The Main Themes of Journeys End Essay -- Journeys End R.C. Sherriff

The Main Themes of Journey's End Sheriff showed a lot of themes in this book, which made it very effective. The main themes were: Heroism, The reality of war Grief/mourning Irony of the play Cowardice/fear Hopelessness of war The cross section of types of people/officers The coping of the pressure of war. Duty In heroism, in this text, we clearly see that Raleigh tries to be a hero but fails. Raleigh (excitedly): "I say Stanhope's told me about the raid". This suggests that Raleigh had a set picture of war (go and kill the enemy and be a hero), but he didn't know the reality of it (death). In the text, we see a quiet hero shown in Osborne. Osborne: "my names Osborne. Second in command of the company. You can call me 'sir' in front of the men". This suggests that Osborne went day in and day out for his country and did his duty, even though he knew he was going to die for a hopeless cause. He was also very level headed, and was referred by everyone by 'uncle', so he made a great hero. In the text, we see that Stanhope is nearly everyone's hero (Raleigh's the most). Raleigh: he was skipper of rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven". This suggests to us that he was a born leader, as he led school teams, making him a great leader and is also admired by a lot of his collies, as he is very committed to his job. In the reality of war, in the text, we see from Raleigh it is very quiet. Raleigh: "I've never known anything so quiet". This suggests Raleigh is very inexperienced, and he is learning the reality of war in this aspect. In the text, we see that the expectations of Raleigh about the war are very different. Raleigh: "it seemed so frightfully quiet and uncanny... ...o cope; this must be very effective that's why he's coped so long with the war. In the theme of the coping of the pressure of war, each person has his own way of coping with this pressure, some pretend life at war is like life at home. In Duty, we see Osborne not complain about the raid. Osborne: Oh (pause) Why Raleigh"? This shows us that Osborne is ready to die for his country, and doesn't try to find a way out. This also shows he's very honorable to his country as he's been in the war long, always doing his duty. In the text, we see Hibbert try to waste time. Stanhope: you're just wasting time as much as you can". This shows Hibbert is not bothered to do his duty; he'd rather die not being a coward, than going out there and dieing for your country. In conclusion, all the themes above where used to great effect in this play, by R.C Sherriff.