Macleish- Feels it’s his duty to back up fellow NCOs whatever the situation. He is very sensitive of jokes about his Scottish origins.
Evans- Bamforths closest friend in the unit. He is a home loving character and comes from a very close knit community in Wales.
As the play unravels you learn more about the characters personalities and their backgrounds.
In this essay I am going to research and show how Willis changes the audience’s opinion of Bamforth.
Bamforth hates authority figures. In particular he has a huge disliking for Johnstonne as he is a very bossy and authorative corporal. Bamforth is constantly defying Johnstonne’s orders and standing up to him when they disagree. There is a quote from the text which shows how strongly Bamforth dislikes Johnstonne, Bamforth says, “If I come across him once without them tapes to come it on I’ll smash his face.”
First impressions of Bamforth show that he is a very dominant and argumentative character and it appears he would use any excuse for a fight. Bamforth is seen as a cocky and arrogant character especially when they capture the Japanese prisoner, Bamforth was the only person who would have had the nerve to kill the prisoner. There’s a quote in the text which refers to this, Mitchem says, “You make so much as a mutter and I’ll let Jack the ripper have a go at you.” Bamforth also found it very amusing to treat the prisoner like an animal. He belittles him saying, “flingers on blonce.” This refers to the prisoner being Japanese and makes fun of the way speaks. At the time the play was written this would have been found funny as it was shortly after the conflict with Japan, but in this day and age it would be frowned upon and people would find it an offensive and racist remark.
Later on in the play Willis completely changes the audience’s opinion of Bamforth and a different side of him is seen. He starts to realize that the prisoner is no different to them and that he is in the same situation that they are. Bamforth starts to become protective of the prisoner. This changes peoples opinions of Bamforth from being a very cocky and arrogant person to something completely different, they begin to see him as a very down to earth and caring person. The focus of dislike for the audience is then turned towards corporal Johnstonne as he starts to be seen as the most heartless person of the group who is only interested in saving himself. The main event which changes the audiences opinion of Bamforth is when the soldiers start to question the prisoner over lighting up a British cigarette. A huge scuffle ensues before Bamforth steps in and explains that he gave the prisoner the cigarettes in the first place. During the questioning they ripped up the prisoners family photos and Bamforth gets quite annoyed at this saying, “You couldn’t even leave him with his pictures could you.” A fight then breaks out between Bamforth and Johnstonne. Evans is told to keep his gun trained on the prisoner to stop him from trying anything. The prisoner then stands up to get a better view of what’s going on, as he is concerned for Bamforth and Evans shoots the prisoner dead.
After this Johnstonne decides they need to leave as the gun fire would have alerted enemy soldiers in the surrounding area. Then, as they leave the hut they are ambushed and all of them die except Johnstonne who makes it back into the hut to radio the base camp for help.