An Analysis Of Wilfred's 'Dulce Et Decorum Est'

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Many people use to romanticize the idea of leaving and dying in war for their country. In the poem, Dulce et Decorum Est, by Owen Wilfred, Wilfred stresses about how the war isn’t as romantic as portrayed by the public and the media and how truly awful the war really was. Wilfred Owen uses similes, metaphors, and imagery to demonstrate his gruesome tone of haunting hopelessness about what was supposed to be a romantic war. Owen Wilfred wanted the people sending their loved ones from home was far from a beautiful event. Wilfred uses heart-wrenching imagery to explain the torturous times of war and to demonstrate the hopelessness tone of the soldier’s lives on the battlefront. Wilfred recounts, “He plunges at me guttering, chocking, drowning” (Wilfred 16), demonstrating the gruesome death of men from the mustard gas. Wilfred wants his readers to know the awful deaths that people have to die so that they are aware that war and dying for their country is not beautiful or romantic. Wilfred also recalls hearing, “the blood gurgling from the froth-corrupted lungs” (Wilfred 22). By using this gruesome imagery, Wilfred is able to achieve his tone of haunted hopelessness, by exhibiting the gruesome deaths that the mislead soldiers had died.…show more content…
Thus, Wilfred is able to accomplish portraying his tone of haunted hopelessness to the audience because of these comparisons and the impact it had on their lives. Wilfred describes his colleagues as “Bent double like beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags,” and the man who was dying from mustard gas as “under a green sea I saw him drowning.” By using these metaphors and similes Owen is able to accomplish his overall goal of portraying the truth about war to his readers and how truly haunting it

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