Journey's End- Captain Stanhope Character Study

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How does R.C Sheriff Present Captain Stanhope as a character to be admired? Journey’s end is a play by R.C Sheriff, it is set in a dark and gloomy officer’s trench during world war one. It depicts life in the front line, and it shows it truthfully, showing all the horrors and emotional struggles of the war.  R.C Sheriff knows fully what it is like to be on the front line in world war one having been in it himself. This makes for a very accurate, real and vivid play.  Captain Dennis Stanhope is the commander of C Company, he’s one of the most important characters in the play and R.C Sheriff uses him to show the struggles and strains of life in the front line.  He presents him as a brave character, a character to be admired.                                                                The character of Stanhope is introduced by the other characters in the play before he makes his entrance.  Hardy is the Captain Of another company that is about to leave the front line, and Osborne is Stanhope’s second in command.  Stanhope is introduced by these two characters before he comes into the play.  This dramatic device is used by R.C Sheriff, to build up the suspense before his entrance.  It makes the audience want to see what Stanhope is actually like.  Although they never meet on stag Hardy is used as a contrast to Stanhope.  Hardy has a very laissez-faire attitude to life in the trenches.  You can tell this because of his organization for example when he’s talking about how many boots there are in the trench he says ‘Oh no (there are) 25 right leg and 9 left leg, but everything’s down there’.  This shows not only very poorly organized but that he doesn’t seem to care.  He simply brushes off the fact that the boots are in a mess by saying ‘everything is down there’ as if it’s all okay, when it’s not.                                                                                  Then R.C Sheriff introduces Stanhope via the dialogue between Hardy and Osborne. They immediately start discussing his drinking problem, however Osborne still holds Stanhope in a very high regard despite this. When
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Hardy questions Stanhope’s position over his drinking, Osborne defends him ‘He is a long way the best company commander we’ve got’.  You are more inclined to see Stanhope from Osborne’s view because he seems the better natured character. Hardy is depicted as lazy and also quite gossipy.  This makes the audience think highly Stanhope before he is even introduced. The quote from Osborne about Stanhope ‘I love that fellow, I’d go to hell with him’ makes the audience even more eager to find out more about Stanhope, and to see why he is admired so much by Osborne.                                                                         Then the ...

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