In 'Journey's End', R. C. Sherriff presents a highly convincing and effective picture of the horrors of life in the trenches in World War 1.

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In ‘Journey’s End’, R. C. Sherriff presents a highly convincing and effective picture of the horrors of life in the trenches in World War 1.

Contents:

Introduction:

  An introduction to R.C.Sherriff and to World War 1 and what life was really like in the trenches.

About ‘Journey’s End’:

  Information as to where, when and why Journey’s End was first produced on stage, and who played the characters in the original.

Differences between the original ‘Journey’s End’ and the 1995 BBC production:

   Finding differences with the original play and the 1995 BBC production and exploring how different effects would have been created, and whether there are any script / stage direction differences between the two.

The message of ‘Journey’s End’:

   Finding how R.C.Sherriff intended us to interpret ‘Journey’s End’ and what he meant the play to mean.

Bibliography

Introduction:

The First World War was a time of trauma and devastation.  Many lives were lost, and in his play, ‘Journey’s End’, R.C.Sherriff tries to effectively portray the havoc that World War I wreaked.

R.C.Sherriff

Robert Cedric Sherriff was born in 1896 and was educated at Kingston Grammar School primarily, until he moved to New College, Oxford.  After completing his education, R.C.Sherriff entered his fathers insurance business.

Shortly after the outbreak of the war, R.C.Sherriff joined the British army as a captain in the East Surrey regiment.  To be a captain, you must attend a public school. The first time R.C.Sherriff applied for enlistment in the army as a captain, he was refused, for his school was not on the list of acceptable public schools, however, when people started to die, and captains were becoming scarce, R.C.Sherriff was accepted into the role of captain.

During the war, R.C.Sherriff made himself a book of ‘memoirs’ about his life in the trenches.  These memoirs eventually (about eight years later) became the basis for R.C.Sherriff’s first play, ‘Journey’s End’.

After the war, R.C.Sherriff continued working for his father’s business for several years as a claims adjuster. It was because of an interest in amateur theatricals amongst other reasons that R.C.Sherriff decided to try his hand at writing.  After many rejections, ‘Journey’s End’ was given a single Sunday evening performance by The Incorporated Stage Society, an amateur theatre company, in 1928. In ‘Journey’s End’ debut performance, Laurence Olivier played Stanhope.  The performance went so well; that G.B.Shaw was adamant that ‘Journey’s End’ should be performed at the Savoy Theatre, London.  The play was such a success that from being given a single Sunday evening performance, it went to become an International success and gave over 600 performances over the period of two years, and tickets had to be booked months in advance. The success of ‘Journey’s End’ enabled R.C.Sherriff to become a full time writer where he wrote other hits, such as: ‘Badger’s Green’, ‘Windfall’, ‘St. Helena’, ‘Miss Mabel’, ‘Home at Seven’, ‘The White Carnation’, and ‘The Long Sunset’.  R.C.Sherriff also wrote screenplays such as ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘Goodbye Mr. Chips’, ‘The Four Feathers’, ‘Lady Hamilton’, ‘Odd Man Out’, ‘Quartet’, ‘No Highway’ and ‘The Dam Busters’.  An autobiography was published in 1968, called ‘No Leading Lady’

After many years of writing, R.C.Sherriff finally passed away in 1975 at the age of 79.

World War I

The First World War was triggered on June 28th, 1914, when Serb, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the heir to the throne of Austria-hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  

Austria-hungary blamed Serbia and declared war, Russia said they would defend Serbia, while Germans told Russia not to defend Serbia, but Russia refused Germany, so the Germans declared war on Russia.  Germany started moving its army towards France, so France put out a warning that Germany may invade. Germany then declares war on France, and invades Belgium. Britain orders Germany to retreat from Belgium, but the Germans refused, so Britain declared war on the Germans. Austria-hungary then declares war on Russia.  Britain and Germany had other, non – European, countries in their empires, which were also brought into the war, which turned the war into a bitter battle where people of all nations were killed.

Join now!

To start off with, people believe that they would be fighting the glorious war, which would last no longer than Christmas 1914.  When recruiting stations opened in Britain, men came flooding in to join the army because they believed they were fighting for King and country, and that the war would be over so quickly that if they did not join up straight away, they would miss their chance to be part of the glorious cause.  

Christmas 1914 came and the war was still being fought ferociously with no sign of it coming to an end. Many ...

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