Themes (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Themes
Ben Elton's The First Casualty explores several interconnected themes that reflect the social, political, and psychological complexities of the First World War era. Understanding these themes is essential for analysing how the novel presents war's impact on individuals and society.
World War One
The novel centres on the First World War as its primary thematic concern, rather than exploring war as a generic concept. This specificity is crucial because the effects and events depicted relate directly to issues that arose from this particular conflict. Elton examines how public perception and support for the war changed dramatically over time, highlighting the unique circumstances that made WWI different from other conflicts.
Initial enthusiasm and public support
At the war's beginning, there was overwhelming public support for military involvement. Almost everyone wanted to be part of the war effort, creating an atmosphere of intense patriotic fervour. This enthusiasm was so powerful that anyone who questioned participation faced severe social consequences.
The novel demonstrates this through Kingsley's experience: he becomes ostracised by his own family simply because of his doubts about the war. The public simply could not comprehend how anyone's sense of duty might be compromised by intellectual or moral objections.
Those who refused to fight were shamed not just by society at large, but by their own families, showing how deeply the war fever penetrated personal relationships.
Poor preparation and military incompetence
By 1917, the novel's timeframe, the war's reality had become starkly apparent. Whilst even the strongest critics of World War Two never claimed Britain was ill-prepared for that conflict, this was precisely the criticism levelled at World War One participation, and justifiably so.
Most military officers leading troops into the trenches had little to no experience or proper training. The war represented one of the most poorly strategised campaigns in military history, with soldiers ordered into battles that were fundamentally un-winnable. Men became essentially cannon fodder as the war approached its conclusion, their lives expended with little strategic value.
The experience of shell shock
The war created a terrifying phenomenon that became known as shell shock, which we now recognise as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The novel connects this specifically to WWI experiences through Viscount Abercrombie's character, who suffers from this condition. Even the novel's setting emphasises these WWI connections: Kingsley's investigation takes place in Flanders, where Abercrombie had most recently been deployed, grounding the narrative firmly in the war's actual geography.
Cowardice
The theme of cowardice operates on multiple levels throughout the novel, challenging simplistic notions of courage and examining how society judges those who refuse to fight.
Intellectual opposition versus cowardice
Kingsley faces accusations of cowardice not because he lacks physical courage, but because he possesses too much intellectual independence to blindly accept war as necessary. As an educated man with a superior understanding of logic, he finds it difficult to agree with military action that contradicts reason.
Society struggles to distinguish between someone who is academically opposed to becoming a soldier and someone who ethically opposes desertion. Even Kingsley's own wife and family believe him to be a coward, demonstrating how the shame and social stigma of this label proves too much for them to bear by association.
The courage of conscientious objectors
The novel presents a nuanced view of conscientious objectors, who were generally Quakers or people driven to refuse military service by their religious or spiritual beliefs. Whilst the public branded them as cowards, the text reveals a quiet courage in their actions.
Standing firm in their beliefs, even knowing their lives would be ruined as a consequence, required genuine bravery. The novel suggests that fighting for one's principles, even when the perception labels you a coward, demonstrates courage. The truth often proves opposite to public perception.
Medical conditions misinterpreted as cowardice
The novel also explores how medical and psychological conditions become confused with cowardice.
Captain Shannon represents an extreme viewpoint, considering post-traumatic stress disorder to be a form of cowardice. He believes that only a coward would be unable to mentally withstand what happens on the front. Shannon expresses deep disdain for any man repatriated for treatment and recovery, viewing it as the extreme end of weakness. His opinions reflect a pervading attitude in the country at the time, demonstrating how widespread this misunderstanding was.
Shell shock
Shell shock emerges as a major theme, examining how society and the medical establishment struggled to understand psychological trauma from combat.
Medical understanding in WWI
Shell shock was the term used for the medically unexplained unravelling of a man's mental state whilst serving on the front. The term derived from the belief that exploding bombs and mortar shells somehow had a negative effect on men neurologically, although the medical profession remained unable to explain the mechanism.
Crucially, shell shock was not treated by psychiatrists but by brain specialists, reflecting the belief that it must be a physical rather than psychological condition. Later in the war, military leaders began to question whether shell shock was actually just fear or reluctance to serve, demonstrating growing suspicion about its legitimacy.
Treatment and return to service
The military authorities began employing psychiatrists to bring men back to the field, using letters of recommendation to pressure recovered soldiers to return. Provided their brains were physically intact and they were medically able to serve, most men with shell shock were returned to the front fairly quickly. This approach reveals more about military priorities than genuine care for soldiers' wellbeing.
Contemporary understanding and social attitudes
We now recognise shell shock as post-traumatic stress disorder, though this understanding did not exist at the time. Even if it had been recognised, it would probably have been dismissed, because the early twentieth century was not a time of great belief in psychological disorders beyond the basic distinction between madness and sanity.
PTSD would have been viewed as cowardice or reluctance to serve; citizens were called up for war even when they were not military men at all. The logic followed that nobody wanted to fight and nobody wanted their loved ones killed in battle, so those fighting or who had been killed were resentful and suspicious of those with shell shock.
Social stigma and convenient excuses
There was a kind of heroism in being declared medically unfit to return to the front if a man was missing a limb or had a visible injury. However, a mental disorder remained easy to fake if a man's skull was shattered. Common injury was sustained in WWI, but PTSD was impossible to see, so the majority did not believe in it.
Shell shock was seen as something rather convenient that a man should get over rather than as a serious condition requiring immediate treatment. As Abercrombie begins to doubt the war and reflect this new viewpoint in his poetry, he is considered to have faked his shell shock as an excuse to come home.
War poets
The war poets represent a crucial literary and historical movement that the novel engages with through Abercrombie's character.
Siegfried Sassoon as inspiration
The author based Viscount Abercrombie on the real-life war poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was an esteemed poet prior to the war and a leading exponent of the genre of War Poetry, particularly his poem Aftermath. This historical grounding adds authenticity to the novel's exploration of how artists responded to the war.
Like many initially behind the war effort, Sassoon changed his mind as time went on and he witnessed the senseless waste of young life going on around him. This transformation from supporter to critic mirrors broader changes in public consciousness about the war.
Role and significance
The importance of the war poets is emphasised by the fact that Abercrombie is known to be one. They served as the frontline reporters of their day, documenting experiences that official accounts often obscured or sanitised. Their work endures a century later because it captured authentic emotional and psychological truths about the war experience that conventional reporting could not.
Homosexuality
Whilst perhaps less prominent than other themes, homosexuality provides important context for understanding Abercrombie's character and the social pressures of the era.
Historical context and social attitudes
Abercrombie, Kingsley learns, was a homosexual man, although he remained fully closeted as far as his public image was concerned. At the time, homosexuality was accepted as a fact of life but was not discussed openly and was definitely not public. This cultural silence around the subject supports the suggestion that Abercrombie was based on Sassoon, as the latter was also a closeted homosexual.
Changing legal and social landscape
Surprisingly, homosexuality in the early part of the twentieth century was not criminalised in the same way as it would be later. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, it was seen as something that a married or influential man might want to hide, and it was definitely something that one might be blackmailed over. The novel thus situates Abercrombie in a specific historical moment regarding attitudes towards sexuality, adding another layer to his need for privacy and the social pressures he faced.
Key Points to Remember:
- The novel focuses specifically on WWI themes rather than war in general, examining how public support transformed from overwhelming enthusiasm to critical awareness of the war's poorly planned nature
- Cowardice is explored as a complex concept: Kingsley faces accusations for intellectual opposition, conscientious objectors demonstrate courage despite being labelled cowards, and Captain Shannon wrongly equates shell shock with cowardice
- Shell shock (now understood as PTSD) was misunderstood and stigmatised during WWI, treated as a physical brain injury rather than psychological trauma, and often dismissed as convenient excuse-making
- War poets like Siegfried Sassoon (the inspiration for Abercrombie) served as frontline reporters whose work documented the war's reality and whose perspectives evolved from support to criticism
- The novel's historical setting includes specific social contexts around homosexuality, showing how figures like Abercrombie navigated both public expectations and private identity in early twentieth-century Britain