Journey's End 

           (20^TH CENTURY SOCIO-POLITICAL DRAMA)

Title of play: Journey’s End

Date of first stage performance: First performed in 1928 by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Apollo Theatre, London.

Date of film adaptation: First adapted into film in 1930 and directed by James Whale. 

Author: R.C. Sherriff

Author’s date & place of birth: Born on 1896 in Hampton Wick, Middlesex. 

3 significant details of author’s personal circumstances/times in which play was written:

·   The play is set during World War 1. When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914 the mood in Britain was one of heroic optimism. It was confidently believed the war would be all over by Christmas. However it lasted four years and by Christmas 1914 men were still in the trenches and with many dead on both sides.     

·   During World War 1, R. C. Sherriff was an officer in the East Surrey Regiment. He was wounded in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917.

·   Journey’s End is based on Sherriff’s real -life experiences during the war- mirroring the way he and his comrades lived and fought and re-living some of its incidents.   

Structure of play: Acts/scenes, timescale:

The play is separated into three acts and five scenes. The entire story plays out in the officers’ dugout over just four days; from the 18^th March 1918 to the 21^st March 1918. According to Aristotle’s rules of drama, a play should track one main plot with no subplots and the action should take place in one location within a single day. Although Journey’s End does not take place within a single day, the action does take place in one location and the story does have just one main plot.        

Characterisation:

Main characters in play & very brief summary of

·   Personality

·   Role in play

·   Key quotation (act, scene, line reference)

1.    Dennis Stanhope: Stanhope is the Company Commander of the regiment. He is presented as a hardened, cynical drunk. He is well- respected within the regiment, looked up to by some and admired for his resilience and his ability to ‘Drink like a fish’ (Act 1, 12). Stanhope’s role in the play is to portray the mental affects of the war on men. Far from glorifying the war Sherriff shows the realistic affects war has on men, like Stanhope who drinks in order not to face up to the reality of war and to escape the death, futility the increasingly loss of life during the war.

 

Quote: Stanhope: “To forget, you little fool- to forget! D’you understand? To forget You think there’s no limit to what a man can bear? [He turns quickly away from RALEIGH and goes to the dark corner by OSBORNE’S bed. He stands with his face towards the wall, his shoulders heaving as he fights for breath.]  (Act III, Sc. 2, 85-6).

2.    Lieutenant Osborne: He is Stanhope’s second in command. He is a quiet, sensible middle- aged married man, who worked as a school teacher in civilian life. Osborne acts like a counselling family member to the regiment. His role within the play is to provide some balance, he is known as ‘Uncle’ throughout the company because he gives advice and keeps the peace. Also since he is married we get a sense of the women waiting at home for their husbands, finances, brothers and other relatives waiting at home for them.  Osborne is also very close friends with Stanhope; he is one of the only people who understand why Stanhope drinks so heavily. Towards the end Osborne is killed, along with several other members of a raiding party who are sent out to capture some German prisoners.    

Quote: OSBORNE: “I say, don’t think I’m being morbid, or anything like that, but would you mind taking these?’

OSBORNE: ‘It’s only just in case- [He takes a letter and his watch from his tunic pocket and puts it on the table. Then he pulls off his ring.] If anything should happen, would you send these along to my wife? [He pauses and gives an awkward little laugh.]  

(Act III, Sc. 1, 68).

3.    Lieutenant Raleigh: Raleigh is a young, naïve, fresh- faced, youth from the same public school as Stanhope. He looks up to Stanhope, to the extent of hero worshipping. His role in the play is to represent the thousands of youths who enlisted in the war naively dreaming of medals and returning as heroes, when the reality of war is much bleaker. Raleigh himself goes through this transition; when he first arrives in Stanhope’s Company he sees it as some kind of game of ‘rugger’ however after his first mission, where Osborne is killed, he begins to see the reality of war; the death, the loss, the mental strain and the pervading sense of futility, etc.

RALEIGH: “How topping if we both get the MC!” (Act III, Sc. 1, 70).

4. Dramaturgy & language: choose a two page extract and comment on the choice of language and dramatic effects:

Act, Scene & page number: (Act III, Sc. 2, 75- 76).

Like the whole play, this particular scene also highlights the futility of war.  In this particular scene Stanhope confronts the Colonels indifferent behaviour after the death of many men, including Stanhope’s best friend Osborne. The futility of the war is reflected in the ineptitude of the higher command that navigate the wars and yet do not set foot on the battle field and so do not know the realities of war. The Colonel’s ineptitude is reflected in his questioning of the German prisoner, the first blunder is continuing to question the prisoner in broken German when he understands English (Act III, Sc. 1, 75). This scene could almost be comical if not for the fact that many men died in the capture of this one prisoner. Sherriff also brings to light the ‘enemy’ they are facing. When the German prisoner’s pockets are emptied to reveal a, ‘bit o’ string, sir; little box o’ fruit drops; pocket-knife, sir; bit o’ cedar pencil- and a stick o’ chocolate…” (Act III, Sc. 1, 75). These items dispel the ambiguity surrounding the ‘enemy’ and humanise the other side, to show that they probably have more in common with the German soldiers, than the higher command of their own side.

Furthermore Sherriff also shows the Colonels careless indifference to his men when he says after the interrogation: ‘Oh, well, that’s all right’ …. ’the brigadier…[will be]…pleased about it.’ (Act III, Sc. 1, 75). These lines do not only show his incompetence but his disregard of the soldiers that died. Behaviour and carelessness which antagonise and astonish Stanhope, astonishment which Sherriff gets across through stage direction: ‘[…one look of astonishment at the colonel and/ strolled past him. He turns and speaks in a dead voice]’ (Act III, Sc. 1, 76). Stanhope replies to the Colonel: ‘How awfully nice- if the brigadier’s pleased.’- Stanhope gives a sarcastic and discourteous reply, which not only raises tensions in the scene but shows his increasingly loss of respect for his superiors and the rationale for the war.             

 Socio-political Themes: 2 quotations to illustrate each (with Act, Scene, page number)

1. Education: Education is mainly presented through Osborne. He is a teacher and therefore an educated man. Throughout the play he reads his favourite book, Alice in Wonderland.

“OSBORNE: ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,

              To talk of many things:

              Of shoes- and ships- and sealing wax-

              Of cabbages- and kings.’”

“RALEIGH:  ‘And why the sea is boiling hot-

              And whether pigs have wings.’”

(Act III, Sc. 1, 70).

2. Class/Race: Mainly noticeable through language and station within the army. Those that come from privileged backgrounds, like Stanhope have higher positions within the regiment. Whereas characters like Mason, who is the cook, have lower positions and speak in colloquial, rough language. 

“MASON; I’m sorry, sir. Onions do ‘ave such a way of cropping up again.” (Act II, Sc. 2, 62).

“RALEIGH: [laughing]: Oh, I know old Dennis’s temper! I remember once at school he caught some chaps in a study with a bottle of whiskey. Lord! the roof nearly blew off. He gave them a dozen each with a cricket stump.”  (Act I, 19).

3. Gender: As it is set in the trenches, it is an all male cast and the play has a strong male presence with all the typical tropes surrounding ‘masculinity’, such as honour, being a man etc. 

“STANHOPE: If you want, I’d have you shot for deserting…You either stay here and try and be a man…” (Act II, Sc. 2, 56).

“STANHOPE: If you went…..could you ever look a man straight in the face again…Take a chance…it’s the only decent thing man can do.” (Act II, Sc. 2, 56).

4. Power: There is a clear power structure within the regiment. Stanhope is the leader of his company and looks after his men, which includes Hibbert, Osborne, Raleigh etc. However the Colonel is in charge of Stanhope’s company, so Stanhope has to answer to him and the Colonel has to answer to the Brigadier.

“STANHOPE: GOD! - you little swine. You know what that means- don’t you? Striking a superior officer!” (Act II, Sc. 2, 56).

“COLONEL:... I must go away and ‘phone the brigadier. He’ll be very pleased about it. It’s a feather in our cap, Stanhope. ” (Act III, Sc. 1, 75).

Critical comments/reviews – 3 quotations (author, publication, date, page no.)

“It’s unrelenting tension and its regard for human decency are impressive and, even now, moving.”- Clive Barnes 

“The play could be allowed to become over-sentimental, but inasmuch as we had as a part of our purpose in producing it, an idea to reveal the brutality, futility and waste of War it was my object at all times…to play down the sentimental character of some of the scenes and to emphasize the meaner and more degrading aspects of the whole war picture…”[1]- Lloyd Halloch

“It tells it how Sherriff saw it, and because it comes with no agenda – either anti-war or patriotic – it is all the more powerful. The final moments of the production, both pointed and yet exquisitely understated, are devastating.” - Lyn Gardner, Guardian.

3 Other plays of the period (19..s) with very brief summary of plot

Peter Whelan’s “The Accrington Pals” (1982): The play looks at both the terrifying experiences of the men at the front and the women who were left behind to face social changes, deprivation and the lies of propaganda. While often comic vignettes portray the everyday life of a town denuded of men, the men face the terror that is the Battle of the Somme. This compassionate play portrays the devastating effects of war on a typical Lancashire mill town and the suffering of everyday people.

Theatre Workshop’s "Oh What a Lovely War" (1963): a theatrical, satirical chronicle of the First World War, told through the songs and documents of the period.

Stephen McDonald’s “Not About Heroes” (1982): This moving play is about the poetic life and the inter relationship between two of the finest Great War poets: Owen who died and Siegfried Sasson who didn't. Told by means of letters and poetry, “Not About Heroes” paints a vivid picture of the war.

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[1] Director's report, prepared by Lloyd Halloch, Jr., technical director and scenic designer. Atlanta, Ga. production notebook for Journey's End, n.p. LC-FTP.