The stupidity and pointlessness of war being fought miles away with no real purpose or consequence for the British public, is emphasised purposely by the author. In doing this we are constantly reminded of his strong disapproval of war; his feelings arise in ‘very far from here’ pointing out how far away the war is. The soldier ‘poured’ his blood ‘down shell holes’; the verb ‘poured’ makes the soldiers sacrifice sound meaningless. The poet is angry at war, because it just takes and never gives anything back. In short Owen is asking if a war that is miles away and purposeless requires a whole generation to be erased. The public will hopefully understand the futility of war.
The way the Owen describes the transformation of the soldier into a ‘ghastly suit of grey’ is full of contempt for war. The poet’s feelings arise in ‘half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race’; once again nothing is hidden it is a crude and angry description of what the young man has become, depicting Owen’s real views. Dislike is mirrored in ‘purple spurted from his thigh’ it’s a very graphic image displaying the man’s suffering, Owen is angry that the ex-soldier needs to experience so much pain. He is distressed that such a thing like war exists. His views on the transformations prove this. They are also a plea for war to stop.
The poet subtly criticises the commanders and those ‘who smiling wrote his lie’ about being 19 years of age. The boy was under age he was not required to participate, therefore if the officials did their job the boy would not have ended up disabled. Criticism surfaces in the boy’s reasons for joining, he joined for ‘smart salutes’ and ‘care of arms’; ‘Germans he scarcely thought of’. Owen is blatantly blaming recruiters, commanders and the whole Ministry of Defence for making war look attractive. He thinks those people are despicable for sending young boys off to death while they sit back and “command”. The officials were to blame for making war sound desirable; they created a war with ‘smart salutes, Esprit de Corps’ (regimental brotherhood) and ‘jewelled hilts for daggers in plaid socks’. The officials “forgot” to mention anything about enemies, risks or fears; only the glossy details were announced. Therefore when Owen deplores them he also deplores war. By writing this poem he hopes to prevent young men from joining without knowing about all the atrocities of war.
Readers can tell that the author is shocked by the boy’s future, because of his indiscreet and skeletal description. The boy ‘will spend a few sick years at institutes’; Owen is bitterly critical of this boy’s lack of freedom we know this because he always emphasises the boy’s dependency ‘Why don’t they come and put him to bed’. A person who gave so much should not have to spend ‘sick years at institutes’ or ‘take whatever pity they may dole’; the man should be ‘carried shoulder-high’. He blames the public and War for what has happened to the man. War because it made the boy ‘a ghastly suit of grey’ and the public for placing a veneer over war. He attacks the public when only ‘some cheered him home’ from the front lines, and even then it was not ‘as crowds cheer Goal’. Females, especially, are criticised when recounting ‘how the women’s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole’. Wasn’t war meant to make a soldier look ‘a god in kilts’? Yet it does the opposite, makes him repulsive.
The author reminds us of the soldier’s dependency using ‘why don’t they come and put him to bed?’ it makes him sound so pathetic and helpless. ‘Why don’t they come’ conveys the boy’s vulnerability, if he needs someone else to perform the simplest of tasks then what chance does he have of defending himself? Readers then remember that war brought about this dependency. He feels very sorry for this man. This is apparent due to the constant repetition of ‘why don’t they come?’, which sounds like a cry of help, yet the nurses still ignore him. As Owen realises that war has disabled the man, his sympathy turns into hatred channelled towards war.
A second poem which shows that Owen is anti-war is ‘Dulce et Decorum est’. Clear proof of his dismay is seen in ‘Bent double like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed coughing like hags’; his description is allegedly of soldiers the best of the country, yet he calls them ‘old hags’. The author is dismayed by the fact that war conditions have allowed soldiers to be turned into ‘beggars’ and ‘hags’. This image of soldiers destroyed by war is similar to the victim in disabled; both reveal the physical effects of war. Readers can clearly see that the men lack essential equipment, ‘many lost their boots’, and it would be foolhardy to think them fighting fit. Because he shows obvious disapproval of the characteristics of war, hard conditions, fire gas, explosions, he must also be against the whole of warfare.
He mirrors concern, raised in ‘Disabled’ about the usage of men in war. This idea becomes apparent in ‘towards our distant rest’; the word ‘distant’ raises concern as it implies that soldiers are worked too long and hard. It also indicates that rest are far and not frequent.
The poet is horrified that the men are ‘Drunk with fatigue’; usage of the word ‘Drunk’ informs how tired the soldiers are. Owen uses the word so that we are as shocked as him. ‘All went lame; all blind’ shows Owen’s utter hatred towards the conditions endured by theses men, author and audience then realise that these conditions were imposed by war. Hatred towards conditions in war was also a major theme in ‘Disabled’. The remainder of ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ is focused on the horrors of war, in this case gas attacks. This shows that war scars the soldiers both physically and psychologically.
Owen is traumatised by the way men die in the attacks; we can surmise this from his explicit imagery. He is appalled by the gas attacks upon the ‘boys’-reminding us that many recruits were underage, another idea explored in ‘Disabled’. The gas attacks are an extension of the theme of pain. The way Owen describes how someone ‘flound’ring like a man in fire or lime’ went ‘under a green sea’ shows his condemnation of gas attacks. The pain inflicted upon the man must have been of monstrous proportions; Owen is dismayed by the enormity of the pain, he conveys this in words such as ‘guttering, choking’ and ‘drowning’. This condemnation of physical pain reminds us of Owen’s anger towards war.
He continues to depict the man’s death; ‘I saw him drowning’ is very blunt and to the point, it conveys Owen’s shock. The man’s ‘white eyes’ were ‘writhing in his face’ every time there was a ‘jolt’ blood came ‘gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs’; the image is extremely graphic and horrifying. The directness exposes Owen’s absolute loathing for war. It also reminds the public that men do die and in some cases in a very ‘obscene’ way.
The author sounds bitter when he talks directly with the public, this surfaces in ‘My friend’-mockery of the term-‘you would not tell with such high zest to children…the old Lie: Dulce et Decroum est Pro patria Mori’. Owen is accusing the public of supporting a treacherous activity such as war, he has criticised them before. The ‘old Lie’ means it is fitting and sweet to die for one’s country. Owen has already disproved the ‘Lie’ by recounting how the man drowned ‘under a green sea’. The fact that the poet calls it the ‘old Lie’ shows disregard and denunciation of it.
The poet is enraged by the fact that many people are ‘innocent’ they did not know what war would really be like. We can connect this idea to the disabled person’s innocence.
‘Dulce et Decorum est’ focuses more on the physical pains of war and conditions that inflict this pain. However, if examined closely the poem is carrying psychological pain, Owen’s pain. ‘I saw him drowning…in all my dreams’ shows that it is a memory to Owen always present in his realities and dreams. From the content of the memories we can deduce that they are a thorn in Owen. Subtly the poet tells of another scar of war psychological pain-this one does not disappear.
My final poem is ‘Exposure’; it is about soldiers in the trenches during winter. Exposure also examines the horrors of war; however, these have little to do with combat. We know the soldiers have mental traumas because their ‘brains ache’, psychological pain is furthered in ‘drooping flares confuse our memory’. Their ‘brains ache’ due to ‘merciless iced east winds’ that ‘knive’ them. A reader can deduce that the soldiers have been ill equipped, something revealed in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ as well, and placed in terrible conditions; this has led to physical and mental discomfort. Owen has continuously visited the theme of conditions, he has always pitied with the troops meaning he is frustrated by their lack of equipment and atrocious conditions.
The poet also complains about the usage of men, in war. These men are sitting and being knived by ‘east winds’ not Germans. He is annoyed that the soldiers have not seen any action shown by his referral to ‘but nothing happens’. Instead there is a great risk that they may die due to winds-what a waste. In showing dis-contempt towards war conditions and usage in war one can imagine him to be opposed to war.
Owen is horrified by the troops mental conditions, so would anyone if ‘flares confused’ their memories. The men are being devoured by anxiety, a further horror, to the point where they are ‘worried by silence’. He is launching an attack upon the inactivity that the men have faced, we know this because he repeats ‘but nothing happens’ many times. The soldiers are being soaked, knived, scared and stressed while they sit, not while they fight; more are being killed by the ‘massing melancholy army’ of clouds in the east. The fact that inactivity has reduced these men to ‘shivering ranks of grey’ must only aggravate Owen even more. By this point the audience realise that a third horror in ‘Exposure’ is the weather; the title hints that the troops are being exposed to something, it is only sensible to be exposed to the elements. One can imagine that Owen has immeasurable hatred towards the weather because it has claimed so many lives. We learn the true power of nature in, ‘bullets streak the silence. Less deathly than the air that shudders black with snow’, proving that more do die due to the weather.
The public also realise that war is not just between men, it is also between nature. They must also get demoralised by the knowledge that their finest have been turned into penguins-“shivering ranks of grey”-the destroying of men physically has been explored many times in all three poems. All these factors help illustrate Owen’s hatred towards the monotony of war and the fact that it is absolutely pointless. The affects of war also make the soldiers question their belief in God due to their dispiriting experiences of inhumane slaughter.
The author is definitely disgusted by the fact that while ‘pale flakes with fingering stealth come’ all the soldiers can do is ‘cringe in holes’ like animals. In ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Exposure’ the soldiers have not had the opportunity to die fighting. It is sad to know that this is their only defence; otherwise they would employ other methods.
Owen shows revulsion towards the futility of war. The soldiers die for no reason at all and they achieve nothing. The futility of war is a chronic theme in all three poems, ‘Disabled’ examines a man who has lost his legs for no reason, ‘Dulce et Decroum est’ views the soldiers dying due to gas and ‘Exposure’ sees men drop because of the weather.
‘Exposure’ is more a poem full of psychological pain, it shows the soldiers’ inactivity quite like the ‘Disabled: victim of war’. The poem really does strip war to its bare bones; joined with ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ it would be an excellent deterrent of war.
From the three poems examined we can tell Owen is against war. The poet is angry that so much time, energy and resources have been spent on war, all of that could have been spent on saving lives. Owen finds the tearing apart of families, destruction of a person physically and mentally despicable. The poet regards the weapons created for killing, in war, monstrous. All the above should prove without doubt that Owen is an anti-war poet.
