War Versus Anti-War
This novel is generally considered to be an anti-war novel, and the main theme of the book is the conflict between the pro-war and anti-war elements of society. The main characters fall heavily into one camp or another. Billy Prior is not pro-war on political grounds but out of loyalty to the men who have served under him and especially those he has seen killed whilst fighting for King and country. Beattie Roper and her family are pacifists and therefore anti-war, deemed conscientious objectors by society and authorities, and treated harshly and with disdain. The main theme of the book is the constant war of attrition between the two sides, yet there is also a third layer to this theme and that is the battle within many of the central characters themselves, and situations in which they are conflicted themselves as to which side of the argument they stand on. Prior is disdainful of "conchies" yet on Beattie Roper's side as soon as he realizes that she is being set up and has been convicted of an assassination plot that she had no part of. Similarly Dr Rivers is doing his job in getting "shell shocked" soldiers back to France to fight as soon as possible yet within himself there is conflict as he is aware that he is declaring them "fit" only to send them back to their probable deaths again.
Homosexuality and "Outing"
One of the constant themes of the novel is homosexuality and within that, fear of being revealed publicly as gay, which was not only socially unacceptable to most of the public, but also a criminal act punishable by imprisonment. Billy Prior is a bisexual man with a voracious appetite for sex with both men and women, and probably the only character in the book who does not fear repercussions regarding his sexuality. Captain Manning, on the other hand, is a gay man who has married, and who has children. It is a testament to the level of fear of being outed at the time that he is more frightened by the threat of being included on a list of prominent homosexual men than he is of either fighting in France or being in his London home when it is bombed. This theme runs concurrently with the theme of the war and the author uses real historical figures in this storyline too, namely Oscar Wilde, whose new adaptation of Salome is not only filled with homosexual connotation and innuendo but it seems that even going to see the play is an admittance of homosexuality as well.
Class
Britain has always had a rampant class system and this is a theme throughout the book. Billy Prior, in particular, is always very conscious of class, as he is essentially a working class boy who has risen through the ranks during the war and has been promoted to a class that he does not feel like he belongs in. The term "temporary gentleman" is used throughout the book to describe those in Billy's position. Generally speaking the officers with whom he now spends his time are supportive of the war and if they are not fighting it is because they have been injured and cannot go back to the frontline. Billy's childhood friends are the "conchies" in the novel and this is seen not just as a moral issue but as a class issue as well. Billy's father also continues the theme of class throughout the book as he is not opposed to the war in principle but opposed to the face that, as he sees it, the working man is used as cannon fodder for the upper class's war games. This also adds to the internal conflict that Billy feels throughout the novel.
Mental Health and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Dr Rivers is a psychologist and the main "medic" character in the novel. He is taken from real life, as are some of his more famous patients such as war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, the latter having been renowned for his anti-war poetry, much of which was attributed to his declining mental state as a result of action seen in the war. The theme deals mostly with post traumatic stress disorder, which at the time was called "shell shock" which seemed to minimize it as a condition, leading many men who were mentally and emotionally unfit to serve any longer to be sent back to the war. The results of PTSD in the novel are seen in many ways, from complete periods of memory loss, such as Prior suffers, to suicidal or violently homicidal tendencies. Because the main characters in this book are connected by Dr Rivers, the theme of PTSD and mental health is a theme that follows through the whole novel.
