Discuss ways in which Owen presents the experience of the soldier in “Disabled.”
As a war poet of the early 20th century, Wilfred Owen’s poems are poignant and expressive in their exploration of the experiences endured during the First World War. His poems are renowned for the unsympathetic and realistic way in which he depicted these experiences, effectively righting the misconceptions of war. In the poem “Disabled,” Owen encapsulates the life of a wounded ex-soldier, providing powerful, evocative imagery to illustrate both the physical and psychological repercussions of the war.
The experiences of the soldier are a recurring theme throughout the poem “Disabled.” Owen introduces this matter in the first line of the poem – “he sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark.” An immediate implication is that the man has been left wounded from his experiences in war. This idea is reinforced later, when Owen writes “legless, sewn short at elbow.” Both phrases depict images of an incapable and perhaps even powerless man, a vast and ironic contrast to the idea of power and capability largely associated with being a soldier. Additionally, “waiting for dark,” is a phrase not dissimilar to the line “why sit they here in twilight?” from Mental Cases. Both connect the concept of darkness with ex-soldiers, suggesting the end of their service and possibly the end of their usefulness. Alternatively, the darkness could represent the mental illnesses inflicted on the men. This sorrowful experience was perhaps included to evoke compassion from readers toward the veterans of the First World War, particularly those who were severely physically or psychologically affected. A contrast between the two lines is that whilst in “Disabled,” the word “waiting” gives the ex-soldier a semblance of purpose, in “Mental Cases,” the line is posed as a question, emphasising the purposelessness of the people.
