Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff
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‘There isn’t a man to touch him as a commander of men.’ – Osborne continues to defend and build up Stanhope for the audience.
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‘I love that fellow. I’d go to hell with him.’ – The personal aspect of his devotion to Stanhope is brought out by this quotation. There is something of a father-son relationship between them, as there will be fleetingly between Trotter and Raleigh.
‘Well, no, I don’t specially want to see him. He’s so fussy about the trenches.’ – Hardy’s status is reduced by his not wishing to stand up to Stanhope.
‘And don’t forget about the big attack.’ – A final jab at Osborne (the conversation has had an edge throughout), but, more importantly, Sherriff is keeping the main action of the play in the front of the audience’s mind.
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‘Ever had earwig races?’ – introduces a theme of absurd and pointless behaviour and chatter as a way of avoiding thinking of the war.
‘dip it in whisky – makes ‘em go like hell!’ – an ironic (and quite possibly unintended) parallel with Stanhope, whose determination and bravery comes out of a bottle these days.
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‘I should take your pack off’ – a humorous moment. Raleigh is as nervous as a new boy at school, and Osborne, the ex-schoolmaster, treats him gently just as he would have done a new pupil.
‘Will you have a drink?’ – This is the unofficial army greeting, used with almost everybody from the Sergeant-Major to the Colonel. Considering the fact that the soldiers can’t usually get a chicken, whisky seems to be remarkably easy to obtain. Sherriff, no doubt, intends to give the impression that the entire British army in the First World War was fuelled on whisky.