We also studied Blackadder – briefly. I really enjoyed it. Blackadder was so amusing yet so meaningful. For example, one minute it would be humorous and the next minute it would swing to being deadly serious. Baldrick always brought nervous humour to the scene, while Blackadder would always entertain everyone with his blunt, sarcastic jokes and dry wit. Lieutenant George Barleigh always made the scenes more down to earth and realistic with his enthusiasm, ignorance and lack of pessimism. Blackadder Goes Forth really put the war into perspective – the bad conditions, lack of basic living essentials and the trauma the soldiers had to undergo. I really enjoyed Blackadder – it did seem real and convincing.
What I found was the most interesting was Journey’s End. Out of all the different aspects we studied based on World War One, I thought the highlight was Journey’s End. It really showed me what the war was like as much as it could, and R.C. Sherriff added humour too – so it wasn’t just boring fact after fact. Journey’s End contained close friendships between the men – for example when Stanhope talks about Osbourne to Raleigh (“the one man I could trust – my best friend – the one man I could talk to as man to man – the one man who understood everything – and you don’t think I care?”) and when Stanhope talks to Hibbert after Hibbert breaks down and tries to desert them: “shall we go on together? We know how we both feel now. Shall we see if we can stick it together?” Friendships were so important at that time – without friendships and relationships, the men had nothing.
The play included many instances of cowardice, too – mainly with Hibbert – “This neuralgia of mine. I’m awfully sorry. I’m afraid I can’t stick it any longer”. Also, when Hibbert tries to desert them, but Stanhope won’t have any of it… – “I’ve seen the doctor this morning. He won’t send you to hospital, Hibbert; he’ll send you back here. He promised me this morning. So you can save yourself a walk.”
On the contrary, the play also showed many instances of fear: “I reckon that raid shook ‘im up more’n we thought. ‘Es got pluck.” That was when Raleigh had come back from the raid and he was suffering from shell shock.
There is a poem, written by Siegfried Sassoon called ‘The Hero.’ This poem describes Hibbert in every detail. “He thought how ‘Jack’, cold-footed, useless swine, Had panicked down the trench that night the mine, Went up at Wicked Corner, how he’d tried, To get sent home, and how, at last, he died, blown to small bits.” It basically describes how a soldier got shot for attempting to desert them, but they couldn’t tell his mother that. They told her, instead, that he had died bravely, fighting for his country. This was all lies of course.
Heroism is also showed in different ways – for example, when Osbourne is being brave and heroic about the raid, talking to Raleigh just before as if everything was okay, not telling him it was death – just staying neutral and being enthusiastic, despite his nerves. Another example of heroism is when Osbourne and Stanhope are talking about Raleigh, and how “small boys at school generally have their heroes.” This goes onto how Raleigh ‘hero-worships’ Stanhope and how he must’ve pushed his way into Stanhope’s company (which Stanhope is not too happy about.)
Especially Hibbert showed the bad conditions of trenches too. “I can’t bear to go into those awful trenches again!” This was when he was complaining to Stanhope, and when Stanhope confessed his feelings too to Hibbert.
The play shows comradeship, too. When Hibbert is trying to get past Stanhope who’s refusing to let him go, Stanhope says to Hibbert, “If you went – and left Osbourne and Trotter and Raleigh and all those men up there to do your work – could you ever look a man straight in the face again – in all your life?”
Journey’s End really does emphasis the horrors of war. The unbearable silence, the lack of warmth and the purely terrifying experience of being in the war were really shown brilliantly in Journey’s End. For example when Stanhope says, “I was looking across at the Boche trenches and right beyond – not a sound or a soul; just an enormous plain, all churned up. You could’ve heard a pin drop in the quiet; yet you know thousands of guns were hidden there, all ready cleaned and oiled – millions of bullets lying in pouches – thousands of Germans, waiting and thinking.”
Some of the characters in Journey’s End even matched some of the characters from Blackadder. Just to name a few, there was Baldrick – who was similar to Mason in Journey’s End. In Blackadder, Captain Blackadder tried to get out of going through with the big push – similarly to Hibbert, in Journey’s End. Raleigh, in Journey’s End, at the beginning, was enthusiastic and naïve. This is similar George in Blackadder. The soldiers share the same characteristics, but they are different in other aspects, too.
Journey’s End guided us through the worst times (the daytime raid, the big push), the best times (the special meals, the friendships). It took us through the hard times (grieving for Osborne’s death) and the great times (the stories of their families, homes and past).
Journey’s End impressed me most about the war and I loved it. The play was light-hearted at times, but heavy and sad at other times. The play was a contrast of serious and humorous, interesting and educational. R.C. Sherriff spoke out of experience and he really knew what he was talking about – because he fought in the war himself. The interesting thing about Journey’s End was that no one had written about the horrors of war in such detail before, R.C. Sherriff was the first one to come clean and reveal what really happened during the war.
Journey’s End was so brilliant it’s hard to phrase it in any other way. I found that after studying Journey’s End, the Great War was much more convincing and it seemed more real. The play, especially the last scene, was incredibly heart-rending and effective.
Bibliography
“Journey’s End” – R.C. Sherriff, 1929
“Blackadder Goes Forth” – Final episode
References to “The Hero” – Siegfried Sassoon, 1886 – 1967
References to Tyne Cot, Ypres