journey's end essay questions

Journey’s End

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Friendship and Human Interaction

In Journey’s End , R.C. Sherriff showcases the effect of war on personal relationships. In particular, he focuses on how wartime power dynamics and interpersonal attitudes alter the ways people interact with one another. This is most recognizable in Stanhope and Raleigh ’s friendship, which suffers because of the various stressors of military life. For the majority of his young adult life, Raleigh has looked up to Stanhope, a classmate who eventually goes off to…

Anticipation, Expectations, and Uncertainty

Perhaps the most challenging thing the soldiers in Journey’s End face isn’t violence itself, but the threat of violence. Although their trenches are situated only 70 yards from their German enemies, the majority of their time is spent in nervous anticipation. In the long hours—and even days—between bursts of combat, the soldiers are left to grapple with their fear, which grows in intensity when the battlefront is calm. Indeed, most of Journey’s End focuses on…

Fear and Coping

All of the soldiers in Journey’s End find different ways to cope with their fear. In fact, their responses to fear can be broken into three categories: acceptance, denial, and evasion. In general, the most emotionally stable characters are those who accept their situation. These are people like Osborne and Raleigh , who acknowledge their own fear and unfortunate circumstances, but still bravely carry out their soldierly duties. Stanhope , on the other hand, tries…

Repetition, Futility, and Perspective

In Journey’s End , Sherriff presents to the audience the cyclical nature of life during war. The soldiers in the trenches try to organize their lives around eating meals, drinking tea, sleeping, and taking orders, which ultimately adds a repetitious quality to their collective existence. Indeed, they are always either standing watch or waiting to stand watch. What’s more, the kind of violence that characterizes trench warfare is itself repetitive: the attacks come intermittently, such…

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Journey's End

If you are teaching R.C. Sheriff's powerful World War One play, our resources on characters, key quotations and themes will help to consolidate students' understanding. Use the revision resources and essay questions to prepare GCSE English Literature students for their exams.    

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‘Journey’s End’ complete set of questions.

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A complete set of questions for 'Journey's End'. Used to teach students studying GSCE Literature (Edexcel). Questions are intended to develop inferences and interpretation, rather than language analysis; however, these questions could be used as a starting point for anyone studying 'Journey's End' / any exam board.

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Journey's End - Example Essays, Questions and Paragraphs

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

20 June 2021

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This resource is a hugely helpful bundle that includes a range of example essays, paragraphs and questions on Journey’s End. It can be helpful for teachers in developing their understanding of the play and how their teaching might be shaped; it can also be useful as exemplar or model material that is given to pupils in order to help them to develop their understanding of how to write analytically at a high level in KS3 or reasonable / solid KS4 level.

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Journey’s End Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer sections of our study guides are a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss literature.

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Journey's End

How does sherriff create tension in the duologue between osborne and stanhope at the end of act 1, what are trotter's quotes showing his emotions, how sherriff presents the true horrors of was through the character of raleigh, how is the confrontation over the letter ironic, what is the role and significance of stanhope in the play journey's end, q. how does sheriff make the death of osborne seem such a terrible loss support your answer with details from the text., journey's end, how is instability presented in this play, how does r.c. sheriff make a lot of act 1 feel so amusing, and what does this convey about the mentality of the men, cuál era el conocimiento previo de raleigh sobre stanhope, how is stanhope presented at the dinner (up to where he tells hibbert to ‘clear out of here’), how is raleigh presented in the stage directions, what does stanhope say the only thing a decent man can do, would mason be the only innocent character, what is the evidence of raliegh being immature.

Journey's End by R.C. Sheriff Essay

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Journey's End by R.C. Sheriff R. C. Sherriff created characters that aid the audience's understanding of war through their emotions and dialogue. Each character generates an intensive atmosphere and prompts differing emotions and thoughts from the audience, expressing different feelings and reactions towards war, which all aggregate to the same thing, the fear that they are all going to die sooner than later. The play was written to make people contemplate the futility of war. World war one was a war which lead hundreds of thousands of soldiers to their death. A road where millions met their death, World War One truly was a ' Journey's End '. The play shows how an economically and socially secure era was coming to an …show more content…

"FIND QUOTE of Raleigh’s speech" Their dialogue rambles on as though they are older people looking back on life. The time they have spent there feels like eternity, showing the boredom in trench life because there is nothing to keep them occupied to make the time pass quicker. The humour provides a light relief in what would be a tragic and horrific play. It allows a balanced view of the war and shows the audience the stupidity and reality of war. Although a tragedy, the play begins on a humorous note. Captain Hardy is drying a wet sock over a candle, in the conversation he uses flippant humour making it the most amusing speech in the play. "Shot a rat...No. I shot the rat, you ass." (Act1 scene1 pg14) Hardy provides relief to an intensive play and provides background information. Mason's humour is born of ignorance rather than an attempt to be amusing. Unlike Hardy's humour, it is lifeless yet facetious, designed purely to raise a laugh. "Quite nice and lumpy" It is necessary humour to relieve the tension created by Stanhope and Raleigh. The audience becomes aware of the conditions of the trenches at the beginning of the play. Hardy is drying a wet sock over a candle showing the trenches are cold, wet and damp. He tells the audience that the beds have no bottoms in, resulting in lack of sleep leading to fatigue and exhaustion. There is such a huge health risk due to poor, unsanitary conditions, that there is

War And Trauma In Tim O’Brien’S “The Things They Carried”.

The uncertainty of war itself has a major impact on the characters throughout the novel. The boundaries between right and wrong are repeatedly broken, causing the characters to lose the basic morals they lived by before being sent to war. O’Brien describes the lack of clarity that comes with war through his characters actions. The soldiers often find temporary justification of the trauma they experience through more pain, such as when Rat Kiley deals with his grief and pain after losing his best friend Curt Lemon by repeatedly shooting a baby water buffalo. At any other time, we can assume

Discuss How Sherriff Presents Human Weakness and Frailty in Journeys End

Journeys End was written with the intention of “letting the war speak”. The lives of the officers on the front line during 1917 are examined. A key theme that is explored throughout the play is the reactions of the mind and body, under the stress of the war. Each character represents the weakness of the human being in an individual way, but the character on which frailty is mainly focussed is Stanhope.

Summary Of Fast Food Nation

Unsanitary conditions lead to unsanitary

The Horrendous Effect Of War In Journey's End By R. C Sherriff

He is very thrilled to be going to war, but he got shocked by “how frightfully quiet it is”, he was expecting that it “was fighting all the time”. As Raleigh arrived his thoughts of war has changed quiet a lot. As everyone thinks, war is very noisy place, but he got surprised knowing that it is mostly quiet. Staying at the trenches also changed his idea of war; he thought that the soldiers were always battling. Throughout the play, Raleigh often says the word “Righto!” which shows his exhilaration of being a courageous soldier in war. The exclamation mark also confirms his excitement. After Raleigh’s first encounter with war, all his opinions about war change, he starts looking at war seriously knowing its apprehension. Raleigh “liked being up” in the battle field “better than down” in the trenches”, he prefers spending time in the support line with the other men instead of being with the officers that were as he thought celebrating when Osborne has just died. Raleigh loses his enthusiasm and eagerness, after Osborne’s death. Raleigh starts feeling responsible and keen on his

Evaluation of Play War Horse Essay

On Monday the 21st of September I went to see the play ‘War Horse’ at the New London Theatre. The play was directed by Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris and is written about the novel ‘War Horse’ by Michael Morpurgo. The play is about a horse, Joey. He is sold to the English cavalry and is shipped off to France were we serves in WW1. His owner, Albert desperate not to lose Joey, enlists in the army despite the fact that he is under aged. Albert embarks on a treacherous journey on a quest to find Joey. The play is based upon the horse’s perspectives and views. War Horse is trying to emphasis the strong brutality of war, and

How Does Journey's End React To War

How does Journey’s End end explore the ways in which the men in the play react to war?

Journey's End By R. C Sherriff: Play Analysis

War is a deadly conflict between countries that contributes to millions of tragic deaths of courageous soldiers who sacrificed their lives, time and energy in order to defend their country. R.C Sherriff, who wrote the dramatic play “Journey’s End” which is considered a play close to reality, served as a soldier in World War 1. “Journey’s End” is a play which talks about the World War 1 and how war caused soldiers to change. Moreover, war is a frightening experience that no soldier can fail to recall. With a life-threatening war comes a dramatic change in character.

Explore How the Protagonists in “Journey’s End” and “the Accrington Pals” Are Affected by War

Sherriff and Peter Whelan developed the protagonists in their plays to reflect the impact the war had, not just on the world, but also on the individuals involved in war. May Hassle and Dennis Stanhope were clearly affected greatly by war; May, by what the war took from her, Tom; and Stanhope, by what the war gave him.

Dialogue Essay: The Hero's Last Day

Day after day, year after year he said nothing of his affection. “I am in love with you,” he whispered to the headstone before him. A tear trickled down his wrinkled cheek, and a muffled sob escaped him. He covered his face with his free hand while he clutched the dozen, red roses tighter with the other. As dusk drew near and wrapped her arms around the land, fireflies drifted out of wherever they hide during the hours of the day. The moon began to glow behind the distant horizon, and the first star appeared suddenly in the middle of the sky, but the man took no notice. He gently laid the roses on the ground in front of him and for the thousandth time, reread the simple words on the stone. “Marie Sutton,” it read, “1920-1980”. No one had ever known of any relatives, and she had died penniless, forcing the town to pay for the cost of her burial. After the slightly awkward funeral, someone had placed a tiny

Dulce Et Decorum Est Context Essay

Owen recalls his group being physically and mentally overwhelmed by the toil of battle in the first stanza of the poem using illustrative similes and alliteration, “Bent Double, like old beggars under sacks, / Knock-Kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through the sludge,” that presents a scene to the reader of soldiers who had gone to war with a strong nationalist idea, but ended up facing the horrible reality with induced shell shock (Owen 1-2). The language of the first stanza may surprise the reader, as it is barely appropriate for the glory of the battlefield where heroes are supposed to be found. As the soldiers lethargically persevere, or “marched asleep” through the blood that surrounded them, the slow rhythm of stanza allows the reader to somewhat empathize with the rugged troops to the point to where both sides may not have quickly grasped the grave calamity that is soon to occur, especially with the use of “softly” in “gas-shells dropping softly behind,” to prove that point (Owen

Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay

The speaker talks about how the soldiers look “like old beggars under sacks” and how they are “coughing like hags” (1, 2). The imagery in this poem gives a closer look at how the soldiers are feeling about the war. The soldiers are “drunk with fatigue” so tired they did not pay any heed to the dropping gas bombs (7). When the bomb drops on the group there is “an ecstasy of fumbling” to put gas masks on; these descriptions show how quickly the soldiers need to react (9). One soldier, still shouting the warning, began “flound’ring like a man in fire” (12).

Misconceptions Of War

The poem is centered towards a target audience of young men pre - war. The poem encourages young blood to join the army and fight for their country. The message and ideas of war are displayed in a rather positive, upbeat manner. Jessie Pope enforces her misleading messages through the use of language features, first of which is Rhyming. The useage or rhyming in prominent throughout the poem. A few examples of rhyme are ‘Fight? ...Tight?’ and ‘Played….Unafraid?’ The use of rhyme sets the tone of the text to a light hearted, safe vibe. Jessie Pope wants her target audience to feel safe when signing up to join war, and to mask the true horrors they would be signing themselves into. The rhyming of the text takes us back to our childhood from when we would read nursery rhymes. As children we didn’t think about the real meaning or darker origins of the story. We can see this reflected in the poem as the jolly tone masks the horrors of war that, with hindsight, we are aware of. Another method Pope used to mislead readers was the use of contrast. Jessie Pope made sure that her readers would feel ashamed if they were to not join the war. The line ‘Turn to himself in the show?’ is followed by ‘Who wants a seat in the stand?’. Pope uses litotes as an anti climax to downgrade the alternative option of not going to war. This creates a choice which only has one answer that would be accepted, go to war. This further illustrates the misleading approach to making young men go to war. Finally, Jessie Pope uses an extended metaphor to reinforce her misleading messages. Throughout the text, war is compared to a game. ‘Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid’ is directly comparing war to a game of rugby. Pope has used this to make connections between the audience's everyday lives and the new challenge of war. We view games as a fun time, which Pope used to give a fun tone to

Seeking Revenge And Vengeance In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

In the play there are many mistakes that come with taking revenge. I believe revenge is bitter sweet and that everything will come back and end up poorly for the person seeking revenge. Revenge is something that will cause you to make mistakes or regrets in life. “How now, a rat? Dead for a

A Comparison in the Presentation of the ‘Horrors of War’ in Birdsong and A Journey’s End

Tone Of The Poem Epilogue

Robert Browning, the author of Epilogue, incorporates poetic devices into this poem to illustrate the speaker's decision to go to war. Furthermore, he uses imagery, diction, and detail to show and support the tone of the poem. Browning expresses the tone with more than just one specific tone. In fact, Browning uses different emotions that represent the speaker’s defence for his patriotism. All of the speaker's emotions join in the poem to show what he was feeling as he was in war.

Related Topics

• Trench warfare
• World War I
• Napoleonic Wars
• Journey's End

Journey's End: Advanced Level English Literature: essay questions

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Journey's End

essay questions for A level English Literature

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