 Hello and welcome to the second of our three-part video series on Journey's End which is the play by RC Sheriff. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll examine characters and quotations based on this play. Now do remember if you want an idea of the plot and a summary of this we do have that as part one of our video and make sure you come back for part three where we'll go over the themes. However, let's now delve into the characters in this play. Now the main character is Stan Hope. He's the captain of an infantry company stationed in the trenches of Saint Quentin, France during the First World War. He's a young man but is already seen three years of combat and he's gained the respect of his men who see him as a brave leader, however they also see him as something of an alcoholic indeed. The war has changed him greatly, turning him from a rugby captain and school hero into a hard drinking man whose nerves are shot and he can drink an entire bottle of whiskey, stumble to bed and wake up and command an infantry the next morning. Osbourne, who's the second in command, admires Stan Hope like everyone else but he recognizes the toll the war's taken on him, suggesting in a conversation to Hardy, another officer that Stan Hope's drinking, has perhaps become too much of a spectacle in the trenches. And to quote from the play, when a bow like Stan Hope gets a reputation out here for drinking he turns into a kind of freak show exhibit, he says. Now of course this is Osbourne speaking. Also, when a young officer named Rally reports for duty, Stan Hope doesn't know how to respond since he knows Rally from before the war. Indeed Stan Hope was Rally's role model at school and the two boys even spent summers together because their fathers are friends. What's more, Stan Hope was romantically involved with Rally's sister who's still waiting for him after the war. Because of this, Stan Hope is wary of Rally as he thinks Rally will write letters to his sister and tell her that he, Stan Hope, is a drunken mess. Still though, he does nothing to change his behavior, continued to drink at all hours of the day a practice he eventually admits to do with his fear of war, saying that he has only two choices, either he must fake sick and get her out of the war entirely or he has to get drunk enough to be able to ignore this crippling fear. The other key character is Rally, he's a young officer fresh out of school and he went to the same school as Stan Hope, who's several years older than him. As such, he always admires Stan Hope so much so that he asked a high-ranking relation of his to help him get placed in Stan Hope's infantry. When he arrives in the trenches and sees Stan Hope once more though, he's surprised to find his role model has significantly changed. Whereas Stan Hope used to be a strapping and optimistic man, now he's a war-torn alcoholic who treats Rally with the same gruff indifference. He shows all the other soldiers, nonetheless Rally relays and reigns eager and good-natured as he becomes accustomed to life in the trenches and what surprises him most when he tells officer Osborn at one point is how calm and quiet everything is at war. When Rally is selected to carry out a dangerous raid in the German trenches, he doesn't balk, in fact, he's flattered to have been chosen. Thankfully he survives what Osborn, who helped him lead the raid, doesn't and this fundamentally changes Rally, making him somber and sad. Whereas other officers including Stan Hope celebrate the success of the raid by drinking heavily and eating fine foods, Rally decides to stand watch with lower-ranking soldiers. This infuriates Stan Hope, who asks why Rally would rather be with the soldiers than with the officers and Rally tells him that he can possibly enjoy such a hearty meal knowing that Osborn's body still lies somewhere out there in the fields. When the Germans finally attack the British trenches, Rally is badly injured and Stan Hope stays with him until the end, finally dispensing with the formality of calling his friend by his last name to, is that better Jimmy? He asks but Rally has already shut his eyes forever. Other key characters, Osborn, he's a second in command to Stan Hope and he's a bit older than the other soldiers and he's also really well liked. In fact, he actually helps keep Stan Hope, his superior, psychologically grounded, making sure to take care of his friend when he's gotten too drunk. In many ways, Osborn serves as a fatherly figure to a number of the officers in Stan Hope's infantry, talking to them about the nature of war and giving them advice about how to make the best out of trying circumstances. For instance, he tells Rally to see enemy combat lights called very lights as romantic in the way they light up the sky. This he intimates will help young Rally maintain a healthy perspective and peace of mind. Still, Osborn is not without his own doubts as he himself has trouble seeing the point of war. At one point, he reads a passage of Alice in Wonderland aloud to Trotter, who says, I don't see no point in that. In response, Osborn says, exactly, that's just the point. This it seems, can be applied to the war itself, which keeps going on and on without changing. After every bombardment, soldiers like Osborn sit and wait for the next thing to happen and the cycle repeats. Unfortunately, the cycle is finally broken for Osborn when he dies in a dangerous raid the day before the German stage a massive attack on the British trenches. Another character is Hibbert. He's an officer in Stanhope's infantry. He is so afraid of dying in the trenches that he pretends to suffer from an acute case of neuralgia, an intense nerve pain. He seizes every opportunity to talk about this physical pain in front of Stanhope, finally approaching the captain and claiming that he will have to go home on account of this overbearing condition. Yet, he's caught off guard when Stanhope tells him that he can't leave and says he isn't allowed to go to the doctor either. When Hibbert presses Stanhope, he discovers that Stanhope is tired of soldiers faking various illnesses in order to excuse himself from duty. And during this conversation, Hibbert grows more and more hysterical until finally he admits that the real reason he wants to leave is because he can't stand the stress and fear that comes with being at war. To his surprise, Stanhope begins to empathize with his sentiment revealing that he too falls this way. And from this point on, Hibbert stops complaining of this illness, forming an unlikely bond with Stanhope who helps him through by boosting his confident and agreeing to work what shifts with him. When the Germans finally stage the massive attack, Hibbert seems intentionally slow to join the fighting, but he eventually leaves the safety of the dugout to face the enemy. Another character is Totter. Now, he's an officer in Stanhope's inventory and he's jovial, irreverent and gluttonous, frequently giving Ray Mason the cook a hard time about the food served in the dugout. Although Trotter provides primarily comedic relief in this play, he also taps into an important element of the play's thematic material, but creating a chart that outlines the remaining hours he and his fellow officers have to spend in the trenches before going back to safer, more removed areas. Each time an hour passes, Trotter blackens one of the 144 circles he's drawn on a piece of paper, thereby marking the passage of time and rather making it more tangible than it might have otherwise been in the tense atmosphere of the trenches. Hardy is another character. He's a second-in-command officer stationed in Stanhope's trenches before Osborne and his group takeover. Before Hardy leaves, he overlaps with Osborne so that he can hand off the duties and fill Osborne in on anything he might need to know before his six-day shift. Hardy is a good-natured but rather sloppy man who can't wait to leave the trenches, so much so that he leaves them dirty, failing to clean them like he's supposed to. While handing off, he and Osborne talk about Stanhope and Hardy expresses his admiration for the man's ability to drink large quantities. He also suggests that Osborne should be the one leading the infantry, but Osborne brushes the ox off saying that he'd, and to quote from the play, go to hell with Stanhope if he had to. Another character is Mason and he's the officer's cook. He's really obedient, constantly trying to accommodate the often ridiculous requests of people like Trotter who have unrealistically high culinary expectations. Still, Mason strives to provide the officers with the best possible service, experimenting with his cooking techniques in order to produce the best quality of food. Unfortunately, his efforts go unnoticed and the officers talk behind his back about the problems of this food. Now the character is a colonel, Stanhope's immediate superior. The colonel is the one who tells Stanhope to expect the large German attack on March 21st. He's also the person who informs Stanhope of the high ranking general's decision to raid German trenches before the attack. Stanhope, for his part, thinks this is ill-advised and even the colonel seems to have his doubts, but he does nothing to undermine his orders. Instead, he soberly instructs Stanhope to organise the raid, helping him to come to the conclusion that Osborne and Raleigh should be the officers to lead it. Now, when it comes to important quotes from the play, the first and to quote, I hope you get better luck than I did with my last officer. He got Lombargo the first night and went home. Now he's got a job lecturing young officers on, life in the front line. Now, in this quote, speaking with Osborne, Hardy mocks all the various and common schemes that officers employ to leave the war and some of them even later claim to be experts in combat and war. This first dialogue foreshadows what will later be seen in the play with one officer in C company in particular. Now, the quotation is, well, if you want to get the best pace out of an airwig, Dipetan Whiskey makes him go like hell. Now, what this quote is showing is Hardy given Osborne advice on the great old soldier's pastime of betting and racing airwigs before they part ways. Since they'd been discussing the hard drinking habits of Stanhope, this dialogue is important as it exposes the nature of how many people mentally cope with war. Alcohol seems to be a universal answers for the horrors of war. Another quotation is, you see, he's been out here a long time. It tells on man rather badly. Now here, this quotation is showing Osborne having already defended the image of Stanhope in his dialogue with Hardy, now explaining what the young rally should be prepared to see. Keen to the notion that this young man looks up to and idolizes Stanhope, he aims to soften any blow to either. War utterly changes people and nobody's hero or the idol is exempt. Another exchange is that between Osborne and Stanhope. Osborne says, small boys at school generally have their heroes and Stanhope responds, yes, more boys at school do. To which Osborne says, often it goes on as long as Stanhope, as long as the hero is a hero and that Osborne replies, it often goes on through life. Now, this is a private conversation between Osborne and Stanhope on the subject of young rally, the special nature of Osborne's character being evident in relation to Stanhope as well as to the development of the storyline. He has a familiar bond with Stanhope that goes beyond just being a subordinate officer. He's part mentor and advisor and part surrogate father figure and caring friend. He shows here that he's wise and experienced enough to discern the qualities of either of the young men and the mental states. Another quotation is, she doesn't know that if I went up those steps to the front line without being doped up with whiskey I'd go mad with fright. Now in this quotation Stanhope is confiding this very personal truth to Osborne and we now know his specific reason for drinking so abusively. He's aware of many of the subtleties of command and knows that a humanizing confession such as this would have negative effects on morale. Commanders cannot be cowards. He demonstrates his command and aptitude throughout the play and continues to hide this underlying cause for his drinking habits and here in this quote he's showing his logic on just exactly why he's not fond of rally joining his company. Image is an important aspect of maintaining command but also maintaining distant relationships. If rally discovers that the image he had of stanhope as his hero and idol is lacking in any regard it may find its way elsewhere and have consequences with his relationship to rally sister. Another quotation is, I believe rally go on liking you and looking up to you through everything there's something very deep and rather fine about hero worship. Now this quotation is from Osborne. He's wise and experienced and this is quite clear and he supports rally's admiration for stanhope and that he's showing stanhope he has nothing to fear about losing his image or earning a tarnished reputation. It's often said that people too often ignore the bad in those that they take a liking or interest in but rather maybe it's better to say that a genuine person of this quality envisions a bigger picture and that the small negatives just don't hold much sway against the grand scheme. Now the quotation is to forget you little fool to forget you understand to forget you think there's no limit to what man can bear. Now rally doesn't like does not feel like partaking in the good food and champagne that celebrates the successful raids in which he took part in and captured a young german soldier and this is because he's stricken by sadness that Osborne did not make it back alive with him and of course this quote shows this. Stanhope rebukes him clarifying that he isn't the only one who with those feelings and that the drinking was not to celebrate the events that happened but a mechanism for coping with it and he finally admits to his dangerous weakness to his hero worshipper. So that's all if you found this video useful would really appreciate it if you gave it a big thumbs up and also consider subscribing to our channel but also make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreet tutors.com there you will find model answer sheets as well as explanation sheets for this play but also other areas of English which you can use to aid your studies if you're studying this or other plays or novels for your course or exams. Make sure you do come back for part three where we go over themes. Thank you so much for listening.