In what ways do you find Sherriff’s presentation of the relationship between Stanhope and Osborne to be particularly moving?
‘Journey’s End’ is a play about the life of officers in the trenches in the First World War. It was written by R.C Sherriff who himself served as a captain in the East Surrey Regiment in the First World War. In ‘Journey’s End’ the playwright presents the relationship between Stanhope and Osborne to be particularly moving by displaying Osborne as a father figure to Stanhope, by showing how much Osborne cares for Stanhope in the way he defends him when Stanhope isn’t in the room, and by illustrating the fact that Osborne and Raleigh only discuss their true emotions and show vulnerability when they are alone with one another.…show more content… The first instance where we see this is how Stanhope refers to Osborne as ‘uncle’ this is moving as Stanhope refers to Osborne as ‘uncle’ a great deal more than the other officers and even more so when it is only Osborne and Stanhope together. Another time we see Osborne presented as a father figure to Stanhope is when Osborne Is putting Stanhope to bed and Stanhope says ‘dear old uncle, Tuck me up’ this is particularly moving as this would usually be what a parent would do to a young child so it shows how close their relationship is, how much Osborne cares for Stanhope and it shows how comfortable Stanhope is around Osborne as he trusts Osborne to look after him when he is most vulnerable in the production of ‘journeys end’ at the watermill theatre they portrayed how much of a father figure was to Stanhope very well as he was extremely kind and spoke in a softer tone to Stanhope and took a lot of care into getting him to bed. The final way in which we see Osborne to be presented as a father figure is the way in which Stanhope and Osborne open up to each other emotionally as one would usually do with someone close to them that they trust for example ‘I couldn’t bear being fully conscious all the time – you’ve felt that, uncle, haven’t you?’ this is particularly moving due to the repetition of ‘uncle’ again and…show more content… The first example that we see of this is when the colonel and Stanhope and Trotter have interrogated a German soldier and the colonel says ‘phone the brigadier. He’ll be very pleased about it’, with which Stanhope replies ‘how awfully nice-if the brigadier’s pleased’. This is moving as we know that Stanhope isn’t actually happy that the brigadier is going to be pleased but is instead remarking with a sarcastic tone on how the interrogation has taken priority over Osborne’s very sudden death. This shows us that Stanhope cared more about Osborne than the capturing of the German soldier. I thought that in the production of ‘journeys end’ at the watermill theatre portrayed this scene extremely well as they showed a strong change in Stanhope’s stage presence and his mood. Another instance where we see how much it affects Stanhope when Osborne dies is when Stanhope and Raleigh are having an argument about how Raleigh did not come to the celebratory dinner and Stanhope says ‘the one man I could trust-my best friend-the one man I could talk to’, this is particularly moving as this is one of the first times Stanhope as revealed his emotions to an officer other than Osborne which shows how strongly he felt about Osborne’s death this is also moving because Stanhope is exposing how he felt