Journey's End

Journey's End Literary Elements

Genre

Tragic play

Language

English

Setting and Context

The action in the play takes place in WWI British trenches over four days leading up to the battle of Saint-Quentin.

Narrator and Point of View

Tone and Mood

The tone is humorous and bleak; the mood is ominous.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Captain Stanhope is the protagonist; his main antagonists are Raleigh, Hibbert, and the colonel.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the play is how to maintain sanity under the miserable and despair-inducing conditions of war.

Climax

The play reaches its climax when the German attack finally comes and Raleigh becomes paralyzed by a bombshell.

Foreshadowing

In the first act of the play, one of the soldiers warns Raleigh to prepare himself for a version of Stanhope he has never seen before. This foreshadows Stanhope's mercurial mood, a symptom of his PTSD.

Understatement

Allusions

In the middle of the play, Osborne reads Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a famous children's book by Lewis Carroll.

Imagery

Paradox

Parallelism

Personification

Use of Dramatic Devices

Throughout the play, Sheriff uses the device of dramatic irony (i.e. letting the audience know more than the characters) by showing Stanhope and Osborne discussing Raleigh while he is off-stage.

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