Journey's End (Penguin Modern Classics)

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He was so keen on the fellows in the house keeping fit. He was frightfully down on smoking—and that sort of thing. When Hardy leaves, Osborne sits down to a dinner made by Mason, the officers’ cook. At this point, Raleigh, the new officer, enters. As Osborne and Raleigh talk, Raleigh reveals that he knows Stanhope from before the war. He and Stanhope went to the same high school, and Stanhope was a respected rugby captain whose father was friends with Raleigh’s father. The boys spent summers together, and Stanhope started dating Raleigh’s sister. When Stanhope went off to war, Raleigh thought constantly of him as brave captain. When Raleigh enlisted, he even ­­asked a relative to help him get assigned to Stanhope’s infantry. Hearing this, Osborne realizes he should warn Raleigh that Stanhope has changed. Next the two men talk about Raleigh’s journey through the trenches to the front lines, which he says was an unnervingly quiet experience. Osborne confirms that it is “often quiet” there, despite it being one of the most dangerous places to be stationed. Osborne says they are just “waiting for something” to happen. The Captain of an infantry company stationed in the trenches of St. Quentin, France during World War I. Stanhope is a young man, but he has already seen three years of combat and has gained… A young officer fresh out of school. Raleigh went to the same school as Stanhope, who is several years older than him. As such, he has always admired Stanhope—so much so that he asked…

STANHOPE: Hero-worship be damned! [ He pauses, then goes on, in a strange, high-pitched voice] You know, Uncle, I’m an awful fool. I’m captain of this company. What’s that bloody little prig of a boy matter? D’you see? He’s a little prig. Wants to write home and tell Madge all about me. Well, he won’t; d’you see, Uncle? He won’t write! Censorship! I censor his letters—cross out all he says about me.An officer in Stanhope’s infantry. Hibbert is so afraid of dying in the trenches that he pretends to suffer from an acute case of neuralgia (intense nerve pain). He seizes every opportunity to talk… Raleigh, an 18-year-old officer, reports for the first time to Osborne. Raleigh reveals that he wanted to join the company because his sister is engaged to Stanhope. Osborne detects Raleigh's idolization of Stanhope and gently cautions him that life on the front lines has a habit of changing men. In this passage, Trotter blithely recites a grim rhyme about a mother reassuring her daughter at the sight of her husband being run over by a tram. This passage is significant because it speaks to the play's thematic concern with repression, revealing how soldiers use gallows humor to remain in high spirits when faced with the grim reality of war. That night, Stanhope, Trotter, and Hibbert get drunk on champagne, which the Colonel and other officials provided as a reward. Hibbert drinks more than he normally does, and tells Stanhope that Raleigh isn’t celebrating with them because he’s with the soldiers on watch. This enrages Stanhope, and when Raleigh comes into the dugout, he asks why he would eat with the sergeants rather than the officers. Raleigh admits he couldn’t imagine feasting and partying on the day of Osborne’s death. He asks how Stanhope can do so, and Stanhope yells, “To forget! You think there’s no limit to what a man can bear?”

RALEIGH: Good God! Don’t you understand? How can I sit down and eat that—when—[ his voice is nearly breaking]—when Osborne’s—lying—out there— STANHOPE: The one man I could trust—my best friend—the one man I could talk to as man to man—who understood everything—and you don’t think I care—During dinner, Trotter decides to make a chart representing the remaining hours until he and his fellow officers can leave the trenches. On a paper he draws 144 circles, intending to fill them in as the hours pass. By the end of dinner, only Stanhope and Osborne remain in the dugout, and Stanhope is exceedingly drunk. He admits that he’s afraid Raleigh will write to his sister—who’s waiting for Stanhope to return—and tell her about his drinking. Stanhope declares that he’s going to censor Raleigh’s letters, and Osborne puts his drunken friend to bed. In this private conversation on the subject of Raleigh's idolization of Stanhope, Osborne and Stanhope touch on the theme of heroism. Having looked up to Stanhope at school, Raleigh and Raleigh's sister turned him into a hero. However, Stanhope reveals in this dialogue his concern that Raleigh will see Stanhope for who he is truly is, having been damaged by the effects of war. Osborne sees things differently, and has faith that Raleigh will continue to see him as a hero, despite Stanhope's drinking and temper. She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line—without being doped up with whiskey—I'd go mad with fright." Stanhope, Act I, p. 31