Hello Ms, I don’t think I will have time to go into this much detail in the exam so please

could you advise me on things I need to focus more on and should cut out.
Explore the presentation of the horrors of war in The Wiper’s Times and two Owen poems

Intro:
WHAT ARE THE HORRORS OF WAR?
Both writers reveal the horrors of war, such as the dehumanising conditions the soldiers
endure, being surrounded by constant shelling, and the brutality of death and loss
experienced. Owen, Hislop and Newman reveal how inescapable these horrors were, and
resulted in becoming desensitised after being exposed to such trauma. Owen’s typical style of
utilising a blunt, bitter tone especially reveals his criticism of how inhumane it was to allow a
war that inflicted such pain and suffering to mankind; we further can see the loss of youth
and innocence as a result of being exposed to conditions that no human should endure. Hislop
and Newman utilise satire, which is atypical of war literature, however the use of humour
acts as a form of revealing these soldier’s desperation to escape from the reality of war. The
satirical tone is also utilised by the playwrights to also criticise these conditions and further
stress the horrific nature of them, whilst creating a comical effect which mocks the purpose of
war itself and those in charge. Both writers are effective in shaping meanings towards the
tragic nature of the horrors of war and through their critical style they allow us as an audience
to be exposed to the truth about war that was not displayed within early war literature and
propaganda.

Both Owen and Hislop and Newman present the horrors of war through the constant shelling.
Owen illustrates this within “The Sentry” through the alliteration “And gave us hell, for shell
on frantic shell”, by alluding the conditions on the front line to “hell”, Owen dramatically
reveals the horrific danger of their situation that the pain and suffering they are experiencing
is near to “hell”. The religious imagery of “hell” further mirrors how death surrounds these
men, as they are under the constant threat of danger from the relentless shelling over their
heads. This is typical of war poetry to reference the conditions on the battlefield to “hell”, as
after such a catastrophic war, many questioned how a greater God could exist and allow such
suffering to be inflicted onto mankind. Owen intends to reveal the blunt reality of the
inescapability of death, emphasising how hopeless these men’s lives are as they are powerless
amongst such inhumane conditions. Owen continues to reveal the relentless nature of the
shelling through “frantic shell”, the adjective “frantic” describes the non-target-based
shelling, reflecting how as the enemy knew that their enemy was somewhere in front of them,
so they just seemed to shell anywhere within that vicinity in the hope that they would be
causing death. Through how vicious the tactics of shelling were Owen graphically reveals
how there was no recognition towards human life, further emphasising the horror of war.
Owen further frightens the reader through the internal rhyme “hell” and “shell” to reflect the
inevitability of the pace that these bombs came down and the repetition of the word “shell”
reflects how constant this was for these men to hear the sounds of shells exploding, implying
how desensitised they have become as a result of being exposed to such horrors for a long
period of time. Owen begins this poem utilising iambic pentameter, then introduces other
pentameters such as trochaic, this is intended to mirror the chaotic action on the battlefield
and allows us as readers to feel shocked by the unpredictable nature of the shells exploding.
Owen’s blunt, bitter tone in exposing the horrors of the shelling is typical of Owen’s poetry
as in contrast to literature during his time that disguised the true reality of what life was like
on the front line, Owen instead graphically exposes his readers to the truth of how chaotic
and disorganised the battlefield really was. Through his tone, Owen reveals his raw emotions
behind the suffering of those soldiers become dehumanised by such conditions, and as he
experienced many of the most excruciating battles such as the Somme which resulted in more
than 300,000 death. Similarly, to ‘The Sentry’, within ‘All quiet on the western front’,
Remarque reveals the terrible horror and brutality of war, both writers do not romanticise
what war was like which was typical of early war literature to emphasise ideas such as glory,
honour, patriotic duty and adventure. Remarque’s novel portrays the mind-numbing terror
and savagery of war with a relentless focus on the physical and psychological damage that it
occasions. At the end of the novel, almost every major character is dead, epitomizing the
war’s devastating effect on the generation of young men who were forced to fight. Similarly,
Owen forces us as readers to see war for its meaningless, butchery and fear and alter
mankind’s conception of military conflict with its catastrophic levels of carnage and violence.
Furthermore, as modern readers, we see the tragedy of war and the gruesome nature of new
technological advancements leading to the death of millions of innocent men, such as Owen
himself tragically dying only one week before the armistice.

Hislop and Newman similarly utilises a recurring motif of the shelling to emphasise the
horrors of war. Through the cyclical structure of beginning and ending scenes bluntly with
the reminder of the sounds of explosions and the constant shelling, Hislop and Newman
stresses the inevitability of death on the front line due to these horrors. The playwrights create
this running motif throughout the play to constantly remind the audience the relentless nature
of these threats, within Scene two, the playwrights illustrate “On the backdrop we see a
photograph of the remains of the Cloth Hall against the Ypres skyline. We hear constant shell
fire”. Through these stage directions, the playwrights reveal the devastating physical impact
of shelling, not only on human life, but also the landscape and buildings such as the Cloth
Hall in Ypres that was targeted and destroyed as a result of the bombings of WW1. Hislop
and Newman repeat the sensory language “We hear the noise of more shell fire” in order to
disrupt the flow of the dialogue between the men and reflect how no matter how hard these
men try to escape from the realities of war, the shelling is symbolic of how inescapable these
horrors are. Within the dialogue Hislop and Newman utilise humour to reflect how these
soldiers made a joke of the bombs, this is displayed through how Robert jokes “Fritz’s love-
tokens seem to be arriving with disturbing accuracy.” Through comparing the bombs to
“Fritz-s love tokens” the playwrights continue this motif of the constant threat of death, as
well as revealing how these men normalised and downplayed such conditions through
humour as a coping mechanism to live amongst these horrors. The satirical tone is atypical of
war literature, as post war literature is typical of utilising an emotive tone to reflect the
tragedy of death from the horror of war. However, Hislop and Newman employ humour as a
way of mocking these horrors, to further criticise how war dehumanises and devalues those
men on the front line. The playwrights further illustrate the inescapability of the shelling
within the song by the soldiers in Act two, scene two “But its hard to dream of Nancy, when
the whizz-bangs sing above”. The playwrights utilise “Nancy” as a microcosm for those
loved ones at home, and then in the following line utilises personification to illustrate the
shells “singing” as a blunt message for how these soldiers cannot waste time thinking about
the home front when they are surrounded by the horrors of the conditions on the front line.
Furthermore, both Owen and Hislop and Newman bluntly reveal to us a reader the relentless
nature of the shelling in order to reflect the horror of war.

Both Hislop and Neman and Owen present the horrors of the war through the dehumanisation
of the soldiers. Owen illustrates this within “Dulce Decorum est” revealing the horrors the
speaker and his comrades go through; and through the way he describes the soldiers, as
though they are distorted and damaged, parallels how the speaker’s mind is violated and
haunted by these horrific conditions. Within the second stanza, Owen introduces a new threat,
mustard gas through the dialogue “GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-an ecstasy of fumbling, fitting
the clumsy helmets just in time”, through the repetition of “Gas” Owen emphasises the shock
of the soldiers and allows the pace of the poem to be increased further reflecting the panic
and confusion of war. The capitalisation of “GAS” portrays the yell of warning and distress
while an exclamation mark reflects a feeling of shock and surprise. The repeated use of
exclamation marks builds tension, to reflect the confusion and panic of the soldier’s response,
Owen intends to stress to the reader the horrific reality that not many soldiers were quick
enough to react to the threat of gas, this is further stressed within “an ecstasy of fumbling”.
“Ecstasy” is utilised to stress how much chaos there was by comparing it to a drug effect, this
is effective in illustrating the confusion and disorganisation of war. Owen intended to show
the horrific effects of mustard gas to reveal the callous nature of war involving such
dehumanising modern artillery. Most gases were delivered by artillery shells, mustard gas
caused chemical burn on contact, with blisters oozing yellow fluid and the morality rate from
mustard gas was only 2-3%. The graphic imagery of such horrors is mirrored within Chapter
Four of All quiet on the western front, Remarque illustrates the men like animals themselves
as they cling to the earth in shell hole, trenches and dugouts, foreshadowing their own burials.
The consciousness of the front and its terrors streams through this chapter in Paul’s thoughts.
Furthermore, man’s inhumanity is stressed throughout this surreal nightmare; the screaming
horses are like nature itself crying out at the actions of mankind. As Kat remarks that the
young recruit is such “an innocent”, Remarque seems to be commenting on the entire “lost
generation” of this war. Owen similarly zooms in on the pain and suffering of these soldiers
as a result of such dehumanising conditions, further illustrated within the quote “He plunges
at me, guttering, choking, drowning”, through the triple of brutal, merciless verbs Owen
creates the sense that the action is in the present tense. This further is reflective of how the
soldiers die over and over in his dream, making the suffering of war-time casualties never-
ending. Through how he “plunged” at him shows how he is struggling and helpless as the
narrator cannot help him while he watches him slowly get murdered by the fire and lime-like
gas “my helpless sight”. Owen therefore reveals the terrible reality of war through the
gruesomeness of these horrors and further criticises the glory and sweetness to die for your
country is nothing but lies to persuade you into war.
Similarly, Hislop and Newman explore the horrors of war through the graphic imagery of
Robert’s gas attack at the ending of scene ten. The playwrights shock the audience with the
blunt reminder of the inescapability of death through the effect of filling “the stage with
yellow gas”; this is highly effective in exposing the horrific reality of war and how danger
surrounds these men. Similar to within Dulce decorum est, Hislop and Neman utilise the
exclamatory sentence of dialogue “Gas! Gas! Gas!” to visually evoke a sense of panic and
chaos amongst the stage. This dramatically builds tension as the audience cannot see where
these men are on the stage due to the effect of the yellow gas, this frightens the audience as it
creates uncertainty on whether the character Roberts is alive. The playwrights then inform
that the “lights go down” creating a sinister, tense mood and symbolising the darkness and
death involved in war. The playwrights release the audience’s suspense as we see “Robert’s
staggering, and frantically trying to pull on his gas mask”. Similarly, to within Dulce
decorum est, Hislop and Neman employ emotive verbs such as “staggering” to illustrate the
pain gas has inflicted on men such as Roberts and caused this inhumane suffering. Through
utilising the main character, Roberts, to suffer the effects of being gases is effective because
as an audience we have most the most attachment and connection to Roberts as we are aware
of the sense of hope and positivity he brings to his comrades despite such horrific conditions.
Therefore, this heightens our awareness of the harsh nature of war on inflicting the pain to the
most innocent young men. Furthermore through ending this scene in a “blackout” is a blunt
reminder of how these men cannot escape death on the front line, both writers use of graphic
imagery and use of short exclamatory sentences creates an honest illustration of the panic and
confusion on the front line and allows us to see the physical and psychological effects of
many innocent men’s lives being destroyed as a result of the introduction of poison gas.
Similarly to within Dulce decorum est, Hislop and Newman also explore the idea that war is
a lie through utilising satire to criticise the inhumane conditions. This is reflected within the
sketch in Act one, scene five through the exclamatory sentence, “Now you can rest assured
your soldier friend will stay fit and healthy out in No Man’s Land!”. The playwrights create
dramatic irony, as readers we know how these men’s fate were quite the opposite, as very few
men survived the harsh conditions within No Man’s Land. This irony is therefore powerful in
exposing how ridiculous the war is, and Hislop and Newman further express the nativity that
the idea of an umbrella protecting those soldiers from the horrors of war puts the home front
at ease. Hislop and Newman further emphasises the horrors of war through the horrific living
conditions, “How are you getting on with those rats?” this is effective in emphasising how
dehumanising these conditions are that these men are living amongst rats. However, this also
reveals how despite the horrific living conditions these men use humour within their
dialogue. The playwrights therefore emphasise reinforce the humanity of these men and how
they utilise humour as a coping mechanism to escape from the horrors of war.

In conclusion, both writers utilise the constant shelling and dehumanisation of men in order
to graphically present the horrors of war. Both writers intend to emphasise the inhumanity of
inflicting such pain and suffering onto mankind and further criticise how this was ultimately
was not the war to end all wars. Both texts allow us to see the tragedy of war onto a whole
generation of youthful and innocent young men, Owen more critically exposes the horrific
reality of war as he himself lived through these horrors first-hand and therefore can more
visually illustrate the effects. However, Hislop and Neman utilise humour as a way of
criticising the inhumanity in inflicting such pain onto men that were naïve to such horrors.

Page 8 SKETCH
Page 43 sketch
Page 66 “war is nothing more than wallowing in a dirty ditch”