Until Act 3 Scene 1 not much has happened, this scene sees a dramatic build up of action-particularly towards the raid. Many things happen towards the raid to make it dramatic for example the way the characters act and the dialogue between them. One example of this is at the beginning of Act 3 Scene 1 where Stanhope becomes restless, “Stanhope is alone, wandering to and fro across the dug-out…he looks anxiously at his watch”. This stage direction indicates to the audience that Stanhope is anxious and worried. Sheriff shows action and explores the horrors of war by conveying gun fire and explosions. “Then, suddenly, there comes the dull ‘crush’ of bursting smoke bombs, followed in a second by a vicious rattle of machine-guns. The red and green glow of German alarm rockets comes faintly through the dug-out door. Then comes the thin whistle and crash of falling shells; first one by itself, then two, almost together.” Apart from the raid there is a lot of action and confusion. The pace is varied to build up tension, this is shown when the noise of the shell dies away and the pause between each crash of a shell increases, “Gradually the noise dies away-there is a longer pause between the crash of each bursting shell.” In this scene the action is different to previous scenes and its also delayed to keep the audience guessing. Also the action is presented using stage directions-during the raid, this is effective because it explains to the audience what was actually happening during the raid.
The setting of Act 3 Scene 1 creates a tense atmosphere as they are going into no mans land and they don’t know what’s going to happen. The raid takes place at sunset; this is a clever time chosen by the S.M as the Germans may not expect a raid to occur. In this scene the setting is different in terms of time and place from previous scenes.
In this scene characters show signs of fear, hesitation and anxiousness-this is different from previous scenes. These are shown at the beginning of the scene and when Stanhope reveals that Osborne is dead, “Stanhope is alone, wandering to and fro across the dug-out…he looks anxiously at his watch” and “Oh I say, I’m sorry! That’s-er-six men and-er-Osborne? Yes,sir.” Also in this scene characters reveal certain emotions to increase dramatic impact, such as when Raleigh sits on Osborne’s bed,” Must you sit on Osborne’s bed?...RALEIGH rises unsteadily, murmurs ‘sorry’ and stands with lowered head.” This shows that Stanhope is angry with Osborne’s death and takes some of it out on Raleigh. Stanhope shows sarcasm to express how he feels, “Still it’ll be awfully nice if the brigadier’s pleased.” He thinks that the brigadier will be pleased with the raid despite Osborne’s death.
In Act 3 Scene 1 Sheriff explores themes which the soldiers had back home. Themes such as facility, social days and humour were all the things they had at home. One of the horrors of war is when the soldiers left their personal items behind, they did not expect to survive-they were prepared for death. Sheriff explores this through the characters, for example when Osborne dies he leaves behind his watch and ring which remind Stanhope of Osborne. I think that the themes do make the scene dramatic.
The play is structured well and there is a gradual build up of tension. Time is a major issue in wars and Sheriff uses it wisely and effectively. He does not rush straight into action because he wants the audience to know how the soldiers felt in the war and he conveys this through dialogue so that’s why the pace through the play is mainly slow. Just before the raid the pace builds up gradually and after the raid the pace does not drop down to what it was like in previous scenes but there is a decrease. The scene is divided up into three parts-before the raid, during the raid and after the raid. I think that it’s important for the scene to be put in this overall place in the play because the pace becomes to slow and there is no action to increase tension therefore its overall place enables it to do this.
In this scene Sheriff uses language to make the scene dramatic and explore the horrors of war. One horror of war which he explores using language is trying not to think of the horrors, “And now let’s forget all about it for-(he looks at his watch)-for six minutes.” This is when Raleigh and Osborne were talking about the raid and they think the best thing to do would be to forget about the raid.
Sheriff’s attitude to war was that it was a hard-fought war and the soldiers struggled. At first others attitudes to war would be that it was a battle for four years and then they stopped the war at Christmas but now they will understand how the soldiers felt whilst fighting in World War 1.
Act 3 Scene 1 is dramatic because it for the first time there is action. Sheriff explores the horrors of war in a number of ways through action, character and setting. I feel this scene gives the audience a greater understanding of what the war was about. This play/scene is still relevant today because it explores the horrors of war and shows us how the soldiers felt during the war.