Character Analysis (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Character Analysis
Understanding the characters in Regeneration is essential for grasping Pat Barker's exploration of war trauma, masculinity, class conflict, and changing gender roles during the First World War. Each character serves a specific purpose in illuminating the psychological and social impact of the war.
This revision note will help you analyse the key characters and their relationships, which is crucial for your A-Level exam responses.
Central Protagonists
Dr. W.H.R. Rivers
Dr. Rivers functions as the novel's main character and serves as a connecting thread between all the other characters' stories. Working as a psychiatrist at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland, Rivers treats soldiers suffering from shell shock and various psychological traumas caused by their wartime experiences.
What makes Rivers particularly significant is his compassionate, humane approach to treating his patients. Unlike other medical professionals of the period, Rivers believes in talking therapies and gentle encouragement rather than harsh physical treatments. He acts as both a doctor and a parental figure to his patients, offering them understanding and support as they process their traumatic experiences.
As a non-combatant, Rivers shares the perspective of most readers who have not experienced war firsthand. This makes him an accessible entry point into the novel's exploration of trauma. His own struggle to understand and help his patients whilst managing his own health problems demonstrates the personal cost of caring for traumatised individuals.
Key characteristics:
- Compassionate and patient-centred in his approach
- Acts as both medical professional and father figure
- Experiences personal health struggles due to work stress
- Represents humane psychological treatment methods
- Questions the morality of curing men only to send them back to war
Exam tip: When writing about Rivers, consider how his role as a non-combatant affects his perspective on the war and his relationship with his patients. Explore the ethical dilemmas he faces when treating men to send them back to combat.
Siegfried Sassoon
Sassoon serves as the novel's moral conscience. A decorated war hero and poet, Sassoon arrives at Craiglockhart after writing a public letter protesting against the continuation of the war. He argues that the war has become unnecessarily brutal and that its original defensive purpose has been lost.
His character presents a fascinating contradiction: despite his deep convictions about the war's immorality, Sassoon ultimately chooses to return to France. This decision stems from his loyalty to the soldiers serving under him, even though he knows he may die. This sacrifice highlights his integrity and sense of duty, whilst also exposing the tragic waste of principled men who opposed the conflict.
Sassoon's anti-war stance contrasts sharply with the apathy of British government officials and the general public, who remain largely unaware of or indifferent to the psychological damage the war causes. His poetry and protest give voice to the suffering that others prefer to ignore.
Key characteristics:
- Morally courageous and articulate about war's horrors
- Torn between conviction and duty
- Loyal to his men despite opposition to the war
- Represents the voice of protest and truth
- Tragic figure who returns to almost certain death
Exam tip: Consider Sassoon's role in voicing anti-war sentiment and how his character challenges notions of patriotic duty. His relationship with Owen is also significant for understanding war poetry.
Billy Prior
Prior is perhaps the novel's most complex and psychologically fascinating character. Arriving at Craiglockhart unable to speak (a condition known as mutism caused by psychological trauma), Prior gradually regains his voice and uses it to challenge both Dr. Rivers and the class-based society he inhabits.
Coming from a working-class background but having risen to become an officer, Prior experiences intense class conflict. He feels he belongs nowhere: the working class sees him as a traitor who has abandoned his roots, whilst the upper classes treat him as an inferior. This social displacement adds another layer to his psychological struggles.
Prior's relationship with Sarah Lumb, a munitions worker, represents a more equal partnership than was typical for the period. His character development from mute patient to sharp-tongued critic demonstrates the possibility of recovery, whilst his ongoing struggles reveal that trauma cannot be completely erased.
Key characteristics:
- Intelligent and perceptive, uses wit as a weapon
- Experiences acute class conflict and displacement
- Initially mute, gradually regains voice and confidence
- Ambitious and eager to assert himself
- Becomes somewhat dangerous in his confrontational nature
- Softens through relationship with Sarah
Exam tip: Prior is excellent for exploring themes of class, social mobility, and masculinity. Consider how his working-class origins affect his experiences as an officer and patient.
Patients at Craiglockhart Hospital
Burns
Burns represents one of the most harrowing examples of war trauma in the novel. After landing face-first in the decomposing stomach of a German corpse, Burns develops a severe psychological and physical response to food. The mere thought of eating makes him vomit, as all food reminds him of the taste and smell of rotting flesh. His skeletal appearance serves as a visual reminder of war's devastating physical and psychological costs.
Dr. Rivers initially tries to help Burns by encouraging him to process the traumatic memory, but eventually realises this approach causes more harm than good. Burns's suffering becomes so unbearable that Rivers must accept there are some traumas too severe to heal through remembering. This realisation leads Rivers to question whether the war's human cost can ever be justified.
Exam tip: Burns is crucial for discussing the limits of psychological treatment and the extreme nature of war trauma. His case challenges Rivers's therapeutic methods.
Wilfred Owen
Owen appears as an aspiring poet who quickly forms a strong friendship with Sassoon. Under Sassoon's mentorship, Owen develops his war poetry and gains confidence in his literary abilities. Their relationship explores the importance of artistic expression in processing trauma, as writing becomes a way for Owen to make sense of his experiences.
Owen's character also introduces elements of homoeroticism and the intense emotional bonds formed between men in wartime. He develops romantic feelings for Sassoon, who encourages his poetry whilst steering him towards publication. Owen's admiration for his mentor drives much of his creative development.
Exam tip: Owen is important for discussing war poetry and the mentor-student relationship with Sassoon. Consider how his character represents the transformation of traumatic experience into art.
Anderson
Anderson, a combat medic, develops an intense phobia of blood after witnessing a wounded soldier bleed to death slowly. This fear is particularly debilitating given his medical role, which would require him to handle blood regularly if he returned to service.
Anderson's character also exhibits explosive anger during golf games and demonstrates deep denial about the true nature of his trauma. He must eventually face the reality that his psychological condition will prevent him from returning to the medical field. His struggle between denial and acceptance represents a common response to trauma.
Exam tip: Anderson demonstrates how trauma can specifically target a person's professional identity and create intense internal conflict.
Willard
Willard's case raises important questions about the nature of psychological versus physical illness. After being injured whilst retreating through a graveyard, Willard becomes paralysed despite having no physical damage to his spine. Even after Dr. Rivers successfully treats him and he regains mobility, Willard insists his paralysis was physical, not psychological.
His refusal to accept the psychological nature of his condition reveals the stigma surrounding mental illness during this period. Soldiers often found it more acceptable to have a physical wound than a psychological one, as mental illness was associated with weakness or cowardice. Willard's case illustrates how deeply this stigma affected patients, even preventing them from acknowledging their own recovery.
Exam tip: Willard is excellent for exploring attitudes towards mental illness and the stigma of psychological trauma during WWI.
Medical and Military Authority Figures
Dr. Yealland
Dr. Yealland serves as a stark contrast to Dr. Rivers's compassionate approach. Working at a London hospital, Yealland represents the harsh, authoritarian treatment methods common during the war. He takes pleasure in the power he holds over patients and employs shock therapy (electrical treatment) to force traumatised soldiers to speak or move.
Crucially, Yealland does not believe in mental illness. He attributes all symptoms to physical causes and considers psychological explanations to be coddling weakness. His attitude towards soldiers' suffering reflects Sassoon's criticism that the British public and government remain apathetic about the true emotional damage the war causes.
The contrast between Rivers and Yealland highlights competing medical philosophies and raises questions about power, authority, and patient dignity in treatment.
Exam tip: Yealland is essential for discussing treatment methods and the abuse of medical authority. Compare his approach directly with Rivers's humane methods to explore themes of power and dignity.
Callan
Callan, a mute soldier, becomes Dr. Yealland's patient and victim. Through his silence, Callan communicates his disapproval of the war and the system that perpetuates it. However, Dr. Yealland uses repeated electrical shocks to force Callan to speak, ironically silencing his protest through the very act of making him talk.
Callan's case demonstrates the cruelty of authoritarian treatment methods and shows how some medical professionals violated their duty to do no harm. His victimisation exposes the darker side of military medicine during WWI.
Exam tip: Callan represents how silence can be a form of protest, and how harsh treatment methods violated patient dignity.
Henry Head
Head, Dr. Rivers's longtime friend and colleague, provides important context for understanding Rivers's character. As a young man, Head volunteered to have a nerve in his arm severed so Rivers could study nerve regeneration, demonstrating extraordinary dedication to scientific advancement.
Their friendship mirrors the nurturing, supportive relationships Rivers forms with his patients. Head is kind, caring, and dedicated—qualities that reflect Rivers's own character. Head's presence in the novel suggests that Rivers has always formed close, almost parental bonds with those around him.
Exam tip: Head helps establish Rivers's character and demonstrates the importance of supportive professional relationships.
Bryce
Bryce, the Commanding Officer at Craiglockhart, ensures the hospital runs smoothly and acts as a caring leader. He recognises when Rivers is suffering from work-related stress and forces him to take sick leave for his own health. When offered a new position, Rivers feels reluctant to leave Bryce, who has selflessly supported his career advancement.
Bryce represents compassionate authority and shows that not all military figures were harsh or uncaring during the war.
Exam tip: Bryce demonstrates that authority figures could be supportive and caring, contrasting with harsher characters like Dr. Yealland.
Graves
Robert Graves, Sassoon's close friend, presents a morally ambiguous character. Whilst he genuinely cares for Sassoon, Graves uses lies and manipulation to protect him. He agrees with Sassoon's anti-war views but believes his friend must remain loyal to the British military because he signed a contract to serve.
Graves's lack of integrity—his willingness to deny his own opinions for the sake of propriety—serves as a foil to Sassoon's character. His actions are often questionable, highlighting the trait of moral courage in Sassoon by contrast.
Exam tip: Graves is useful for discussing loyalty versus integrity, and how characters respond differently to moral dilemmas.
The Prior Family
Mr. Prior
Billy Prior's father represents the abusive, working-class patriarch. As a blue-collar worker, Mr. Prior feels disdain for his son's upward social mobility and aspirations to join the officer class. He beats his wife and deliberately induces asthma attacks in Billy, using physical and psychological abuse to assert his dominance.
Mr. Prior embodies toxic masculinity and the violence that can exist within working-class households. His character also reveals the class resentment that fuels much of Billy's internal conflict—his father's cruelty makes Billy desperate to escape his origins, yet he can never fully belong to the upper classes either.
Exam tip: Mr. Prior is crucial for understanding Billy's character and for exploring themes of class conflict, domestic violence, and toxic masculinity.
Mrs. Prior
In complete contrast to her husband, Mrs. Prior is gentle, quiet, and incredibly supportive of her son. She loves Billy dearly and resents her husband for separating their son from his blue-collar background through abuse and disdain.
Mrs. Prior believes Billy belongs neither to the working class nor to the aristocracy as a result of his social mobility. At one point, Prior reveals that Dr. Rivers reminds him of his mother's nurturing nature, suggesting that Rivers's parental approach to care resonates with Prior because it recalls the only source of love in his childhood.
Exam tip: Mrs. Prior helps explain Prior's complex psychology and his response to Rivers's nurturing treatment approach.
Female Characters and Changing Gender Roles
The female characters in Regeneration illuminate how the First World War affected women's lives, creating both new freedoms and new challenges. Working in munitions factories whilst men fought, these women experienced unprecedented independence but also faced continued gender-based oppression.
Sarah Lumb
Sarah works in a munitions factory and becomes Billy Prior's girlfriend after they meet at a bar. Her character represents the expanded roles and increased freedom women experienced during wartime. With men away fighting, women took on jobs previously denied to them and gained financial independence.
Sarah's relationship with Prior is notably equal—she maintains her own life and occupies an equal role in their partnership rather than being subordinate. This equality was unusual for the period and reflects the social changes occurring during the war. Sarah's independence and her world having been shaped by war's effects demonstrate how the conflict transformed women's social positions.
Exam tip: Sarah is essential for discussing gender roles, women's independence, and how war changed social dynamics between men and women.
Ada Lumb
Ada, Sarah's mother, expresses deep cynicism about relationships between men and women based on her lifetime of poverty, struggle, and mistreatment at men's hands. Believing romantic love to be impossible, Ada encourages Sarah to marry for financial stability rather than affection.
Ada fears that Sarah's liberal approach to sex will leave her pregnant, destitute, and alone. Her warnings come from a place of genuine concern but also reveal how patriarchal society has limited women's options and left them vulnerable. Ada's character voices the harsh realities that many working-class women faced.
Exam tip: Ada represents older generations of women and the cynicism born from gender oppression. Compare her views with Sarah's more optimistic approach.
Lizzie
Lizzie, one of Sarah's co-workers at the munitions factory, provides a stark illustration of domestic abuse. The wife of an abusive husband, Lizzie actually experiences the war as bringing her peace because her husband left to serve. She openly fears the day he will return.
Her character exposes the violence many women endured in their marriages and how the war paradoxically offered some women temporary escape from domestic oppression. Lizzie's experience demonstrates that freedom from abuse was often more valuable than the presence of a husband.
Exam tip: Lizzie is crucial for discussing domestic violence and the complex ways war affected women's lives.
Betty
Betty, another of Sarah's co-workers, represents the dangerous consequences of liberal sexual attitudes in a society without safe contraception or legal abortion. When Betty becomes pregnant, she attempts to give herself an abortion using a coat hanger, suffering severe injuries as a result.
Her experience validates Ada's warnings to Sarah about the risks of sexual freedom. In a society that denied women reproductive rights and punished them for sexual activity outside marriage, the new freedoms of wartime came with serious dangers. Betty's character demonstrates how social change outpaced legal protections for women.
Exam tip: Betty is important for discussing the dangers women faced and the consequences of limited reproductive rights.
Madge
Madge, who also works with Sarah at the munitions factory, experiences war's impact through her fiancé's return home lightly wounded. When he recovers enough to return, they celebrate together. Madge's character shows a more conventional wartime romance, contrasting with the more complex situations of Lizzie, Betty, and Sarah.
Exam tip: Madge provides a contrast to the other female characters and shows various ways war affected relationships.
Character Relationships and Thematic Connections
Understanding how characters connect to one another helps reveal Barker's thematic concerns:
Rivers as connector: Dr. Rivers links virtually all characters together, serving as the narrative centre. His relationships with patients reveal different aspects of trauma and treatment.
Class tensions: The contrast between Prior (working-class officer), Rivers (middle-class professional), and upper-class officers explores how social class affects wartime experiences and trauma.
Treatment philosophies: The opposition between Rivers (compassionate) and Yealland (authoritarian) raises questions about power, dignity, and effective medical care.
Gender dynamics: Relationships between male and female characters (Prior and Sarah, Anderson and his fears, Burns and his mother) reveal changing gender roles and persistent inequalities.
Friendship and mentorship: Sassoon and Owen's relationship demonstrates how creative expression and mentorship can aid recovery from trauma.
Family conflict: The Prior family illustrates how class mobility and domestic violence shape individual psychology.
Character Pairing Analysis:
When comparing characters, consider these key contrasts:
- Rivers vs. Yealland: Humane talking therapy vs. authoritarian shock treatment
- Sassoon vs. Graves: Moral integrity vs. compromised principles
- Prior vs. other officers: Working-class mobility vs. inherited privilege
- Sarah vs. Ada: Optimistic independence vs. cynical pragmatism
- Burns vs. Willard: Acknowledged trauma vs. denied psychological illness
Key Points to Remember:
- Dr. Rivers serves as the compassionate protagonist who connects all storylines and represents humane treatment methods
- Sassoon functions as the novel's moral centre, protesting war's brutality whilst ultimately returning due to loyalty to his men
- Prior's working-class background and officer status create intense class conflict that shapes his psychological struggles
- The contrast between Rivers and Yealland highlights competing treatment philosophies—compassion versus authoritarian control
- Female characters (Sarah, Ada, Lizzie, Betty, Madge) demonstrate how war both liberated and endangered women
- Characters like Burns and Callan represent extreme trauma and victimisation by harsh treatment methods
- Family dynamics (Mr. and Mrs. Prior) reveal how domestic violence and class resentment affect character psychology
- Character relationships illuminate key themes: class conflict, gender roles, treatment ethics, and trauma's lasting effects