LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Journey’s End, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
It is Monday, March 18th, 1918, and Captain Hardy is drying his wet sock over a candle flame. He sits in the dugout of the British trenches in St. Quentin, France, where the military is involved in trench warfare with German forces stationed only 70 yards away. As he dries his sock, Hardy sings a little ditty, mumbling, “Tick!—Tock!—wind up the clock, / And we’ll start the day over again.” As he finishes, Osborne descends into the dugout, and the two men have a drink together. “Your fellows arriving?” asks Hardy, and Osborne tells him that they are indeed on their way. Over their cups of whiskey, Osborne says he heard that the trenches have been rather quiet, and Hardy says, “Well, yes—in a way . But you never know. Sometimes nothing happens for hours on end; then—all of a sudden—‘over she comes!’—rifle grenades.”
From the very outset of Journey’s End , Sherriff’s interest in the passage of time becomes apparent. “Tick!—Tock!—wind up the clock, / And we’ll start the day over again,” Hardy sings to himself, indicating just how attuned he is to the ways in which time moves. This focus on the time becomes even more evident when Osborne and Hardy talk about how the trenches have been calm and quiet. Indeed, a sense of anticipation builds during periods in which “nothing happens for hours on end”—a kind of anticipation to which the soldiers no doubt must be accustomed.
Active Themes
Hardy mentions to Osborne that “the big German attack’s expected any day now,” and Osborne points out that it has been expected for the entire month. “Are you here for six days?” Hardy asks, and when Osborne confirms that he is, Hardy guesses that Osborne will surely be here when the attack comes. “Well, you won’t be far away,” replies Osborne. “Come along, let’s do this handing over. Where’s the map?” With this, the two men go over the various details that Osborne needs to know about the dugout before Hardy can leave (he has, after all, just finished his own six-day shift).
When Hardy and Osborne discuss “the big German attack,” they once again reveal their sense of anticipation. Indeed, they’ve been waiting for this attack for quite some time, and even though it seems as if they’re edging closer to the actual event, they still are locked in a holding pattern of tension, one in which all they can do is conjecture about when it will actually take place. In this way, Sherriff demonstrates that one of the most difficult parts of being at war is the uncertainty that comes along with waiting for something bad to happen.
Active Themes
Osborne tells Hardy they’re expecting a new officer, and Hardy says, “I hope you get better luck than I did with my last officer. He got lumbago the first night and went home.” Refocusing, Osborne asks about the various weapons and supplies, of which he’s supposed to take an inventory. Hardy tells him vague numbers, assuring him that everything’s there and admitting that he didn’t even count the supplies when he took over. He then makes haste, not wanting to overlap with Stanhope —the captain taking over for him—because he knows Stanhope will force him to clean the trenches before leaving. “How is the dear young boy?” Hardy asks. “Drinking like a fish, as usual?” Osborne claims that Stanhope is the best commander possible, and though Hardy doesn’t disagree, all he can seemingly focus on is the man’s prolific drinking habits.
Although Journey’s End is not first and foremost a comedic play, there are often moments of dark or deadpan humor that shed light on the soldiers’ attitudes regarding the war. For instance, the fact that Hardy’s officer managed to go home because of a case of lumbago is indeed rather funny, since lumbago is an everyday injury that frequently amounts to little more than back pain. That a soldier would use this as an excuse to go home illustrates just how desperate many of these men are to leave the war. Rather than staying and facing their fears, they’d rather lie about some kind of ailment. On another note, Sherriff uses this moment to introduce Captain Stanhope before the man actually makes an appearance onstage, thereby building him into a figure of curiosity, especially since Osborne and Hardy seem to both respect him and disapprove of his drinking habits. By foregrounding Stanhope’s entrance with this conversation, Sherriff invites the audience to inhabit the world of anticipation—the world of waiting—that the soldiers themselves experience on a daily basis.
Active Themes
“When a boy like Stanhope gets a reputation out here for drinking,” Osborne says, “he turns into a kind of freak show exhibit. People pay with a bottle of whisky for the morbid curiosity of seeing him drink it.” He also points out that Stanhope has been in the war for three consecutive years. Apparently, he enlisted after school and has “never had a rest” since then, choosing to spend his leave in Paris rather than at home. “And because he’s stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits, he’s called a drunkard,” says Osborne. Hardy tells a story about how Stanhope recently had an argument while playing cards and suddenly knocked everything off the table, “lost control of himself,” and broke into tears. Perhaps given this—or because of Osborne’s wisdom and age—Hardy says that Osborne should be the one commanding the infantry.
Sherriff makes an effort in this scene to present Stanhope as an unstable character. While Osborne defends his friend by pointing out that Stanhope has “never had a rest,” it’s clear that the captain is a bit unhinged, especially if a mere card game can bring him to violent tears. By preparing the audience to meet such a loose cannon, Sherriff continues to create the same kind of tense anticipation that the soldiers likely feel when they’re in the trenches waiting for something bad to happen.
