From 'Down to the dressing station' to the end of the play.
Throughout this extract, Raleigh is close to death and from this, we see the effect of friendship between Stanhope and Raleigh becoming strengthened.
Stanhope starts off by telling Raleigh he's got a 'blighty one' meaning he is able to go home from his injuries. The fact 'he smiles' as he says this presents him protecting Raleigh's innocence as he knows he is going to die from his wounds. However, wanting to save his innocence by giving him the image of home as he dies. This is also one of the first times throughout the whole play where Stanhope refers to him as 'Jimmy', again this may be in the sense to give him a feeling of home or maybe to recommence his behavior towards Raleigh so he can die in peace and friendship of Stanhope.
Stanhope takes on a fatherly figure role towards Raleigh throughout this extract by 'It's not your fault, Jimmy' and by acting 'cheerful' as he gives him water. He acts like a father by protecting him from containing any guilt and tries to remain happy to comfort him. From this, Raleigh in turn acts childish, seeming vulnerable. He asks 'can you stay' and asks for a light as 'it's so frightfully dark and cold', being like a child by being afraid of the dark. This is reinforced by stage directions calling him just a 'boy' which emphasises just how young he is and brings into account his naivety and innocence.
The stage directions towards the end of the play portray the loss of innocence in Raleigh as he dies in the setting of war. This is shown through 'the faint rosy glow of dawn is deepening to an angry red'. The change in colour to an 'angry red' may be a representation of hell or it may be foreboding death and blood. This is reinforced later through 'red dawn glows through the jagged holes of the broken doorway'. The disappearance of the 'rosy glow' implies the romantacised scene of Stanhope's and Raleigh's friendship coming to an end. Also the appearance of Raleigh shows his innocence lost from his 'pale drawn face, and the dark shadows under his eyes'. The 'pale' portrays the horror of war taking toll on his youth and the 'dark shadows' presents him being accustomed to war and of his exposure to the reality. Raleigh is shown to 'lie in the shadows' meaning all his innocence has been lost and his youth and personality have died in the setting of war.
Lastly, the sound imagery depicts Raleigh dying to the sound of war. 'The thudding of the shells rises and falls like an angry sea'. The simile which compares the shells to the sea is used for the audience to make something unimaginable, such as the shells, imaginable by comparing it to something everyone has seen, to give a picture of the reality. Also, through 'very faintly there comes the dull rattle of machine guns'. 'Faintly' implies a sense of haunting and as the 'machine guns' are personified gives them the power to haunt Raleigh's soul.
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