Sheriff also explores the romantic tone set at the beginning of the scene through the character of Raleigh; a soldier we meet later on in the play. Raleigh represents the many hundreds of young men who signed up to fight for their country in World War One with the romantic view that they were ‘doing their bit’ to help their country win the war. Propaganda and censorship meant that these young boys entered the fighting without having a realistic perception of what the hard life in the trenches and merciless fighting on the front line actually entailed, believing that, instead of filling the role of mere canon-fodder, they were going to be personally instrumental in the war-effort. It could be argued that Sherriff hints at the unknown mystery of war life through the description of the “misty grey parapet of a trench”, using the word “misty” to create a sense of the mysterious unknown experienced by the young men when they reach the trenches for the first time. We can see here that trench life is far from romantic, making Sherriff’s initial romantic description dramatically ironic and deceptive for the audience as they journey through the lives of the men they meet.
Despite the “litter of papers” and the “jumbled” mess of the trench, we meet the character of Hardy who is described by Sherriff by the adjectives “cheerful-looking” and “lively”. This creates, again, a contrast to the horrors of wartime life that the audience witness later in the play. Hardy is also used by sheriff to provide a direct comparison to the character of Osborne. The latter is introduced with the simile “physically as hard as nails” and characterised by the metaphor “close-cropped iron-grey hair”. This, along with his one-line replies to Hardy’s blasé babblings, gives Osborne an air of superiority. He replies sarcastically when Hardy tells him of the earlier attack on the trench where the men’s tea was ruined by falling dirt, humouring Hardy with “I know. There’s nothing worse that dirt in your tea”. Hardy’s metaphor “They simply blew us to bits yesterday” creates dramatic irony when bearing in mind Osborne’s fate half way through the play and hints of things to come. This positions Hardy’s inappropriate and offhand comments as such and shows Osborne to be a far more serious and realistic Officer. Hardy’s nonchalant attitude to the attack could be masking the fear we can infer from his line “I really am glad you’ve come; I’m not simply being polite” and creates the dramatic realism of what he has been going through internally.
Dialogue subsequently turns to the more serious subject of the attack as Hardy fills Osborne in on the comings and goings of the German army, explaining his fears of an imminent full-scale attack: “There is more transport than usual coming up – you can hear it rattling over the pave all night…bringing up loads and loads of men”. Sherriff, here, is building tension and suspense for the audience in giving hints of dramatic action to come. He contrasts the motifs of quietness and noise to build this tension and indicate that the treat of attack is increasing. We can infer this through the building of noise. The beginning of the scene is deceptively quiet and calm, with Hardy’s humming as the only indication of life, but by the end of the scene he has built up the layers of noise, referring onomatopoeically to the “rattling” and “puffing” of the German soldiers’ transport adding more men to their army. Osborne’s professional response to this information ends the extract with the necessity of handing over responsibility of commanding the troop and the romantic tone of the beginning of the scene has diminished.
Sherriff uses many techniques to create dramatic effect within this scene. In order to do this effectively he uses light to set a romantic tone and mood at the beginning of the scene which is dissipated throughout as the audience becomes aware of the terrible conditions that the soldiers are constantly living in, both internally and externally. He, thus, introduces the theme of the horrors of trench life. He uses dramatic irony to contrast the characters of Hardy and Osborne, which, in turn, involves the reader in the morbid reality of war, overshadowing the comic introduction of Hardy with the seriousness of the subject through the sober Osborne. The techniques Sherriff uses here run throughout the play, contrasting the tragic lives of the soldiers with both comedy and sensitivity.
