Act 2 ‘Journey’s End’

1 Why did officers censor letters?

2 What are Stanhope’s reasons for wanting to censor Raleigh’s letter? Are they military

reasons or personal reasons?

Character Traits in Act 2

Read pages 45 – 48 . To help you understand the characters better, imagine that you have been asked to
act out the conflict when Stanhope decides to censor Raleigh’s letter. To prepare for this you would
firstly make preparatory notes.

1. Osborne
Once again Osborne shows himself as a fatherly figure for Stanhope. He tries to calm Stanhope
to not worry about the letter because “he’ll say nothing – rotten – about you.” This shows
Osborne assures that Raleigh will continue liking Stanhope. Sherriff metaphorically uses the
word “rotten” to compare Stanhope’s bad behavior. This shows to the audience Osborne’s
character as a professional soldier because he will never criticize Stanhope, he only sees the
positive things from him. Osborne understands that the horrors of war have made him the way
he is. The way Sherriff uses caesura in this sentence, suggests that Osborne is convinced that
Raleigh will always worship Stanhope as his hero. When Stanhope doubts reading the letter but
he is eager want to know what Raleigh wrote about him , “Osborne glances up at Stanhope” and
offers to read it for him. This suggests Osborne understands his worries about his good name
over Raleigh’s sister. Again this shows us Osborne

_ his words: “He’ll say nothing – rotten- about you.”

_ the stage directions: “Osborne glances up at Stanhope”

_ how he might read the letter:

2. Raleigh

_ his view of Stanhope:

_ what he says:

_ the stage directions:

3. Stanhope

_ his worries:

_ his words and the way he says them:

_ the stage directions