Themes (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Themes
Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff explores the harsh realities of the First World War through its intimate portrayal of life in a British officers' dugout. The play challenges romantic notions about warfare and examines the psychological and physical toll on soldiers. Sherriff presents several interconnected themes that reveal the true nature of combat and its impact on the human spirit.
Journey's End was first performed in 1928, drawing on Sherriff's own experiences as a British officer during WWI. The play's unflinching portrayal of trench life shocked audiences who had become accustomed to more romanticised depictions of warfare.
The true nature of war
Sherriff presents a stark contrast between romanticised expectations of war and its brutal, dehumanising reality. This theme develops primarily through Raleigh's character arc, who arrives at the front full of boyish enthusiasm and anticipation.
When Raleigh first reaches the trenches, he expects the war to be chaotic, frantic, and filled with triumphant fighting. However, the quietness and general lack of action immediately undermine his assumptions. Even when Stanhope suffers from PTSD and turns to alcohol, Raleigh maintains his idealistic fantasy by choosing to portray Stanhope as heroic in letters to his sister back home.
Raleigh's faith in war only begins to crumble after participating in a raid that results in Osborne's death. This traumatic experience forces him to witness the true horrors of combat. Ultimately, Raleigh moves from bearing witness to becoming a casualty himself. He becomes paralysed after being hit by shrapnel fragments and dies from his injuries.
The play's final image reinforces this theme powerfully: Raleigh's body is entombed in the dugout, suggesting that the soldiers have been living in what amounts to a pre-dug grave. This symbolism captures the play's central message about war's true nature.
Tracking Raleigh's Transformation:
Stage 1 - Eager Newcomer: Arrives with romantic expectations, excited to serve alongside his schoolboy hero Stanhope
Stage 2 - Cognitive Dissonance: Faces the reality of trench conditions but maintains his idealistic view by romanticising Stanhope's alcoholism
Stage 3 - Shattered Illusions: Witnesses Osborne's death during the raid, confronting the brutal reality of combat
Stage 4 - Casualty: Becomes mortally wounded, his body entombed in the dugout—the ultimate symbol of war's destructive nature
Exam tip: When discussing this theme, track Raleigh's transformation from excitement to disillusionment to death. Consider how Sherriff uses this character journey to represent a wider loss of innocence about warfare.
Shell shock and PTSD
Although the term post-traumatic stress disorder was not used during the First World War, people referred to similar symptoms as shell shock. This theme explores the cumulative and persistent effects of trauma on soldiers, particularly through Stanhope's character.
Stanhope suffers from what soldiers called nerve strain, resulting from staying on duty for extended periods and refusing to take leave. To manage his dissociative episodes, Stanhope drinks heavily. However, the drinking actually worsens his quick fluctuations in temper, which represents another symptom of trauma-induced stress.
Crucially, Stanhope refuses to acknowledge his deterioration. Admitting weakness would undermine his authority as commander and risk demoralising his men. This creates a tragic situation where maintaining command requires denying his own suffering.
Key vocabulary:
- Shell shock: The WWI-era term for what we now recognise as PTSD
- Nerve strain: Soldiers' term for psychological stress from prolonged combat duty
- Dissociative episodes: Moments where consciousness and mental functioning become disrupted due to trauma
Alcoholism
Sherriff presents alcohol as both a coping mechanism and a means of social normalisation within the trenches. Stanhope consumes alcohol consistently throughout the play, and he admits to Osborne (and eventually to Raleigh) that he drinks to be able to walk out on the front line without succumbing to madness.
Stanhope often offers whiskey to other officers, creating the appearance that he is not drinking alone. By making drinking a social convention, he can conceal his habitual dependence. While aware that he relies on alcohol, Stanhope seems to view it as a necessary evil for survival.
The social aspect of Stanhope's drinking is crucial to understanding how he maintains his denial. By normalising alcohol consumption among the officers, he transforms what is essentially self-medication into what appears to be ordinary social behaviour.
This theme connects closely with shell shock. When Hibbert expresses his desire to leave because he cannot face returning to the trench, Stanhope manages to reassure him by confessing he feels the same fear and suggesting they drink together. In this way, alcoholism enables Stanhope to deny the psychological harms of trench warfare, both to himself and to those under his command.
The true nature of heroism
Through dialogue between Osborne and Hardy, the audience learns that Stanhope is a natural-born leader who has earned Osborne's respect and devotion. However, this heroic image becomes complicated when Hardy reveals that Stanhope drinks like a fish, offering a more negative perspective on the commander's character.
Sherriff uses Stanhope as an example of how a soldier's need to maintain the illusion of heroism can force him to deny the immense mental and physical strain of battle. Admitting his deterioration would threaten his status as a hero and undermine the faith his men have placed in him.
The play questions traditional concepts of heroism by showing:
- Heroes can suffer just as much as ordinary soldiers
- Maintaining heroic appearances requires suppressing human vulnerability
- True heroism might involve acknowledging weakness rather than concealing it
Exam tip: Consider how different characters view Stanhope's heroism differently. Hardy sees a drunk; Osborne sees a dedicated leader; Raleigh initially sees a schoolboy hero. These contrasting perspectives reveal the complexity of heroism in wartime.
Repression
Throughout Journey's End, characters consistently exhibit signs of emotional repression. In private conversations, Osborne interrupts Stanhope when he tries to discuss the dissociative episodes he experiences on the battlefield. In more public settings, Trotter adopts a deliberately blithe attitude, casually making grim jokes about death.
Ultimately, Sherriff shows repression to be a necessary mechanism for maintaining the outward appearance of confidence and sanity in extremely trying circumstances. Without this emotional suppression, the psychological reality of trench warfare would become unbearable.
The play suggests that repression serves several functions:
- Allows soldiers to continue functioning in traumatic conditions
- Maintains morale and unit cohesion
- Protects the individual from confronting unbearable truths
- Enables the military hierarchy to continue operating
However, this repression comes at a cost, contributing to the psychological damage soldiers experience.
The relationship between repression and the other themes is crucial. Repression enables alcoholism (by allowing denial), supports the heroic facade (by suppressing vulnerability), and intensifies shell shock (by preventing emotional processing of trauma).
Hierarchy and class
The hierarchical class structure of early twentieth-century Britain is replicated in the soldiers' stratified positions of authority. Although Stanhope is half-Colonel despite his age, this is because of his experience. Osborne, though much older and more experienced, serves under Stanhope because of Stanhope's privileged class position.
Stanhope was privately educated (attending what's called a public school in Britain, which actually means an elite private institution). This gave him entrance to the Officers' Training Corps, which was not accessible to working-class men.
The term "public school" in Britain is confusing to modern readers and those from other countries. These institutions are actually exclusive, fee-paying private schools that historically educated the upper classes. They were called "public" to distinguish them from education provided by private tutors at home.
Class positions are also expressed through the way characters speak. Private Mason's tendency to drop his Hs suggests a cockney accent, which at the time carried connotations of being lower-class and lacking education.
Though the play does not directly address the issue, the First World War fundamentally reshaped British society. The shared suffering and sacrifice of different classes in the trenches contributed to social changes, including women receiving the vote and improved living conditions for working-class Britons after the war.
Key point: The class system in the play reflects broader British society, but the war experience itself began to challenge these divisions. The shared trauma and sacrifice of trench warfare could not maintain the rigid class boundaries that existed before 1914.
The miserable conditions of trench warfare
Sherriff focuses throughout the play on exposing the audience to the truly miserable conditions of life in the trenches. Early in Act 1, Hardy jokes about the two million rats that soldiers have to worry about, as well as bombs causing dirt to shake loose and land in the tea.
The casual way Hardy speaks of these conditions suggests how soldiers become accustomed to life in the trenches. This normalisation of horror is itself disturbing—what should be shocking has become routine and even the subject of dark humour.
However, the effects of such conditions are insidious and harmful:
- Stanhope's PTSD demonstrates the psychological impact
- Hibbert's desire to flee shows the breaking point some soldiers reach
- The physical environment is degrading and dehumanising
By the play's conclusion, the normalised environment of the earth-walled dugout becomes a tomb for Raleigh's body. This powerful image implies that the soldiers have been living in what amounts to a pre-dug grave, reinforcing the theme of war's dehumanising and death-dealing nature.
Exam tip: When writing about this theme, consider how Sherriff uses specific details (rats, dirt, confined space) to make the abstract horror of trench warfare concrete and visceral for the audience. The physical conditions aren't just background—they're integral to understanding the psychological damage the war inflicts.
Key Points to Remember:
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War's reality vs fantasy: Raleigh's journey from excitement to death illustrates the gap between romantic expectations and brutal reality of warfare.
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Interconnected trauma themes: Shell shock, alcoholism, and repression work together to show how soldiers cope with (and are damaged by) combat stress.
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Heroism's cost: Stanhope exemplifies how maintaining heroic appearances requires denying human suffering, questioning what true heroism means.
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Class and hierarchy: The British social class system is replicated in military structure, though WWI began to challenge these divisions.
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Physical and psychological horror: The miserable conditions of trench warfare affect soldiers both mentally (PTSD, fear) and physically (dirt, rats, death), with the dugout ultimately serving as a pre-dug grave.