Another scene where conflict arises between Stanhope and Raleigh is the scene concerning Raleigh’s letter to his sister. Because of Stanhope’s paranoia, he decides to censor Raleigh’s letters. He demands that Raleigh hands over his letter, and begins to get angry and frustrated when Raleigh refuses. The stage directions read:
“Stanhope clutches Raleigh’s wrist and tears the letter from his hand.”
This portrays Stanhope’s aggression and desperation to seize the letter. Raleigh seems shaken and frightened when he sees this rash side of Stanhope. We know this because Raleigh’s stage directions read: “stammering”, “nervously”, “embarrassed” and “astonished”. Raleigh is frightened by Stanhope’s aggression, and when Stanhope actually reads the letter, it is full of praise towards Stanhope. I think this makes Stanhope feel guilty as he realises that Raleigh had no intentions of telling his sister about his trouble with alcohol.
Osborne’s death is another scene which causes tension between Raleigh and Stanhope. Osborne dies in the raid, and this troubles Raleigh greatly. Stanhope is also deeply shaken by his death, but doesn’t show it as much by drinking and laughing and smoking. This confuses Raleigh, and he thinks that he is the only one who is grieving, but when Raleigh confronts Stanhope about it, Stanhope gets angry and explains how he is coping with Osborne’s death. He shouts at Raleigh, and says:
“The one man I could trust – my best friend – the one man I could talk to as man to man – who understood everything – and you think I don’t care”
This shows us the true extent of Stanhope’s loss, and that he does care. He is grieving silently, and when Raleigh interrupts with “but how can you when –?”, Stanhope’s response is that of anger and he shows this with repetition of his reasons:
“To forget, you little fool – to forget! D’you understand? To forget! You think there’s no limit to what a man can bear?”
The scene ends icily as Raleigh and Stanhope’s emotions clash, and it seems as if their clashing personalities will prevent them resolving their problems, but conflict is resolved between Stanhope and Raleigh in the final scene of the play. Raleigh is wounded from the attack and Stanhope sits with him. As they chat, they call each other by their first names and seem like old friends again. Stanhope makes a genuine effort to make Raleigh comfortably, and says “it’s not your fault, Jimmy”. We see a much kinder side of Stanhope here, as he cares for Raleigh and tends to his needs. The scene ends as Raleigh asks for a light, but Stanhope returns to a lifeless Raleigh and the rumbling of the guns still resounds outside. Raleigh’s death comes shortly after we see the conflict between them resolved.
Another area where conflict arises in the play is between Stanhope and Hibbert. Hibbert claims to have neuralgia, but Stanhope is reluctant to believe him. He thinks Hibbert is making it up in order to be sent home. The conflict comes to its climax in the scene where Hibbert asks Stanhope to be sent home. Stanhope is furious, and he despises Hibbert for being a coward. Stanhope tells Hibbert that he would “better die of the pain than be shot for deserting”, when Hibbert says how he will die of the pain if he doesn’t go home. This shows how strongly Stanhope feels about the issue, and how much he despises cowardice. He wants his men to stay strong and fight until the attack, and at least that way they will die honourably. As Hibbert continues insisting that he goes home, Stanhope gets infuriated and eventually threatens to shoot him. Hibbert begs Stanhope to shoot, and he says:
“Go on, then, shoot! You won’t let me go to hospital. I swear I’ll never go into those trenches again. Shoot! – and thank God –“
However, when Stanhope finally sees Hibbert’s bravery, he drops his gun and has a talk with Hibbert. The conflict appears to be resolved, as they resolve their differences and realise that they feel similar. Hibbert says:
“Every sound up there makes me all – cold and sick”.
He can’t stand the noises of the front, which he know mean death of his fellow comrades. Stanhope replies with:
“I feel the same – exactly the same! Every little noise up there makes me feel – just as you feel”.
However, we learn later that the conflict is not completely resolved as the two start arguing with each other at dinner. The major conflict between them is resolved, although minor problems remain.
An important area of conflict in the play lies within Stanhope himself, and in his internal battle with the war, which leads to his dependence on alcohol. He is a young man of twenty one, but already has faced more trauma than anyone should. The horrors of what he has witnessed make him rely on the bottles of whisky to forget, but this makes him paranoid about how others around think of him. This is the fuel for the conflict between him and Raleigh, especially the scene about the letter; Stanhope is paranoid that Raleigh will tell his sister of his drink problems. He also has a very close relationship with Osborne throughout the play, and during one of their talks he says asks if he is going mad, and if “this life sharpens the imagination”. Stanhope says:
“Whenever I look at anything nowadays I see right through it”.
He can’t understand what he is seeing anymore, and this frightens him as he thinks he is going insane. Stanhope feels that he needs to drink or he couldn’t cope with the war. He says:
“If I went up those steps into the front line – without being doped with whisky – I’d go mad with fright”.
He is shielding his fright with alcohol because he doesn’t want others to see his vulnerability. I think Stanhope’s internal conflict is important to the play because it portrays the difficulties men were faced with, and how they coped with these difficulties. Stanhope’s internal conflict is essentially resolved by the end of the play with his death.
Throughout the play, Sherriff successfully portrays the conflict and tension which arises between the characters. The play also helped me better comprehend how difficult it would have been for the men and what emotional stress they had to deal with. The stage directions, dialogue and characterisation used by the playwright also contributed to the way the relationships between the characters were portrayed. By the end of the play, we see that most conflict has been resolved, alongside the deaths of many key characters.
