Choose 3 different characters from “Journey’s End” and discuss how each of them reacts to the strain of war.

The way Stanhope acts to the effects of war was to turn to drink. We first see this when Stanhope admits to Osborne that ' I knew I'd go mad if I didn't break the strain. I couldn't bare being fully conscious all the time.' The only options were to 'pretend I was ill- and go home; and the other was to drink.' So consequently he turned to drink.

Stanhope realized that what he is doing is not what heroic soldiers should do, but it is the only way he could deal with it. He was afraid that Raleigh would write home to his sister (Stanhope's "fiancé") and tell her that he 'reeked of whiskey all day.' So he checked Raleigh's letters to censor them. When he found that Raleigh has only written that ' he works so frightfully hard...Dennis is the finest officer in the Battalion.' Stanhope feels almost guilty about taking the letter away from him, because Raleigh, instead of writing back of how awful Stanhope was, was trying to preserve Stanhope's image.

Another way we can see that Stanhope used the effects of alcohol to numb the pains of war is when Stanhope is talking to Raleigh after the raid to capture the German officer. Raleigh has just asked Stanhope why he drinks so much, and Stanhope says 'To forget, you little fool. To forget!' This quote shows the anger he had when he drank, and the love he felt for Osborne. The repetition of the words 'to forget' bring out the emphasis that he is desperately trying to get across to Raleigh that he doesn't want to be reminded of the ordeal any longer, and that he should just try and forget himself.

Whereas Stanhope was a veteran at war, James Raleigh had only just arrived. Raleigh was young, inexperienced and fairly naïve of what happened in the trenches. He had family in the army, especially in higher places. Like his uncle, 'General Raleigh'. He also had family friends such as his sister's near-to fiancé, Stanhope. Raleigh idolises Stanhope and sees him as a figure to follow. In a conversation with Osborne, Osborne says that Stanhope is a 'splendid chap.' Raleigh, it seems, to blurt out 'isn't he! He was a skipper at Rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven. A jolly good bat, too.' In this it is clear that he isn't just showing the fact that Stanhope was good at sport, but overemphasising the love he sees for him. 'Isn't he!'

He uses the fact he has family in the army to get in to Stanhope's battalion. 'I was frightfully keen to get into Dennis's regiment...when I was at base I did an awful thing...I went to see my uncle on the side and asked him if I could get into Dennis's battalion...and next day I was told I was coming to this battalion.' Which basically says he used his uncle to get him into the battalion. This also tells us that he is desperate to try and see his hero in battle.

We can see that he is new to the war experience because when he comes to meet Osborne when he first arrives Osborne says to him, 'When anything happens, it happens quickly. Then we just start waiting again.' This shocks Raleigh because he thought it was just, 'fighting all the time.' Also he is keen to please and always offering to do work. 'I was picked specially...I say!'

But after the raid to capture the German, Raleigh's attitude to the war changed. He quickly loses his schoolboy keenness and adopts a more mature nature. 'Walking as though he is asleep, his hands are bleeding...sits with lowered head, looking at the palms of his hands.' The shock of Osborne dying brings the reality between advertised war, and real life, blood and guts war.

This contrast between how Raleigh acted before war and how he acts after it is interesting. It gives a great deal of insight to how people changed from their naivety to a more subtle maturity. Raleigh does not deal with this in the same way Stanhope did. He 'would rather be up on the line with the men, than down in the dug-out with the officers.' Raleigh could not believe that Stanhope could just get on with life, and not mourn for his lost comrade. Raleigh was confused about Stanhope's way of being merry, jolly and eating the food for the victory of the raid. So he avoids his fellow officers

Hibbert also does not deal with the war pressure in the same way as Stanhope (to turn to drink), or Raleigh. Instead, he fakes and illness. After '3 months... he's decided he's done his bit. He's decided to go home and spend the rest of the war in comfortable nerve hospitals.' The "neuralgia" he has got 'takes away his appetite'. You can tell he is only putting it on, and not being in real pain, because he keeps going on about it to try and get the point across. 'I'm damn sorry to keep going on about it, Stanhope.' But Stanhope isn't taking any of it. Instead he is civil to Hibbert, and plays along with the act Hibbert is putting on. But when Hibbert leaves the scene Stanhope's character changes completely. This is where we can tell the real Hibbert. Stanhope refers to him as 'another little worm trying to wiggle his way home.' We see that Hibbert fellow officers see him as a cowardly man, who tries to get home by putting on illnesses.

The three characters in the play are very different, and all react in very different ways to the strain of war. Be that taking to drink, trying to forge an illness and go 'down the line' or maturing and getting on with your job without complaint or question. It all shows that the pressure the war had on people was tremendous, and a lot of nerves were broke during those few years.

Joe Jelley 10AE