Journey’s End

R.C Sherriff
 Form, structure and
language
Journey's End is a dramatic play which mimics real life. Sherriff uses
dialogue and structure to convey the realism of trench warfare and to
create tension.
 Form

The form of a text is the type of text you are reading or watching.
 Form
The form of Journey’s End is a dramatic play, which means the text we
study is the script used by actors and directors to perform the play in
front of an audience.
Journey’s End is a realist or naturalistic drama.
This is shown immediately in Sherriff’s detailed opening stage directions
in which the setting is made to mimic real life.
For example, in the first act the stage directions note the gloominess of
the dugout but add that there are "a few tattered magazine pictures
pinned to the wall of girls in flimsy costumes."
The realistic setting lets us know immediately where we are.
• It reflects the horrors of war while showing how the men tried to make
their surroundings homely or personal.
This gives the play verisimilitude (has the appearance of truth).
This kind of naturalistic (creates illusion of reality) drama began to be
popular around the beginning of the 20th Century.
It attracted audiences who would previously have felt that theatre was
too ‘high-brow’.
Journey’s End appealed to people from every walk of life.
• Winston Churchill - who went on to be the British prime minister during
World War Two - was reportedly a fan of the play.
 Structure

The structure of a text refers to the way in which events are organised
inside the play as a whole.
 The structure of Journey's End
The events of this play are organised into three acts, but take place over
four days.
• Act I contains one scene,
• Act II contains two scenes and
• Act III contains three scenes.
The scenes therefore get shorter as the play moves on.
• This quickens the pace as we move towards the end, and tension rises in
the dugout while the men wait for the oncoming attack.
Act I is an exposition scene, allowing us to understand the situation and
to become familiar with the characters and their relationships with each
other.
• There is a lot of boredom and sitting around chatting.
• This portrays how much waiting there was in war and creates tension as the
audience are waiting for something to happen.
An imminent attack - expected in two days’ time - is mentioned in Act II,
Scene 1.
• This introduces tension, but again the audience are left waiting.
There is no more war action until Act II, Scene 2, when the Colonel
comes to inform Stanhope which officers will be involved in the planned
raid on the German forces.
• Again, this is drawn out, and there is no sign of any actual fighting in Act
II.
• The act ends poignantly with the young Raleigh excited and flattered
about being picked to take part in the raid.
The pace of the action steps up in Act III, Scene 1.
• It begins slowly, with the men eating - but by the end of the scene the
raid is over and Osborne is dead.
The remaining short scenes see Stanhope left cynical by the lack of care
from his superiors about the loss of men.
The play finally ends with the death of Raleigh, and the remaining
characters going forth to the attack they have been waiting for since
Act II.
This conclusion reinforces the futility of war as all the characters we
have gotten to know during the play are now dead or - we assume -
about to die.
 Language

Language refers to the choices of style and vocabulary made by the

author.
The use of language in Journey's End
When analysing the language Sherriff uses you should think about:
• What? The playwright's choice of specific words and dramatic devices
• Where/how? The way in which the writer uses words
• Why? The effect on the reader
Many of the effects mentioned throughout when discussing character,
themes, form and structure are created through Sherriff’s innovative use
of language and other dramatic devices.
• You will be expected to discuss these and analyse how they are used in
every point that you make.
 Stage Set
The language used to describe the set creates atmosphere immediately.
• There is little in the way of home comforts and the darkness is reinforced
through “The flames of the candles that burn day and night are steady in
the still, damp air.”
There is no natural light as the stage is set in a dugout under the ground.
• This is also shown in the description, “Gloomy tunnels lead out of the
dugout to left and right.”
• This claustrophobic setting conveys the horrors of life for soldiers at war.
The description of “earth walls” which “deaden the sounds of war” shows
how men had little comfort in the trenches and were surrounded by
violence and death at all times.
 Foreshadowing
Sherriff gives many hints throughout the play as to what is to come.
• Before the play even begins, the title itself foreshadows that these men
may be coming to the end of something.
Stanhope and Osborne’s discussion about the shame of men who go
home when they are not really sick, foreshadows the tense situation
between Hibbert and Stanhope later on in the play.
In Act II, Scene 1 their conversation about “the worms wandering about
round the stones and roots of trees” may be an ominous foreshadowing
of the death and decay that will come to many of the characters.
Also, when Osborne takes off his wedding ring before he goes on the
raid this hints that he may not be going to return.
All of these things increase tension and introduce the theme of danger
and death early in the play
 Juxtaposition
Sherriff juxtaposes scenes of eating and chatting with scenes of
discussions about battle and violence.
• This has the effect of reminding us that these are human beings.
We often talk of war and the vast numbers of men who died without
really considering that each of those lives belonged to people just like us
or our loved ones.
Seeing the men concerned about what is for breakfast, discussing
gardening and sports, and being nervous and scared before going into
battle removes the glamour and heroism sometimes associated with
fighting for one’s country in the propaganda of the time.
 Jingoistic
(Extreme & emotional nationalism, or chauvinism often characterised by aggressive foreign
policy and an eagerness to wage war)

A conversation between Raleigh and Osborne in Act III, Scene 1 shows

this method of juxtaposition well:
Osborne: D’you like coffee better than tea?
Raleigh: I do for breakfast. [Pause.] Do these smoke bombs make much row
when they burst?
Osborne: Not much. [Pause.] Personally, I like cocoa for breakfast.

Mundane topics like beverage preferences are discussed alongside

dangerous weapons.
• This shows how the men have become so accustomed to danger and
violence that it is just an everyday feature of their lives.
 Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony is created when the audience knows something about
the situation that another character doesn’t know.

In this play there are many examples, but the most striking is when
Hibbert complains to Stanhope of his "neuralgia".
The audience is already half aware of what Stanhope’s response will be
because he has talked of his disapproval of such a tactic before.
 Contrast
Sherriff uses contrasts to guide the audience’s response to characters
and actions.
As discussed, there are contrasts in language and stage directions at the
beginning of the play and at the end.
The characters themselves are contrasted to emphasise certain physical
or personality traits.
For example, when the tall and slim Stanhope first appears on set he is
with chubby red-faced Trotter.
• This emphasises the heroic physical attributes of Stanhope and helps us to
understand the boyish love Raleigh has for him.
Hibbert’s desire to leave - and his pretense at illness to escape - is
contrasted with the character of Stanhope who has “never had a rest”
according to Osborne.
The contrast in Trotter’s addiction to food with Stanhope’s addiction to
alcohol is used to show how everyone uses crutches to deal with the
horrors of war.
They may choose different things to help them cope, but in the end
everyone finds their own way of “breaking the strain”.
Dialogue
 Dialogue
As this is a realist play, the men’s dialogue varies according to their
position and social class.
• This shows the hierarchy in the military, but also how people from every
social class were heroes in the face of adversity.
Stanhope, Osborne and Raleigh all mention that they were public
schoolboys and this is reflected in their use of Standard English and
words like “rugger” and “chaps”.
At the beginning of World War One, only men educated at public school
could become officers.
• But it was around this time that the class system became less regimented
- possibly because so many privately educated officers died.
• It wasn’t long after the war began that men who did not go to public
school could get promoted.
In Journey’s End we see that Trotter is an officer. Yet his use of the
vernacular - “I know a decent bit o’ pudden when I see it” - shows him
to be less well educated.
• This is Sherriff reflecting the changing times.
Look also at the dialogue of the Colonel and Mason - both from very
different classes - to see examples of these variations.
References to life outside the trenches
While the play is set over four days leading up to the final attack, the
past is still important.
• This is shown by the discussions the men have about their lives outside the
war.
Trotter’s description of his garden “with flower-borders – geraniums,
lobelia, and calceolaria”, and Osborne’s revelation that he played rugby
for England humanise these characters.
• We are reminded that every soldier was a real man with a life, just like the
rest of us.
References to Stanhope’s fiancé and Osborne’s wife also remind us of
how many people back home suffered from the war - women and
children lost fathers and loved ones.
It is particularly poignant when Osborne removes his wedding ring
because he doesn’t “want the risk of losing it.”
• We suspect the truth is that he does not expect to survive and wants the
ring to be given to his wife when he dies.
 Stage directions
The stage directions are the part of the script - often in brackets or
italics - that tell the actors how they are to move or speak their lines.
While they do not form the dialogue of the play, they are obviously
important as they tell us what the writer intended us to observe on
stage.
However, there are times where the stage directions use language which
is significant for a reader as well as an audience – note how the word
“boy” is repeated in the stage directions as Raleigh is dying, and how the
simile “like a child” is used to describe how the Sergeant Major carries
him.
These linguistic devices emphasise how young Raleigh is, reinforcing the
futility of a war that kills so many young men with so much potential.
 Sound effects
The stage directions refer frequently to the noises heard from outside
the dugout.
• This means that even in the seemingly calm moments on stage, we are
always aware there is a war going on.
Sherriff uses onomatopoeia at times, describing the sounds vividly.
• For example, the “sharp crack” of grenades and the shells that “whistle
and hiss and moan”.
The opening stage directions describe the “sounds of war” as “faint and
far away”.
• This is in contrast to the final shelling, which “has risen to a great fury”
and is described using words and phrases such as “shriek” and “fevered
spatter”.
The threatening but distant sounds of war shown at the beginning
become a close reality at the end.
 The use of silence in Journey's End
As well as dialogue and sound effects, Sherriff also uses the lack of these
for impact.
The stage directions in Act II, Scene 3 - during the tense dialogue
between Stanhope and Hibbert - refer repeatedly to “silence”.
• This emphasises the awkwardness of the situation and - at times -
Stanhope’s calm leadership skills.
At other times - during Raleigh’s death scene for example - silence is
used to allow the audience to take in and reflect on the tragedy of the
situation.