By Oliver Clark & Ella Wills

 In Act One, Scene One we are introduced to Raleigh, a juvenile lieutenant who enters the war not long after departing school.  As he is inexperienced he doesn’t know what to expect when he first enters the war and he seems surprisingly excited not only to serve for his country but because he has been sent to Stanhope’s company, who was a role model to him whilst in school.

Within the play each character has a different story, which by the end of the play we see how the characters flaws and ‘tragedies’ have effected them.

 R C Sherriff uses Raleigh’s character to represent the young soldiers who entered World War One, he exemplifies the excitement the soldiers had as they first came into the war, when they were clueless to the horrors of it.  Raleigh has been used to symbolise the naivety and vulnerability young soldiers had as they first entered the war, he is oblivious to what may happen to him, although he is eager to please everyone and make a good impression to the rest of the men, in particularly Stanhope.  He could also be established as courageous because in Act Two when Raleigh is chosen to take part in the raid he is astoundingly fervent, he is always willing to participate with the other men when needed.  Whilst Raleigh is presented as vulnerable and shy, he is also resilient and tough.

 Stanhope is seen as a father figure for Raleigh. Stanhope and Raleigh have already met earlier before when the play was set.  Stanhope is in a relationship with Raleigh's sister which is one of the reasons why they have already met, however they also went to school together and Raleigh looks up to Stanhope as his role model.  There relationship gives us an insight of the horrid war. Through these two characters it helps the audience feel sympathy towards Stanhope as we learn when he was a kid he was not an alcoholic and he is only drinking to stop him from suffering from the war. Stanhope & Raleigh

Raleigh & Osborne-  When we was first introduced to the character of Raleigh it is between the conversation between Raleigh and Osborne. From this Raleigh and Osborne become very good friends throughout the play and throughout the book Osborne is one of his closest relationships.  During the Raid what Osborne and Raleigh are sent on, Osborne dies, from this we see Raleigh's reaction and how shocked he is after this. This was not what he expected.

 Throughout the war Raleigh is effected massively. Raleigh joins the army as a school boy. He is fighting for his country at the age of just 16. That is how old you are right now.  Raleigh, joined believing Stanhope was a hero and he role model, he does not know that Stanhope drinks all day everyday so he can cope with the traumatizes of the war.  Raleigh watches Osborne die during the raid he attends when he firsts gets there. This would have a major impact on him because watching someone die, his leader, made him realise how terrible, disturbing and upsetting the war was.

When Raleigh first reports to captain Stanhope's headquarters, he is very excited because he knew Stanhope from when he was a boy and he has always looked up to him as a role model. When he first gets told about the raid, Raleigh's reaction allows the audience to think that he is quite excited, this causes the audience to believe that he is very naïve as he has only just come out of school with no experience and does not yet know what it is about. As Raleigh is excited for the raid, he soon realises the conditions in the war, this makes the audience feel sorry for Raleigh as he did not understand how it was going to be and now he is in fear for his life.

At the beginning of the play Raleigh joins the army very excited and ready to take part. However towards the end he realises how war actually was. Raleigh does not survive the war. He was shot in the back at the very end of the play. This shows us how bad war was back then, a sixteen year old soldier joins straight from school and 4 months later is shot dead. When Raleigh was shot at the end of the play, Stanhope stayed with him the whole way until he died. I think he did this because Stanhope sees Raleigh as family as he is engaged with his sister. He believes he has a responsibility to look after him.

 Raleigh joined up to the war he thought it was going to be exciting and he would end up a hero, however after the death of Osborne in the raid he was confronted with the harsh reality of war.  When Raleigh finds out that Stanhope is to censor his letter before sending it to his sister he reacts unexpectedly, he decides that he doesn’t want Stanhope to read his letter therefore the audience are left oblivious to what may have been said in the letter, and Stanhope also questions why Raleigh doesn’t want him to read the letter.