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.