This shows that he doesn’t trust women and Americans with them.
All of the characters are stereotypical and he is automatically disliked from the beginning by being a classic person from London: loud, arrogant and immature.
The audience become more familiar with Bamforth through his interactions with the other characters in the patrol. They are bored and isolated and therefore have a lot of time to talk. Bamforth is disliked by most of the characters apart from Evans. He jokes with Evans and is very friendly with him. The audience know this because they have a joke argument and a play fight. Evans defends Bamforth when he is being unfairly treated. He has a problem with authority because he doesn’t treat Macleish with the respect all the other characters have for him.
“All corps are bastards”
This illustrates his immaturity because he refuses to acknowledge the fact that Macleish has been given charge of the rest of the group ands will not show the respect required of him towards a superior officer. Bamforth does not see the need to treat Macleish with respect just because he is responsible for the troop. Because they started off on an equal basis, Bamforth does not believe he needs to treat Macleish any differently to before.
Bamforth is racist towards everyone he comes across and this would make the audience disrespect the character.
“Scotch haggis”
“You ugly foreigner”
“Cardiff creep”
Because of his behaviour, the audience will have already formed strong opinions about Bamforth. They will think that he is immature, arrogant, and sarcastic. This is because he doesn’t get on with the people in a different rank to him like Macleish and he is very sarcastic towards everyone.
When the Japanese soldier arrives at the hut, Bamforth is the only person to step forward to kill him. All the other characters refuse to murder the soldier including Macleish. This would come as a surprise to the audience as it shows that when it comes to killing, the rest of the patrol hasn’t the courage. This is ironic because they are all in war conditions but the troop refuse to kill the prisoner.
“Here. Give me a hold. It’s only the same as carving up a pig. Hold him still”
When Bamforth starts to attempt to kill the prisoner, he unfairly gets into trouble when Mitchem stops Bamforth. This makes the audience feel sympathy for Bamforth because he got into trouble by only doing what he was supposed to do in war conditions. This part of the scene shows Bamforth’s courage. Because of this, the Japanese soldier is a dramatic device in the play. The audience may be beginning to change their views on Bamforth at this point because Bamforth’s personality is being shown differently: brave and strong.
Bamforth is now given the job of looking after the Japanese soldier. This gives him the responsibility that he needs. Whilst looking after him, he ridicules the prisoner’s accent.
“Flingers up on blonce”
“Touch the loof”
Even though he makes fun of him, Bamforth is kind to the soldier. He offers him a cigarette and makes sure he is given rights from the rest of the troop.
“I don’t ask you before I give a bloke a fag”
This shows he feels he doesn’t need to justify his actions, which is why he protects the soldier. This is after Johnstone knocks the cigarette out of the soldier’s mouth. Bamforth doesn’t think that it is right that he treats the soldier like this so he defends him. This makes the audience respect the character more because Bamforth isn’t afraid to defend his opinions.
Bamforth and the soldier communicate by pointing. The soldier finds a friend in Bamforth and wants to share things with him. He points to his pocket to show Bamforth some photos.
Bamforth found out from the Japanese soldier that he has a wife and three children, one who is a baby. This makes Bamforth realise that he is in the same situation as anyone else in the war. Bamforth is now made to look at the war from a different perspective.
In Act 2, Mitchem and Macleish are considering killing the Japanese soldier. This is because Whitaker hears that the radio, instead of getting through to the English camp, they got through to the Japanese camp. This meant that the Japanese weren’t far away. If they left the prisoner in the camp where they were staying, Mitchem was afraid that the prisoner would tell the other soldiers where they were heading. If they took him with them, the soldier would hold them up. Bamforth is unaware of what Mitchem is planning and thinks they are going to take the prisoner with them. He begins to realise the situation when Mitchem says they haven’t enough drink for the soldier. Only then does he find out that they aren’t taking him with them and that Mitchem is planning to kill the soldier. Bamforth then shows his opposition by protecting the soldier from Mitchem. By this time, the Japanese soldiers are coming to get the troop. Mitchem tries to kill the soldier but Bamforth stands in the way. This shows bravery, as he was willing to die for what he believes in. This gains the character more admiration from the audience. This is ironic because he was the only one who was willing to kill him at the beginning and now he was standing up to protect him. He argued about the prisoner with Mitchem for several minutes and wouldn’t move out of his way. This gave the Japanese time to attack.
In the end, the Japanese troops kill all of them. The audience are left wanting questions answered.
Is Bamforth wrong to defend the soldier and stand in Mitchem’s way? I think he was right in standing in his way because he was standing up for what he believed was right and he was protecting someone who he obviously cared about.
Who is responsible for the Japanese catching them? I think that Mitchem and Bamforth are responsible in some way. Firstly, if they were going to kill the soldier initially, they should have done it at the beginning rather than after Bamforth has got to know him. Secondly, Bamforth is responsible as well because as they are in war conditions, they have to make sacrifices to save their own lives.
In the end, the writer leaves the audience thinking that Bamforth was brave and decent.