Journey's End

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Compare how loss is presented in 'Journey's End' and 'Not So Quiet' in the light of the opinion, 'So much more than life was lost in the Great War'. RC Sheriff’s Journey’s End is an anti-war play set in World War One. The play takes place over a series of three days. In this essay I shall be discussing how those who participated in the war effort lost more than their lives. The war bought about many changes, not only was a generation of men lost; but there was a loss of innocence, a loss of humanity and most importantly a loss of self. I'll be comparing Journey's end to Helen Zenna Smith's Not So Quiet, like Journey’s End the novel shows a realistic portrayal of what life was like for VADS. Smith’s Not So Quiet takes place over several years, whilst Journey’s end takes place over three days, but both texts are similar in the fact that they state that the war was responsible for an entire lost generation. From the very beginning of the play Sheriff illustrates a rather bleak picture of the war, and the reader is made to feel the unwelcoming atmosphere of the dugout. However as you read on through the stage directions, Sheriff describes how the “flames of the candles that burn day and night are steady in still, damp air.” This insinuates that there is still hope for the soldiers in the dugout, the flames symbolise hope, and the candles make several appearances within the play, they become very significant towards the end of the play when the dugout is shelled at the very end of the play. The structure mirrors the attitude of the soldiers throughout the duration of the play. The candles could symbolise hope, or they could be representing the loss of lives in the dugout. Sheriff might have been trying to insinuate that the candles epitomize the loss of life and hope in the First World War. During the duration of play the number of candles decreased, by stating the

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