Journeys End by RC Sheriff Essay -- Sherriff Journeys end essays

Sherriff's "Journey's End" On many occasions throughout the book of the play of "Journeys End", Sherriff uses methods to re-create the overwhelming stress of trench warfare. He describes every aspect of the trenches, the guns and the whole life. With this understanding of the trenches, the audience are helped in imagining what it must have been like to live there. In the play, all the narrative writing in the book has had to have been left out. Instead the directors must rely more on the acting and the scenery, which is not to do with Sherriff's work and vision. However the directors of these plays have to get the scenery correct if they are going to make the audience understand the unbearable stress suffered by the soldiers. Sherriff gives good guidance to the directors in the large columns of narratives, which have already been mentioned. With these the directors can strategically set the scenery in certain position to gain maximum effect while also having the benefit of knowing what the stage is meant to look like adding to the overall effects. The main way in which Sherriff re-creates the stress of warfare is in his large chunks of narrative. These are found on many pages throughout the book. He uses these to describe all about the lives of the men and the feelings of everyone. An example of this is on the first page where he introduces a very full-characterised captain. Of course these passages help the directors to grasp some aspect of the way the stage should look but also allows the reader to get his or her own picture in her head. With so many descriptive words throughout the book, it is hard not to imagine the front line in one way or another. This method is very effective as it does give ... ...the end of the book he re introduces Stanhope as an inspiration and tries to please him in many ways. Raleigh uses Stanhope has an idle to get him through the stress. The other way in which he looks to avoid the stress is by sending letters to his family, and having general conversations like the one with Osborne where Raleigh finds out Osborne played rugby for England. Other generalised ways in which the men in the book deal with the stress is through patriotism. Frequent jokes are made about the Germans and many of the troops, including officers only stay and fight because they feel the Germans are doing the world an injustice. Many of the men believe they are fighting for the safety of Britain and their families. The silence of the war is frequently mentioned throughout the book and many of the men gather in unity and sing songs to banish the quiet.