WWI A2 Exam - Exempler Essays and Exam Technique

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June 2002 Synoptic Paper

1b.

The four extracts vary in their form, extracts B and C being poems, extract D a letter and extract E from a musical play. Robert Graves’ A Dead Boche provides a first person narrative in the poet’s own voice, similarly, Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier and the letter from Vera Brittain are both written in the first person, increasing the reader’s sense of insight into the writer’s mind. The extract from Oh what a lovely war, on the other hand, as a play, provides less in-depth insight as multiple characters express themselves.
Whilst A Dead Boche has a relatively simple structure, split up into two stanzas of equal length, The Soldier is in the form of a standard Petrarchan sonnet. The simple structure of A Dead Boche emphasises its factual and to the point tone whereas The Soldier is written in a far more lyrical style – supported by its sonnet form.
The content of Vera Brittain’s letter is appropriate to the fact that she was writing to her brother, not only does she reveal intimate thoughts but also the language carries an at times familiar style where the people appearing in the letter are referred to by their first names.
Contrasting from each of the other extracts, the excerpt from Oh what a Lovely War makes full use of its being a musical production with slides being shown as a song is sung.

In A Dead Boche, Graves addresses the reader directly and uses the poem didactically, setting out to make the reader understand that the war really is “hell”. The poem’s first line, “To you who’d read my songs of War” is reminiscent of Wilfred Owen’s similarly direct assertion in Dulce Et Decorum Est where he assures the reader that “if in some smothering dream you too could pace” behind the wagon in which a dying man had been “flung” they would have a different view of the time’s patriotic attitudes toward death – as seen in Brooke’s The Soldier. Graves follows his direct speech to the reader with a second stanza where he narrates the discovery of a dead German’s body. Here he describes with stark realism the dead man’s “clothes and face a sodden green”. Although not going as far as Faulks’ presentation of the equality of British and German soldiers at the end of Birdsong when the protagonist meets – and is saved by – soldiers from the other side, the fact that the dead soldier is German seems almost secondary to the fact that he is a dead body (unlike in Oh What a Lovely War where slides of both Allied forces soldiers are shown along with those of Germans). This is a view that would be unlikely to have surfaced in the pre-Somme period of writing where it would be far more typical for the enemy to be emphasised as just that, and certainly not humanised or almost pitied in the way the dead German is in this poem.

Brooke’s romantic language in The Soldier is a great contrast to that of Graves in A Dead Boche. Whilst Graves presentation of the soldier’s death focuses on its earthly remains, Brooke focuses very much on the fact that – should he die – he will retain a part of his mortality in “some corner of a foreign field”. “Foreign” here contrasts greatly with the multiple mentions of the words “England” and “English” – which are so plentiful that they at times seem to create a sense of alliteration “a body of England’s, breathing English air”. The continued references to home and the general romantic language used, (often in conjunction with one another – “blest by the suns of home”) shows that the poem displays very typical attitudes of the time that it was written: at the beginning of the war before many become disillusioned with its supposed glory, most notably after the Somme - quite the opposite to the sentiments expressed in A Dead Boche, written post-Somme.

Vera Brittain’s letter could arguably be claimed to show both the horror at the war displayed in A Dead Boche and the romantic aspiration of dying for your country in The Soldier. Brittain’s awe and support for the courage of her dead fiancé is conveyed in her constant capitalisation of the words “him” or “his” when referring to him. Equally, Brittain displays shock as the realisation of the terrible nature of Roland’s death hits her. Having previously had no idea of “the after-results of an officer’s death” we share her shock at “the smell of graveyards and the Dead” that return with Roland’s clothes. Indeed, Brittain makes continued use of language relating to death, grave yards and funerals – not romanticising his death as Brooke expects his loved ones to but instead providing her brother with a vivid description of her fiancé’s artefacts. She does this with a similar realism to Graves’ presentation of the Dead Boche this is emphasised by the at times almost scientific detail she provides, the hole left by the bullet in one of Roland’s jackets is “almost microscopic”.
Brittain’s account in this letter also provides us with a view of life at home during the war. We read that “Mrs Leighton and Clare were both crying… bitterly”, this is an image far removed from the stoic refusal of Hilliard’s mother in Strange Meeting to acknowledge the importance of anything else but the lunches she gives. This snippet of life at home is not one typically seen in First World War literature, certainly not at the time in any case, due to the fact that the men fighting wrote the large majority of poetry and prose.
The view of the war as provided by Brittain is somewhat atypical as it is rare to see a woman’s account, taken at the time, which provides us with so much detail of life at war. Furthermore, as a woman writer she does present us with some sense of idolisation of the dead soldier but does not fail to point out the “horrors of war without its glory” – making her account markedly different from many other female writers at the time who either failed to see (as arguably Jessie Pope did in her poems with calls to the “Laddies” to join up) that the war was horrific or believed that the country was a cause worth dying for.

Setting Oh What a Lovely War apart from extracts B, C and D is the fact that it was first performed almost 50 years after the end of the war. This provides an explanation for the fact that the play gives a far more satirical look at the war than any of its contemporary literature. The writers present the absurdity of the war and its tragedy with the display of slides showing horrific scenes of “soldiers, carrying one of their gassed in a blanket”. Meanwhile the chirpy rhythm of the song, emphasised by the repetition of “gas” and “gassed”, this creates a juxtaposition of humour and images of human suffering. The song is not as serious as one would expect a view of soldiers’ deaths to be – indeed, despite the fat that it successfully conveys its message, it would be unlikely to see this display of satire any time near the war. Hence, the extract is more typical of late twentieth century war literature when more examples of satirical looks at the War, such as Blackadder Goes Forth, began to appear.

The image of “the offending limb” sticking out of the parapet in the musical – which is seen merely as an “obstruction” by the Commanding Officer and as useful for the soldiers in “holding up the parapet”, both views indicating the banality of the presence of death – is far removed from Brooke’s expectations of what happens to a soldier when he dies. The limb is not representing England in “some corner of a foreign field” but is, apparently at least, not even thought of by the men as belonging to one of their former comrades – a much more austere and less romantic reality than presented by Brooke.
Despite the stark differences between Oh What a Lovely War and the other extracts, particularly in terms of its form and language it appears that the underlying message that the writers were trying to communicate is not dissimilar from Graves’ in A Dead Boche or Brittain’s in the extract from her letter. All three extracts attempt to show the horror of war and, despite their apparent differences, do so in similar ways. Each extract uses descriptions of smell as a means of communicating to their readers, or audience, the conditions in which the war was fought. The way in which Graves describes how the dead German “stunk” is similar to the complaint of the Commanding Officer in Oh What a Lovely War that the trench “reeks of decomposing bodies”. Brittain meanwhile talks of a “charnel-house smell” brought back with her fiancé’s clothes, “the smell of death”. Phrases like these frequent the extract and aid in giving the reader a vivid sense of the scene and the conditions in which Roland lived and died.

What was the mark you got for this question..it's really helpful as 1b is my weaker part of the question..?!