Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff

‘One and two, it’s with Maud and Lou’ – This apparently innocuous rhyme in fact seems to relate a soldier’s adventures in a brothel. This aspect of military life will recur in the dinner scene of Act Three. Hardy is clearly looking forward to his leave. (The last scene of the play also begins with a song).

‘Tick! – Tock! – wind up the clock,/And we’ll start the day over again’ – The end of the song implies Hardy has ‘plenty of life left in him’ and a new opportunity. He is coming off front-line duties just before the big attack. It is less lucky for his successors.

‘Don’t have too much water. It’s rather strong today’ – underlines the unpleasantness of army life (water tasting of disinfectant), but also strikes a note on the first page that will be echoed at the very end of the play: both Hibbert and Raleigh ask for water just before their deaths.

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‘and those horrid little things like pineapples – you know’ – The use of babyish language is frequent and helps make the war seem bearable. Compare Osborne reading Alice in Wonderland .

‘A dug-out got blown up and came down in the men’s tea. They were frightfully annoyed.// Osb . There’s nothing worse than dirt in your tea.’ – A lot of trench talk is ‘counter-intuitive’ humour. Nobody makes much of the fact that, apparently, no one died or was seriously injured, instead the focus is on the comparatively minor calamity of contaminated tea.

‘By the way, you know the big German attack is expected any day now?’ – Sherriff begins to build up audience tension. This is the first indication of what this play is really going to be about. Historically, the ‘big attack’ was the Kaiserschlacht, the last big German offensive of the war. The prong of the attack at Saint-Quentin, where Journey’s End is set, was called Operation Michael.

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‘There’s more transport than usual coming up…bringing up loads and loads of men’ – Sherriff again increasing the tension.