Stanhope is the company leader whose three years at the front line have turned him into a hard, cynical man who drinks heavily. His drinking has left him nervous and exhausted, dramatising the stresses of war. Sherriff focuses on Stanhope's character to show the effect war has on people and how it can change them. At the end of the play Stanhope's character is seen as completely defeated as ‘the solitary candle flame throws up the lines on his pale face...as he stares listlessly at Raleigh's body’ such an image the effects war has as it has completely defeated Stanhope and the adverb ‘listlessly’ emphasises this. Sherriff allows deep internalisation of Stanhope's character in his last moments, as he is alone which creates extreme pathos from the audience.
As the end of Raleigh's life nears, Sherriff makes the ending of the play more moving for the audience as he tries to focus on the rekindling of Stanhope's and Raleigh's relationship and their human need for each other during. The rekindling of their relationship begins when Stanhope bathes Raleigh's faces with a cloth showing the military protocol has been removed as it now about allowing Raleigh to survive. Stanhope knows that Raleigh might die but he does not know what to do to help as he begins lose hope. The water he uses to bathe Raleigh's face can be symbolic for cleansing and healing, something that Stanhope and Raleigh need to help mend their broken relationship. It could also be seen in a religious perspective as it could represent another baptism for Raleigh as it prepares him for his next life. The audience would feel extremely moved by this gesture as it shows a sense of protection and love from Stanhope. After realising Raleigh is dead, Stanhope gently takes his hand showing how their relationship has grown. However, it is all the more tragic as it’s too late now as Raleigh is dead. The intimacy in this scene would move the audience.
Sherriff uses stage images to represent the futility of war and its effects. The first significant and immensely moving image that the audience are presented with is when the sergeant major comes down the stairs ‘carrying Raleigh like a child in his huge arms’ as it shows Raleigh's vulnerability and fallibility and the simile ‘like a child’ accentuates this. The stage image can also be hugely ironic as it was Raleigh's decision to be in the war but by doing so he has killed himself, angering the audience as he is so young. Furthermore, they would feel sympathy for him as he seems so vulnerable making them realise the devastating effect war has on the men involved. The sergeant major then places Raleigh on Osborne’s bed and looks furtively at his palms and wipes the blood as if dismissing Raleigh, as he knows that it’s a child's blood he has on his hands. It seems it will remain on his conscious, intensifying the tragedy of Raleigh's soon to be death within the audience as they also feel shocked by his injury. As the ending of the play approaches, Sherriff uses a final stage image to depersonalise Stanhope as he ‘stiffly goes up the stairs of the trenches, his tall figure black against the dawn sky’ depersonalising Stanhope and shows how he has just become another soldier in the war on their own personal quest. Sherriff’s depersonalising of Stanhope breaks the bond that the audience have felt with him as they begin to feel detached from him and realised they are powerless to help him.
The dialogue Sherriff uses during the end of the play focuses mostly on the rejuvenating of Raleigh's and Stanhope's relationship but also to focus on Raleigh's last moments. When Stanhope realises the enormity of Raleigh's injury he orders the sergeant major to ‘go at once and bring two me with a stretcher’ revealing how he used use his authority against Raleigh but now he is helping him. Sherriff allows the internalisation Stanhope and as a result the audience would feel uneasy as they empathize with his desperation. As the two begin to converse, there are many silences and pauses between their dialogues which highlights the distance between the two of them. Furthermore, it shows how there no words to articulate during the situation, its almost impossible. The audience would feel the awkward silence between them, making them uncomfortable. Stanhope tries to protect Raleigh as he tries to ease his transition into death as he says to him that ‘it’s just gone through a bit jimmy’. The euphemism shows how he tries to lessen Raleigh's anxiety. Dramatic irony is also evident as Raleigh is going to die yet Raleigh is unaware, creating pathos within the audience as they feel sympathy for both Stanhope who seeks to protect Raleigh Raleigh. Just before Raleigh dies he asked Stanhope for ‘a light’ as he feels that ‘it’s frightfully dark and cold’. This symbolises Raleigh's fear of death as the light dims. Light is commonly referred to as a symbol of life and as it slowly dims it shows Raleigh's life slipping slowly away. The audience would soon anticipate the worst as his condition worsens, reinforcing the futility of war yet again.
During the ending of Journeys End, Sherriff manipulates the lighting to reflect what's going on in the war outside the trenches. Whilst Raleigh and Stanhope are rekindling their relationship within the trenches the lights begin to glow a ‘very faint rose’ in the dawn sky representing the amount of blood that is being lost during the war. As the play a progresses, the faint rosy glow of the dawn sky deepens into an angry red reflecting the culminating and never ending bloodshed during the war. The personifying adjective ‘angry’ increases the intensity of the colour and the atmosphere it creates distressing the audience as it allows them to reflect on the colossal amount of blood lost, making the ending of the play more dramatic.
Sherriff uses noises off to make the ending of the play more dramatic and intense. ‘The thudding of the shells rises and falls like an angry sea’ making the war and the loss of life feel more realistic, allowing the audience to feel apart of the war. Although as Stanhope grieves the noises off increase as they mirror the increasing tension and impending death of Stanhope as it leads to a more dramatic and moving ending. Sherriff makes the ending of the play extremely poignant as the final noises the audience hear are a very faint and dull rattle of machine guns and the fevered spatter of rifle fire signalling the end of the play and possibly Stanhope's life causing sadness throughout the audience.
The setting of the play is a realistic construction of the trenches. Sherriff only focuses on one trench to try and portray a realistic picture of trench life. He creates an intensely dramatic ending by using the setting of stage as ‘a shell bursts on the dugout roof, stabbing out the candle flame’ and ‘allowing the timber props of the roof to cave in slowly, sandbags fall and block the passage to the open air, leaving no way out or in’. The slow tumble of the sandbags as they enclose Raleigh’s dead body within the trenches can represent the slow suffering in which the soldiers have to go through as they await their death. As Raleigh’s body has been confined inside the dug out, the trench becomes more of a tomb for him as he has been buried within the wreckage just as Jesus was put in the tomb after he died. It almost pictures Raleigh as a sacrifice for war.
In conclusion, Sherriff makes the ending of the play more dramatic and moving for the audience by cleverly manipulating the different staging techniques. By doing this he has made the setting and the language so authentic that it makes the audience feel apart of the play. Although he not intend it to be an anti war play, the ending has made people perceive otherwise. It is a mature representation of trench warfare as it captivates the audience leaving them with a nationalistic pride but with a weary uneasiness about war.