Life in the trenches could be boring. Hardy describes having earwig races. He even had a special tip to make them go faster, ‘dip it in whisky - makes ‘em go like hell!’
Trotter decided to ‘draw a hundred and forty-four little circles on a bit o’ paper’ and every hour he was to shade one in till the six days were over. This was to pass the time quicker because a hundred and forty-four hours sounded shorter than six days. However, they realised that the big German attack would occur during their six days and Stanhope wanted to draw Trotter being blown up next to that particular circle. So although it could be boring, waiting for the attack was also very stressful.
Before the raid and the German attack, Sherriff showed the stress of waiting. Osborne and Raleigh tried to talk of other things whilst they watched their watches tick off the minutes. Their talk was of no significance and showed their nervousness.
Sherriff wrote about the food and how poor it was in quality. There are many references to the quality of the food, ranging from tea tasting of onions because it had been made in the stew pot, to yellow soup made from unknown ingredients. The bacon Mason cooked had very little lean in it, and the cutlets could not be cut.
The food was not that bad all the time but Mason, the cook, tried very hard to keep the soldiers happy. Mason has become a cook because he was not so keen on fighting but was told he had to stay at the front line. Mason did a few things wrong throughout the play, including not getting the pepper as he had not been supplied with any when the supplies box was filled. It was not his fault though Stanhope blamed him, as he should have checked everything was there. Pepper was used as a ‘disinfectant’.
The officers drank whisky as this helped them to cope with the stress and before attacks the soldiers were offered rum as a source of ‘Dutch Courage’.
The quantity of food for the officers was not as poor as the quality. For dinner they ate soup then a main course, normally meat, and a dessert followed by coffee. Indeed, Trotter had put on weight since he had been at the front and his uniform no longer fitted.
The food for the basic soldiers was not of the same quality or quantity. When the soldiers had dinner they had bread and cheese. When talking about the soldiers rations, Stanhope mentioned that ‘there’s barely enough for each man’.
So the living conditions for the officers were very poor and this in itself was horrible. Although during the play we do not see the conditions in which the soldiers are living, we are made aware that they are very much worse.
The officers considered themselves to be considerably higher in social class than everyone else and that they deserved the best treatment even though they were in the front line as well as the soldiers.
The officers had servants for them all the time, such as Mason. They were from the educated upper classes and so became officers. Even at the front line the class system was apparent in that the officers had better conditions that the other soldiers. Stanhope was particularly annoyed with Raleigh when he took his tea with the ‘men’ as he considered that officers and men should not mix. This reflected class system in Britain at the time, where the classes ‘knew their place’.
Although it could be boring just waiting for the German’s to attack, the waiting was very stressful. The war affected all five officers and the different characters coped with the war and conditions in different ways.
Stanhope was the company commander and drank whisky to help cope with the pressures. Osbourne respected Stanhope ‘because he’s stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits’, but not for his drinking habits. Stanhope was very highly regarded by other officers and was said ‘to never sleep’. This was probably because he could not sleep without the aid of whisky because he was so scared.
Stanhope had been at the front for nearly three years and was aware that he may not be alive for much longer. He said to Osborne that ‘There’s not a man left who was here when I came’. He has seen all those men and officers die or go home.
During Act 1 Stanhope talked to Osborne about how much he had changed since being in the war. Stanhope was in love with Raleigh’s sister, Madge, and did not want Raleigh to find out what he had become in case ‘he’ll write and tell her I reek of whisky all day’. Stanhope could not bear that because the thought of Madge was the only thing keeping him sane. He said to Osborne ‘She doesn’t know that if I went up those steps into the front line - without being doped with whisky - I’d go mad with fright’. Stanhope met Raleigh’s sister when he was staying around at Raleigh’s house on one occasion and he was attracted to her.
Stanhope believed that every one should do their duty on the front line and was very angry at the way Hibbert tried to escape from the front line by saying he had ‘neuralgia’. He calls Hibbert ‘Another little worm trying to wiggle home’.
Osborne was a calm man who was not obviously affected by the horrors of war. He had ‘a fine head, with close - cropped, iron - grey hair’. He looked about forty-five - physically as hard as nails’ (stage directions in Act 1). He was second in command behind Stanhope and was nickname of ‘Uncle’ because he was so kind and supportive to the others. He seemed very level headed and because of this he was chosen to go on the raid of the German front lines to take a hostage for questioning about the date of the big raid.
Trotter was a keen gardener and was patriotic. He planted red, white and blue flowers in his front garden. One of his favourite things to do was to light up a pipe and walk around his garden bare foot and enjoy the plants and their colours.
All the officers thought of home fondly. They discussed girlfriends and wives and this enables the audience to relate to the men as real people rather than just soldiers. This highlights the horror that these soldiers were just like the audience’s own relatives. The play also shows the Germans to be human. Osborne talked of an occasion when the Germans allowed them to carry a man to safety but then went on to say ‘Next day we blew each other’s trenches to blazes’. All the soldiers and officers were aware that humans were killing humans and that to their commanders they were nothing but numbers.
Hibbert did not drown reality in whisky like Stanhope; he tried to get sent home. He claimed to have ‘neuralgia’, which is an infection at the back of the eye that could not be treated in 1918. Hibbert wanted sick leave from the front but Stanhope stood in his way. He threatened to shoot Hibbert, but Hibbert then fought back and struck Stanhope. Striking an officer was an offence that could be punished with death. Stanhope threatened to shoot him there and then or to have him shot as a deserter. Finally Hibbert broke down and Stanhope revealed that he felt as scared as Hibbert, but they all have to handle difficult situations in their own way.
Hibbert was a rather self-centred man. He did not often think about any of the others in the play but only thought about food. After Osborne’s death he revealed to the others, while drunk, that he thought he was a bit of a ladies’ man.
Raleigh was about eighteen and new to the trenches. He knew Stanhope; he was hero from school and worshipped him greatly. Raleigh felt very honoured to know Stanhope. Osborne had to warn him that he would notice a difference in Stanhope. This helps to portray how the war changed people.
Raleigh was chosen to go on the raid with Osborne and was excited by the prospect. On the other hand, the more experienced Osborne knew he could die and so he left behind his ring and other personal effects. When Osborne died on the raid by a hand grenade, all the officers except Raleigh ate dinner afterwards and tried to talk about other things. Raleigh did not think they cared about Osborne and ate with the soldiers. However, Stanhope told him that they did all care deeply but they all have their own ways of coping with it. This was Raleigh’s first experience of death and he found it very hard to accept. He is portrayed returning from the raid and his first encounter with death as ‘walking as though he were asleep’. The audience can see the profound effect the horror has had on him.
During the German raid Raleigh then was hit in the back and dies on stage. He still seemed innocent even when he is dying as he compares the injury to one he received playing rugby, he did not know he was dying. Stanhope had to watch him die, knowing he would later have to explain to his girlfriend how her brother came to die whilst in his care. After he died the shelter in the trench collapsed on him and the final part of the play is a description of ‘darkness in the dugout’(stage directions in Act 3 Scene 3).
Sherriff incorporated several stage affects into the play that helps to give the audience a sense of the dangers of the front line. Explosions are heard, as are calls for stretcher-bearers. During the raid, explosions are followed by earth coming down the stairs of the dugouts, giving the audience a feel for how close the action was to the dugout. The German front lines were only 70 yards away, ‘the breadth of a rugger pitch’.
During the scene with the raid to capture some ‘Bosh’, Sherriff finds it hard to act out the scene well. Drama can be shown during a film but there are limits in a staged play to what can be affected. Only a certain area of stage can be used and the weather and scale of fighting cannot be shown on a little stage.
The entire British raid was described by stage directions. When performing this, lights flashing and loud speakers making background noise could produce a good effect. Large fans, water hoses above the stage and more lights, can be used to obtain the weather effects.
I thought that this play conveyed the horrors of war very realistically and I can understand why some people in 1928 did not want to be reminded of it. Sherriff uses of the stage effects, difference characters, tension before the raid and attack and the death of two characters show the true horrors of the First War World. Sherriff also portrays the fact that these were just ordinary people living in appalling conditions sometimes for years, and how these stresses affect them. This and the fact that the play is set in the dugout enables the audience to get a sense of what it must have been like.
