PLAY- A Journey's End R.C Sheriff (1928)

A Journey's End R.C Sheriff (1928)

This play is set in the trenches of World War | following the lives of Stanhope who is the captain and boss of the troops and Rayleigh who is a young boy who is delusional about fighting in the War. Rayleigh knows Stanhope due to his relationship with Rayleigh's sister a few years before. When Osborne, Stanhope's close friend dies in a raid if Stanhope wasn't damaged enough this destroyed him. When Rayleigh, who is naive and excited to be sent out onto the front line is killed Stanhope can't take it anymore.

Themes

• Courage and cowardice, Hibbert pretends to be ill in order to go home, Stanhope drinks alcohol for courage
• Heroism- Rayleigh see's Stanhope as a hero however the reality is very different as War has changed him, he is in a downward spiral of depression and shell shock. 
• Trench life- the constant waiting and silence the soliders have to pass time under horrendous conditions and stress, the waiting was the prolonged horror of War
• Social class- the different classes have very different roles, Stanhope and the other educated upper class officers were contrasting with Trotter and Mason, Sheriff showed that War brought everyone onto an equal playing field.

Context

Sheriff also partook in the War so he would have understood the struggles they have gone through. One of the key things was shell shock, many solider's were bruised mentally after their experience of War due to the harshness of man kind and the death of their friends. The play was set in 1918 and these events lead up to the real life events of Operation Michael which failed and after the battle of the somme secured Germanys win due to the lack of communication between soldiers and generals. The play was written ten years after this so this gave time for Sheriff to write and remember his thoughts in hindsight.