Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff

‘… my last officer. He got lumbago the first night and went home’ – This introduces the theme of ‘going sick’ which will involve Stanhope and Hibbert. Hardy doesn’t seem to care much about losing an officer with ‘backache’ (another difficult illness to diagnose, like Hibbert’s neuralgia), and this will contrast starkly with Stanhope’s attitude.

‘I hope we’re lucky and get a youngster straight from school. They’re the kind that do best.’ – so much of the play revolves around school, specifically because Osborne was a teacher and Stanhope and Raleigh are just out of school. This is a serious comment from Osborne: young men of 18/19 apparently tended to keep their nerve longer than older soldiers. Although Osborne is serious, we can see Sherriff stressing the shocking aspect of the extreme youth of those fighting in 1918.

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‘You keep yourself in by hanging your arms and legs over the side.’ – Army life is presented as appalling – no proper beds, no decent water…

‘You got many rats here?// Har . I should say – roughly – about two million’ – …and a lot of rats.

‘115 rifle grenades – I shouldn’t use them if I were you; they upset Jerry and make him offensive. Besides, they are rusty, in any case’ – Hardy’s attitude to the war is exceptionally easy-going. He doesn’t care about rusty rifle-grenades. Sherriff includes this example of an (older) poor company commander to contrast with Stanhope who enters after this brief introductory scene which serves, among other things, to build up the audience’s interest in his character before he appears.

‘He always likes a word with the company commander he’s relieving.// Har . How is the dear young boy? Drinking like a fish, as usual?’ – Hardy doesn’t want a telling off from Stanhope, so changes the subject to Stanhope’s drinking.