What strikes you straight away is that Stanhope is also captain of a regiment, giving the instant impression the author writes from experience. He interprets Stanhope as a alcoholic as he copes with the stresses of the war. Drinking is his way of forgetting about the war, and gives him the strength to go out on the front line to fight. In a discussion between Osborne and Hardy in Act One, Scene One, Osborne describes Stanhope’s drinking as being as cruel but entertaining as ‘bearbaiting or cock fighting’. In a later scene, Stanhope asks to be tucked in by Osborne, showing his weak side, the side he fears people see in him. As the play progresses, these suspicions of Stanhope’s fear come out during an argument with Hibbert. While shouting at him, we learn Stanhope is scared every waking moment. He is only being harsh because he knows he feels the same as Hibbert, but they have to be strong.
For when Hibbert is first introduced, he is complaining about neuralgia. He is desperate to go home but he finally admits to Stanhope that he is just scared. His stress is demonstrated thought lies, as Stanhope’s is by drinking. These two men are the only ones who show a major reaction to the stress. Others, such as Trotter and Osborne seem less fazed, and rather laid back. Osborne is called by many of the men ’Uncle’ as he is a much older than them, but also as he acts like the parent looking after the newbie’s, such as Raleigh. To be honest, he appears to be calm most of the play, even before the raid that takes his life. As the oldest member of the regiment, you assume this is the reason he is so laidback, although that probably isn’t the truth. Comforting the other men may be a way of keeping himself distracted from his own fears.
Even thought the men are in a war, that rarely comes up in conversation. They mostly talk about food, or their home lives. At the celebration after the successful raid, they are discussing women, completely forgetting the horrors outside. However, whenever Stanhope is in a conversation, the mood seems to change as the men try not to say anything out of place. This happens when the subject of the war comes up. When Raleigh doesn’t eat with the men, Stanhope questions him about it and gets angry when Raleigh saying he is distressed about the death of Osborne. Stanhope is obviously upset about it too, because Osborne and him were close. They are coping with the lose of him very differently. Raleigh is fighting a lot more than he should be, with little rest as Stanhope is drinking more so than before.
The stage directions say a lot about these stresses also. Throughout the play, all the men pause while speaking, and slowly move around the ill-lit dugout. Thinking about the smells and lack of space, it isn’t hard to question why Stanhope is angry at the state of the trenches at the beginning of the play. When pausing during small sentences, this shows the men are nervous or undecided about what they’re going to say, but at times, lengthy speeches with no pauses come out, showing their true feelings. Many men died because of the trenches and the diseases ridden in the dirty over flowing waters. This would have been distressing for fellow soldiers, seeing their friends die not because of war, but because of the state of the place they were forced to fight in.
In conclusion, because of R.C. Sheriff involvement in the war, the stresses of the men is captured well. Personally, I didn’t enjoy the play as war isn’t a favourite subject of mine. Reading about these young men going into the war with such enthusiasm (Raleigh is a good example of this) then realising it isn’t a game is hard to read, especially when it’s based on real life events.
Chloe Entwisle, B6 x