In this Essay I will be Comparing Dulce et Decorum Est And Anthem for Doomed Youth by Willfred Owen, The Soldier By Rupert Brooke and Romeo And Juliet By William Shakespeare, showing how each one presents the issues of war.
In the two poems, Dulce et Decorum est., and Anthem for Doomed Youth, both written by Wilfred Owen, the authors main purpose was to expose the true horrors of the war and to challenge the romanticized view of war that the poet, Rupert Brooke had. Owen used familiar imagery techniques of similes and personification, and sound devices such as onomatopoeia and alliteration.
In Dulce et Decorum est., Owen used the techniques of similes, Bent double like baggers under sacks, he wrote, likening young, normally healthy men to old beggars tying to keep warm under sacks. This comparison of these young men, usually so full of life to tired old beggars is, in addition to letting the readers visualize this by familiar imagery, very degrading to the soldiers. It is causing people to stop looking at them as heroic warriors that people used to think they were. Owen writes, knock-kneed and coughing like hags, once again degrading the soldiers. Through these similes, Owen is achieving his purpose o showing the audience back home who believed in the propaganda, what horrors and suffering bright young soldiers underwent, thus what war was really like.
In Anthem for Doomed Youth he writes, those who die as cattle. In this poem, Owen is trying to express grief about the lonely deaths of soldiers, and protest at the senseless and cruel killing that went on at war. By using familiar imagery, he is comparing soldiers to cattle, who die in large numbers everyday, and no one even stops to think about it, as so many are killed. Through this dehumanizing simile, he is once again degrading the soldiers, showing what war can do to young, innocent men.
Owen uses personification in Dulce et Decorum est. to get across the true horrors of war. Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, he writes. He is showing how tired and fatigued the soldiers were from fighting, that they could hardly even put on their own helmets- by giving life to the helmets, he is getting across that the soldiers were so tired they could only fumble at the clumsy helmets, that wouldnt go on, and proves how degraded they became by the war. A simple task was hardly manageable, due to the horrific nature of war.
In, Anthem for Doomed Youth Owen also uses personification to give life to the weapons used in fighting. He describes the Monstrous anger of the guns, and the shrill demented choirs of wailing shells. We are able to visualize the emphasized awfulness of fighting at war, which in turn achieves the purpose of the author, which s to show us how lonely and sad the soldiers deaths were. This links in with the major purpose of proving that war wasnt a heroic act, rather a sad, cruel and senseless occurrence that ruined the lives of many.
Owen, in addition to using familiar imagery, also uses sound devices to achieve his purpose of challenge propagandists, and revealing the truth about what war really was like. He uses alliteration in his poem Dulce et Decorum est.: And watch the white eyes writhing in his face. This creates rhythm in the poem, and we as readers can visualize this scene because of the emotive language also included in the sentence, and indeed poem. This allows Owen to continue to achieve his main purpose of showing what war does to young men by degrading them, as this scene depicts the true nature of death. We see a picture of two helpless men, one dying, and the other (his friend) watching on, unable to do anything to help him. The one watching is becoming degraded through his inability to help, while the one dying is dying in a very belittling way powerless on a battlefield. This links in to support the overall purpose f showing readers the true horror of war, and challenging the views of people who believed that the war was a great and exciting thing.
In Anthem for Doomed Youth, Owen uses onomatopoeia to show the scary reality of weapons used on the battlefield. The stuttering rifles rapid rattle, the shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells. These words allow us to visualize what was going on at war, not only the images but also the sounds. They are scary to visualize when we remember what the soldiers went through at war, fear gripping them every hour of the day. Owen achieves his purpose of showing readers at home how lonely and sad their deaths were, expressing grief for young men. This also links in to show and challenge the propagandists the true reality of war.
In the two poems, Dulce et Decorum est. and Anthem for Doomed Youth, the poet Wilfred Owens main purpose was to expose the truth about war, and to challenge the views of propagandist at home who believed war was a good thing. In order to do this, he used familiar imagery- similes, personification and sound devices- onomatopoeia, alliteration, to show how degraded soldiers became on the battlefield, and to express grief at how lonely their senseless deaths were. These two purposes of the two poems respectively, linked into his main purpose of showing us that war was not a good, heroic thing, rather something that was the cause of ruin for many innocent lives.
On the other hand, the sonnet called The Soldier Written by Rupert Brooke creates the idea that war is exciting, that it is great, and honourable. An idea presented to the reader is that the men at war showed courage, and they fought for their country, in a very patriotic manner.
The mood and atmosphere in Brookes poem is uplifting and gives a strong patriotic feeling to all the readers, unlike the poems written by Willfred Owen. Rupert uses the words if I should die which gives us the image of him dreaming or fantasizing about the war and what a magnificent honour it is to be able to die for your country. He believed that all should fight, be patriotic, and be enthusiastic to fight for their land and for their lives. Wilfred Owens; Dulce Et Decorum Est sonnet was created to oppose the ideas in Brookes sonnet, for Owens sonnet title means Is it sweet and right to die for your country, and it talks of the lies behind this idea, and of the death and misery the men were put through. Brookes sonnet talks of how it is right to fight for your country, so oblivious to the actual harsh reality that was to come in the war. This poem was created before the war actually started, so the ideas were not very realistic and therefore the public of 1914 were given false impressions for what war would be like.
I feel that there is an arrogance in Brooke's portrayal of Englishmen, he implies that they are somehow a superior race of men - "in this rich earth a richer dust concealed" - suggesting foreign lands are enriched by the very remains of an Englishman.
Brooke used the repetition of the word England to put an emphasis on the idea of patriotism, and as if England looked over us all, a very powerful country which was prepared to fight for itself, and do it for the love of the country. Patriotism is the love and devotion to ones country. In some cases patriotism can be put to great use, for example where patriotism is used in the devotion to the common good, whereas when used in war, it kills people, wounds society and destroys countries. As Thomas Jefferson (the third president of The United States of America) once said; The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. This is a powerful message which talks of how it is the patriots that ultimately kill us all.
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day using metaphors to describe these ideas shows the reader Englands idea of war and patriotism, that war is great, and that the dream of England is to win the war, at that time the feeling would be described as total joy and excitement . This gives the reader a different perspective of the war, through the eyes of England itself. Brooke personifies England, talking about her like a mother looking after all the population. He says that if England bore all the people than you should give something back by fighting for her. The use of alliteration such as foreign fields adds a flowing, enjambment style to the paragraph as the flowers of England make it sound more natural and divine.
The voice of the past tells us of vivid slaying, maiming, torturing, and killing that took place in World War One. We have all heard of the gruesome events that took place, and we should be wiser now in the twenty-first century. We should not be foolish enough to create harm, nor make our world an unjust, violent place for ourselves and for the next generations to come. Brookes impression of war, like many others would have been that if they died, they would of claimed a piece of foreign land for England, the mighty powerful creator, the big brother to all that fought, making it that little more victorious. But what would Rupert Brooke have known about the war? He died before the war had truly began, and as U.S army sergeant Larry Reeves said; Anyone, who truly wants to go to war, has truly never been there before! and I agree. Now as we look back we see many mistakes made, that definitely brought an end to those generations of men at war. We now know that the beginning of The Great War held much patriotism and excitement, men willing to fight, looking forward to the battle, oblivious to the death toll that their actions would incur over such relatively small time. If we were put into the situation of another war now, I believe that it would scare most people because of the outcomes and experiences of The Great War, and of the slaughtering and maiming that took place. Weapons and technology in general has improved greatly, the possibility of ending the world is so easy now, and it is a scary thought to know that we cannot run or hide from an atomic bomb. Only those who are brave enough or have nothing to live for would fight now, they would fight a technological battle, which would have dire consequences for us all. War in Iraq, the brave soldiers sent from their warm homes to fight and create peace. They are trying to create peace...with weapons? We dont want to expose the new generations to violence and war, as it will not lead to any good. It will ultimately kill us all, such a contrast from the sonnet The Soldier.
The play Romeo and Juliet is about two families Montagues and Capulets who are aggressive to each other, but their children fall in love, Romeo and Juliet, who are constantly interrupted by and tangled with conflict. It is set in five days from Romeo and Juliet meeting to them dying. The speed keeps the audience involved in the play. Shakespeare uses a lot of opposites to show conflict e.g. prejudice, fate, free will, love and hate. Romeo and Juliet is the story written, with allot of conflict, this is shown throughout the play with a tragic ending. The main conflict is family conflict, the disagreement in the two families. There are many other conflicts in this play such as, society conflicts and generation conflicts. This ancient grudge between the two families has been going on for years. When lady Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris but Juliet wants to marry Romeo there appears to be a conflict between them.
The prologue, act one scene one and act three scene five are very important in the theme of conflict. The prologue has a major affect on the whole play since it gives the audience a brief idea on what will happen in the play which then makes the audience want to know the story.
The prologue is written at the first section in the play. It is very important since it introduces fatalism to the audience. It has a large impact on the readers since it tells the readers a brief idea where the play takes place, and gives some background information about its characters which then engages the readers. This play is set in Verona, this creates dramatic irony that theres such violence in such a beautiful city. It mentions the different types of conflict e.g. a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life. The word Star-crossed at Shakespeares time meant that stars were to control peoples destiny. "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life," At this moment of time Shakespeare shows his audience that the death of these lovers was preordained. "Where misadventured piteous overthrows, both with their death bury their parents' strife." Shakespeare then makes it difficult to understand by adding the destiny of Romeo and Juliet was an accident and should have not happened. The more they try to control their destiny, the quicker they reach their destiny. The fearful passage of their death-marked love. It is also made clear that violence is the main theme throughout the play. Feud between the two families is the main form of conflict in this play. This sentence raises questions in the readers mind and makes them think. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. This is a reference to conflict within the play. The first sentence two households, both alike in dignity has a huge affect. The word alike gives it more of a powerful touch, which means both families, are wealthy and have power so this then wants the readers want to know more. Further on it says Both with their death bury their parents strife this means that when the two lovers die the two families will forget about there hatred for one another. The prologue is similar to a trailer but written instead, it tells the audience a brief summary of what is going to happen. This also shows the different types of conflict going to be shown. The word foes, blood, fearful, death, civil, grudge and rage are very effective. They sound harsh, aggressive and violent which gives the prologue a strong and deadly touch. While watching the play the audience are expecting that it must fulfil all the terms set in the Prologue.
At the start of the play in Act 1 Scene 1 the audience are expecting to know the baseline of the story. The play starts with Sampson and Gregory two serving men of Capulets and Abraham and Balthasar (Montagues) which lead to a brawl of the two feuding families in the street. Sampson and Gregory servants insult the Montague servants, which then leads to a fight, which involves the Lord of both families and the prince. The prince comes along and warns the two households and the public that he doesnt want to see no more fighting. We see that Romeo at this time is lovesick with Benvolio his friend telling him to look at other girls. Conflict makes the audience excited, and want to know more and makes the story come real.
Sampson says at the start A dog of the house of Capulet moves me this is a big insult stating that all Montagues are dogs and that makes him want to fight. Gregory then says how that could make him weak and then Sampson talks about killing the men and raping the women which was not appropriate to say at that moment of time. drag thy tool, here comes of the house of Montague. This gives us the strong feeling of hate between the two families. Sampson deliberately provokes Abram by starting it from biting the thumb.
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