Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff

Page 11

‘I was only a kid and he was one of the big fellows’ – school talk from Raleigh. So much of the dialogue in the play is taken from a school context – adding to the tragic effect of seeing these extremely young men suffer so terribly.

‘He’s a splendid chap’ – Osborne again boosting Stanhope. It is a constant theme of these opening scenes.

‘Of course, I wasn’t in the same class as Dennis – I say, I suppose I ought to call him Captain Stanhope?’ – This establishes a small but significant theme of the play. Only at the very end will ‘Dennis’ and ‘Jimmy’ be on first name terms again. Incidentally, it was probably their friendship out of school which got them on first name terms – at school, as in the trenches, it would have been Stanhope and Raleigh.

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‘our fathers were friends’ – We later learn that Raleigh’s father was a country vicar. Quite apart from the fact that he is practically engaged to Madge, one can understand how horrified Stanhope would be to think that a clergyman and friend of his father’s could find out about his dependence on alcohol.

‘He’s a fine company commander’ – Osborne again boosting Stanhope.

‘he’d just go his M.C. and been made captain. He looked splendid! It – sort of – made me feel – ' – Raleigh volunteered to fight (conscription only came at the very end of the war) because of Stanhope. Raleigh will later be recommended for the M.C., but only after the award has become meaningless for him.

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‘I can write and tell her all about him. He doesn’t say much in his letters’ – One can almost hear in this Raleigh’s promises to Madge, who has, no doubt, been very worried by the non-committal letters from Stanhope she has recently received. This is an ironic foreshadowing of what will be at the nub of the tension between Stanhope and Raleigh.