What is the effect of warfare on the characters and their relationships in "Journey's End?"

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What is the effect of warfare on the characters and their relationships in “Journey’s End?”

The First World War, what can you expect?  Dirty, horrible conditions, rat infested trenches, disinfected water, intense boredom and the repetition of machine guns viciously rattling in the distance.  These are the predicaments that the soldiers had to cope with in the deadly war.

Though there was a battle on between the Germans and the British, there was also an internal battle on within the characters as they fought to relieve their depression.

The trench conditions inside and outside was very bad in the war.  There was only a ‘narrow strip of starlight sky’ and a ‘pale shaft of sunlight’ outside the trenches.  The ‘intense darkness’ tell us that the soldiers were living in a very poor state.

The trench conditions affected the men in different ways.

Stanhope is the most affected soldier from the rest of the characters.  Although he has the best position that anybody could have, ‘The Company Commander of an Infantry Company,’ he has one problem, drinking.  To cope with the war, he turns to alcohol to relieve his depression, for one incident occurred when he arrived back to the ‘C’ Company, he had an ‘awful affair on Vimy Ridge,’ and so he knew he would ‘go mad if I didn’t break the strain. – I couldn’t bear being fully conscious all the time.’  This shows us that he can not live without alcohol.  It plays a major role in his lifestyle.

Stanhope was an eighteen-year-old who ‘commanded this company for a year.’  Now, he has been on the front line for ‘nearly three years,’ which tells us that he is a man of twenty-one.  This is also tells us that he is very experienced as he is ‘the best company commander.’  He is popular and an astute man who is willing to maintain his popularity to the rest of the officers.

Stanhope is a determined man who keeps his high expectations.  He demands his soldiers to fight their best so they ‘advance and win the war.’ Stanhope is so committed to his job that he has ‘never had a rest.’  Because he is so dedicated to his work, he ‘goes on sticking it, month in, month out.’  He never takes a break.  We see more evidence that Stanhope keeps his expectations high by refusing to sleep after Osborne tells him to.  In reply, Stanhope makes a comment, ‘Sleep!  Catch me wasting my time with sleep.’  As he continues with his lifestyle, he is stuck with the idea that he’ll die a hero if he can’t go home as a hero.

Although we have seen what good qualities Stanhope has, he has one problem that he always has to face, alcoholism.  He hides his feelings by drinking.  He claims to Hibbert that he feels ‘exactly the same’ as he does.  ‘I hate and loathe it all.’  He says that he could feel that he ‘could just lie down…and pretend I was paralysed…couldn’t move and just lie there till I died.’  

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The war has affected Stanhope mentally as well as physically. He hides his feelings by drinking and he is depressed that ever since he came to the line, he has seen his friends die, for there was ‘not a man left who was here when I came.’  His nerves are ‘battered to bits.’  To relieve this depression, he drinks ‘like a fish.’  He has temporarily forgotten about his appearance and is known as ‘a freak show.’  This is due to the loss of his self-respect.

Because Stanhope has a drinking problem, he fears that now Raleigh has joined ...

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