The relationship as we can see gets off to a bad start and eventually gets even worse.
Stanhope’s drink problem is one of the reasons for Stanhope’s change. He has been reduced to drink due to the long hours and immense pressure, ‘ you must remember he’s commanded this company for a long time – through all sorts of rotten times. It’s - it’s a big strain on a man’, Osborne (pg 13). Throughout the play he consumes large amounts of whisky, we see his urgency for drink in a number of cases. When Raleigh and Stanhope are reacquainted we see how Raleigh is unwanted by Stanhope, this is determined from the tone of Stanhope’s sentences, ie ‘ how did you – get here?’. And straight after Mason (the officers cook) brings in whisky and Stanhope suddenly comes to life, ‘ (with a sudden force gaiety) Come along, uncle! Come and sit here!’, (pg 18). More pressure falls on Stanhope when Raleigh arrives, Stanhope must now hide his drink problem (and therefore stop Raleigh from seeing what he has become), he fears Raleigh will tell his sister what he has become, ‘oh, for lords sake don’t be a damned fool. You know! You know he’ll write and tell (his sister) I reek of whisky all day’, and we later see this anger is released and shown in a second confrontation, which makes the relationship become more unstable. There is an evident change with Stanhope, he seems frustrated, stressed and much more short-fused than we imagined him, ‘ Hero-worship be dammed! You know uncle, im an awful fool. I’m a captain of a company. What’s that bloody little prig of a boy matter? D’you see? He’s a little prig. Wants to write home and tell Madge (Raleigh’s sister) about me. Censorship! I censor his letters – cross out all he says about me.’
The stress is clear, he uses words such as ‘ damned’ and ‘little prig’, even though he and Raleigh supposedly have a strong past and are very dear friends. Stanhope does not see himself as a hero anymore because he has become a drunk and so that’s why he despises Raleigh presence. But he is somewhat justified in his actions as it would be difficult for a person back home (ie Raleigh’s sister) to understand the real strains of war.
He fulfils his threat of censoring letters, Raleigh enters with his letter and Stanhope immediately tells Raleigh of his ‘censoring letters policy’ ie that Stanhope has to censor all letters (when infact he doesn’t, he is just checking that Raleigh is not telling his sister of any changes). The real anger within Stanhope is unleashed and the relationship takes a turn for the worse, and the stress within Stanhope, which he didn’t want Raleigh to witness, is shown and we find that there is no trust between them.
Stanhope repeatedly asks for the letter and Raleigh is young and inexperienced, he is lost for words as he confused by Stanhope’s sudden aggression and the scene becomes very tense. He doesn’t no what to say and doesn’t want Stanhope to read the letter (as it is private and as we later find out gives Stanhope lavish praise). Stanhope asks for the letter a number of times, getting ever hostile, ‘ Give me that letter’, ‘D’you understand an order, Give me that letter!’.
And Raleigh refuses, the confrontation is tense and Stanhope suddenly ‘clutches Raleigh’s hand and tears the letter from his hands’.
Raleigh is amazed by this and looks for sympathy as he is unsure what is happening to his ‘hero’, ‘ Dennis – im -’. Stanhope answers back by shouting, ‘ don’t “Dennis” me! Stanhope’s my name! You’re not at school! Go an inspect your rifles!’. This sudden outburst is what shows Stanhope’s true frustration and stress, we feel sorry for Raleigh as he is innocent, it must be heart breaking for Raleigh for his friend to say that to him and so there relationship heavily changes.
Eventually Osborne reads the letter out to Stanhope, and a strong sense of guilt kicks in. In Raleigh’s letter he writes how amazing Stanhope is, how he is considered the best and works ‘ so frightfully hard’. Raleigh says of how the ‘men love him’ and how ‘ awfully proud I am to be his friend’. This is a real blow to Stanhope, he feels a great amount of guilt, he knows he was in the wrong as Raleigh is only young and that he should be setting an example.
From that point onwards the relationship crumbles, the two do not readily converse. Raleigh wants to keep far away from Stanhope as he feels unwanted and he is confused. Instead he becomes more friendly with Osborne and the two converse and talk about home which makes them feel better and boosts their moral.
In act 2 scene 2 we learn of a raid taking place and how Osborne would be chosen for duty. But we also learn of the sergeant-majors idea to pick Raleigh to give him experience, even though there is a possibility that he may lose his life. And Stanhope reacts to this, he feels guilty with what happened over the letter fiasco and tries to talk the major out of it, ‘ his awfully new to this. It’s rotten to send a fellow who’s only just arrived’, this does show that Stanhope genuinely cares for young Raleigh, but ultimately Raleigh ad Osborne are chosen, along with ten men for the raid.
Stanhope tells both officers about the raid, Osborne is obviously disappointed, and Stanhope too as there was no guarantee of survival, ‘the colonel picked you to direct and Raleigh to dash in. I’m damn sorry’. Raleigh though is extremely excited, but he is young and does not know what he is in for.
During the build up to the raid the suspense is high, which is clever by R.C Sherriff, the audience hang on and are gripped, they don’t want to see young Raleigh die. Both officers are nervous and eventually make their way up, ‘ we must put up a good show’, says Raleigh enthusiastically.
‘Im very sorry. Poor Osborne!’.
The raid ultimately brings sadness, unfortunately Osborne is lost in the raid, and this bears toll on all the men, especially Stanhope as he has lost his best friend. This inevitably leads to another disagreement between Raleigh and Stanhope, just as it had looked liked the two would rebuild their relationship and work through Osborne’s death.
After having learnt of Osborne’s death, the men are grieving and once again drown their sorrows in alcohol and cigars. To Raleigh’s outrage the men wine and dine as if to celebrate, Raleigh is irritated by this, he asks Stanhope why he resents him being there, it is clear that Raleigh knows Stanhope has changed and that Stanhope has been reduced to whisky all day. Stanhope would obviously be unhappy about this as he would wanted to avoid this discovery, as it could jeopardise his relationship with Raleigh sister.
The men become extremely rowdy and do enjoy themselves, but this is only because they must go on with their lives and to forget about Osborne’s tragedy, Raleigh does not understand this.
Raleigh asks why Stanhope resent’s him being there, Stanhope in a frenzy tells Raleigh that he resents him being a ‘damn fool’ and to go and eat his dinner. We see the next part is critical in the relationship in which Raleigh questions Stanhope’s decency. We see that Stanhope reacts in fury and rage and his anger is once again dispensed.
Raleigh asks Stanhope how he can ‘ sit there an drink champagne and smoke cigars’, (pg 91) even though Osborne is lying out there. Stanhope is enraged, Raleigh is young and does not have the slightest clue and Stanhope reacts with anger as he tells Raleigh he must forget, ‘ to forget, you little fool – to forget! D’you understand? To forget, do you think there no limit to what a man can take’.
Stanhope is entitled to this act of rage, Raleigh does not understand as he is young and so feels bad after the event. Stanhope is tired, depressed and stressed and on top of that he has lost his ‘ best friend’, the only man he could ‘ talk to’, and so therefore he is emotionally shattered. It is a very tense and emotional scene as they try to discuss matters, but once again Stanhope’s wrath is released, but we can understand this outburst, Raleigh does not understand what Stanhope is going through.
Throughout the story we see how the relationship seems to crumble at every confrontation (between Raleigh and Stanhope). The relationship however ends on a much higher note, but a very distressing, heartbreaking one too.
In the final scene we see that the relationship ends on a high, and it does seem as if parts of their old friendship treacle through. At the start of the final scene, everything seems normal and calm, there is no tension and a sense of tranquillity. There is a clean, quiet atmosphere and the men, after a long night of drinking are enhanced, it seems as if they have moved on from Osborne’s fatal tragedy. But we still see signs of grieving – Stanhope rises stiffly from his bed, shudders from the cold, and slowly begins to put his equipment on.
It already seems that Raleigh and Stanhope have sorted out their situation and we do see signs of the relationship becoming more stable and like it was in those few years back at school,
Raleigh : ‘ Right. Cheero – Stanhope’.
Stanhope – Cheero, Raleigh. I shall be coming up soon.
There might still be hope for the two, but ultimately there is a miserable, heart-breaking ending, the ending is extremely emotional and very sad indeed.
After a passionate dispute with Trotter (another of the officers), Stanhope is about to make his way up into the boche, but suddenly there is huge shellfire. There is large thud and a sharp ‘crack’ of rifle grenades (onomatopoeia is used in the script). Abruptly the sergeant-major walks in and we hear about Raleigh’s predicament, ‘ Mr. Raleigh’s been ‘it, sir. Bit of shells got ‘im in the back’. This creates a sense of suspense and we also feel shocked, Stanhope shows his courage and asks for the stretch-bearers to bring him down, ‘ Yes! Down here- quickly!’, risking their lives against the heavy shell fire.
Raleigh is swiftly brought down and the tension mounts, the men cannot do anymore and we feel stunned. Stanhope looks at Raleigh and says, ‘ Well, Jimmy – (he smiles) – you got one quickly’, we start to see their friendship build and we begin to see the ‘old’ Stanhope. Raleigh enthusiastic as ever tries to quickly get up, ‘ something – hit me in the back – knocked me clean over – sort of – winded me – im alright now’.
There is a subtle, poignant mood as Stanhope tells Raleigh that the shellfire has ‘gone through’ ie that it has gone in quite a bit and so is fairly bad wound.
Raleigh : I say – Dennis
Stanhope: Yes, old boy?
Raleigh : It – hasn’t gone through, has it?
Stanhope : Its just gone through a bit, Jimmy.
This is very emotional, they call each other by their first name, so rank is not an issue, they once again talk as friends and we can now seem to understand why Raleigh was so excited about being in Stanhope’s regiment. Calling each other by heir names, ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Dennis’, shows us this friendship and it seems like they are once again good friends.
It is heart breaking as Stanhope knows Raleigh will die (dramatic irony) and the fact that Stanhope has been rotten to Raleigh makes this even worse. Stanhope feels guilty that he was so rotten to Raleigh and harsh on him, he finally realises that Raleigh is young and inexperienced and so feels the up most guilt. What makes matters worse for Stanhope is the fact that he was argumentative and terrible towards Raleigh, even though Raleigh is young and that Raleigh has only been in the regiment for a few days and already is about to lose his life. Stanhope has been there since the start of the war, while Raleigh only a few days and Stanhope has some how survived, while Raleigh is about to die, Stanhope would prefer it to be him.
Slowly and painfully Raleigh becomes whiter and fades away from Stanhope, ‘ Could we have a light? It’s – it’s so frightfully dark and cold’. Stanhope fetches a blanket and comes back to Raleigh, Raleigh is inactive and Stanhope takes his and there is a long silence……
Stanhope is called by a soldier, a bravely battles through all his emotions and goes back into action, even though he has just lost a young friend, this shows his commitment and there the story ends.
The relationship between Raleigh and Stanhope is ever changing, at first we assumed the relationship would go well, considering that Raleigh and Stanhope had been long friends. But then the relationship takes a twist and breaks down, this is mainly due to Stanhope. Stanhope is seen as hard working and intelligent, as well as being under pressure. The war as we can see has evidently changed Stanhope and so he turns to drink, and from then on Stanhope is never the same and Raleigh cannot have the same bond, which they shared back in England.
We see the relationship gets worse and worse as Stanhope feels under pressure to look after young Raleigh and fears Raleigh will tell his sister what he has become. We see many outbursts by Stanhope, mainly when Stanhope supposedly has to censor the letters and also when Osborne dies. The relationship is never as strong as its used to be, and the moment Stanhope sees Raleigh, we notice this change.
But in the emotional end, the relationship does end on a high note, Raleigh’s imminent death is extremely sad and makes Stanhope realise what a fool he has been. Stanhope feels guilty and we see how they call each other by their first names , ‘ Jimmy ’ and ‘ Dennis’. And in the end they do restore some of what they used to had and so we can conclude that the relationship did improve at the end, it seems as if it where old times once again as they call each other by their first names.