war, so therefore has a first hand perspective on war whereas ‘Regeneration’ takes place in Craiglockhart. Barker is a modern novelist and therefore has a second account of war, only her brother and father went to war. However both writers are writing from an anti-war perspective.
In chapter five of ‘Regeneration’ we learn of Prior, a new patient “whose nightmares were so bad his room-mates was getting no sleep”. These nightmares were due to horrific visions of war. Prior doesn’t speak until chapter five. This is so he didn’t have to talk about his horrific experiences of the war.
People who are in Craiglockhart are there because they are either ill or mad. However, the patients don’t know they are, if they say they are it is just an excuse to leave the war.
This is in contrast with ‘Journeys End’ instead of escaping by not talking, like Prior for example, they drink or starve themselves, like Hibbert. “He’s starving himself purposely”. Hibbert is doing this in an attempt to leave the war as men were willing to go to any extent to escape. Stanhope looks at a photo of his girlfriend back home; this creates more stress for himself “a picture doesn’t show much, really. Just a face” Stanhope doesn’t want his girlfriend to see the effect that war has had on him, this is the reason he doesn’t go home to her on leave. However, in ‘Regeneration’ Prior did lose weight during his time at sick bay but he didn’t starve himself, this was due to all the stress that he was under. Throughout ‘Regeneration’ there is an insistence on physical suffering as well as mental suffering, the symptoms are all exact. Several soldiers have twitching of the head, stammering, anorexia, some become mute, like Prior, or have mental paralysis, hallucinations, or nightmares, or phobias, like Anderson, who cannot bare to see blood anymore. Sassoon’s had hallucinations of “men with half their faces shot off, crawling across the floor”. This is in contrast to ‘Journeys End’ as war is seen as not as serious as we don’t learn of many deaths and Rayleigh’s death is not explained in much detail.
Death is a huge issue in ‘Regeneration’ and ‘Journeys End’, as in all war texts. “The life expectancy in France is 3 months”, in ‘Regeneration’ one of the men “kill themselves 3 weeks ago”. This proves that most men in war would rather be dead then live to fight. At the end of ‘Journeys End’ we learn of the death of Raleigh. Stanhope sits with him until he dies. Even though all of the soldiers are stressed about the war they still look after their men at times of need. This is in contrast with ‘Regeneration’ as Rivers looks after his men all throughout the novel, not just at times of need. “The point of the meeting is to protect the soldiers”.
In ‘Regeneration’ Burns leaves the hospital in an impulse, he doesn’t know where he is going to go, or what he is going to do. His mental state is extremely fragile. Burns has desire for escape out of the hospital and away from human beings. This is in contrast with ‘Journey’s End’ as Stanhope is ill but refuses to give up. “Young Stanhope goes on sticking it month in, month out”. Considering all the stress that he is under, and how hard it must be, he is seen as being a bit of a hero to the audience.