'Journey's End' - Osbourne

Osbourne is, if you like, the wise old owl of the play. He is mature and the most sensible character of the play. He is (to use a phrase that I don't want you to use) the most 'normal'. Don't miss the INTERTEXTUAL use of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the play (explained in this podcast). It's interesting to note that Osbourne is at least as much of a hero as Stanhope, but he is (on the surface at least) less devastated by the war.

Journey's End - Raleigh

I have been known to burst into tears at the end of Journey's End, simply because of the emotional devastation at the play's climax. We know that Raleigh comes into Act One as a naive, snivelling, wet-behind-the-ears schoolboy. We find him nearly as irritating as Stanhope does! However, R.C. Sherriff uses the character to show the effect of war on young men BEFORE OUR EYES. That's a very powerful dramatic device. The end contains more pathos than any play or film I've ever seen: it's two men trapped by fate, trapped by the emotional constraints of the age and situation and condemned to their fate by irresponsible and contemptuous military authority. Devastating.