Comparative Analysis of Texts
'The Accrington Pals' by Peter Whelan and Wilfred Owen's War Poetry "Explore the ways in which Whelan and Owen present the experience of war in 'The Accrington Pals' and the poems you have studied"
Peter Whelan and Wilfred Owen both present the experience of war as what war was actually like. Whelan wrote his play 'The Accrington Pals' in the 1980s about World War One in 1914/15 whereas Owen wrote his poems during the war between 1914 and 1918 therefore they were written from the trenches themselves.
In both Whelan's play and Owen's poems, the idea of revealing the truth about the war and the conditions that soldiers faced in the trenches is transparent. Owen reveals the violent and terrifying experiences of warfare using very powerful descriptions such as "he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" from "Dulce Et Decorum Est". This quotation is violent and terrifying because Whereas Whelan inhibits the devastating effects that war had on a typical Lancashire mill town, where the women were fed lies of propaganda, deprivation and social changes contrary to the even more horrendous life of soldiers in the trenches and at the front line. The play explores several themes: class and rank, money, war and peace, mental health, men and women, Lancashire and France, sex and death, social, cultural, historical and political context of 1914 in Northern England - these show a larger image whereas Owen's poems focus on the young men and how their lives are affected by the war.
Whelan's title: "The Accrington Pals'" refers to the seven-hundred strong Accrington Pals of an East Lancashire Regiment when they marched jauntily off to war in 1914. Primarily, the play is less about the men than the women they left behind and their growing sense of solidarity. The one outsider is May Hassal who is a tough market-stall owner, who never expresses her supple side towards her nineteen year old cousin, Tom, who inevitably perishes by the wars propaganda and May's unsupportive behavior. Using a tone of bitterness and anger, May says, "You look like a corpse" implying the bitter person that the war has made her due to Tom joining the army and "writing his own lie". This expresses May's hidden love for Tom. She tries to hide her feelings by insulting Tom's actions through anger and lack of power to make the realities of war apparent the other women who overcome their fierce sense of deprivation and are thankful for the time they have with their men. The women unite together and the annihilation of virtually the war come clear later in the play. Throughout the Act One, Scene One, May is always expressing her opinion on how Tom was "swept along..." and "making himself prey for others". The use of 'prey' implies that Tom, who represents the young men who are being wrongly sucked in, is like an animal that during its life is constantly aware of the danger of being hunted. The metaphor illustrates the weakness and the lack of power that soldiers had, complimentary the May's character. Additionally, the verb 'swept' illuminates how the soldiers had no control over their actions. Similar to a wave crashing against a cliff; the wave in very strong and powerful as it race towards the cliff, the cliff represents nature, the wave destroys the innocent object of nature. The wave portrays the propaganda and war, and the cliff represents the young men. They threw their life away because of the major attractions - heroism and excitement, not realising the terrifying violence of warfare.
May's strong character is also apparent in Act One, Scene Ten when she goes to see Captain Rivers about Tom's contribution to the war effort. Rivers says "But that's the valour of life and there's no medal for it" gauging the idea that there is no reward for injured soldiers. No rewards for being in the army. Thus displaying the theme of war and peace. Rivers is portrayed as a symbol of the army because he uses ironic military language such as "no machinery for that" which exposes Rivers as he is like a machine with no feelings as he sarcastic. With that in mind, when Rivers says "into my care" unveils a lie, just like the war, due to the oxymoron between Rivers (war) and what he speaks (war propaganda). Rivers represents war and May represents peace because she is one-hundred percent against it.
Furthermore, the theme of the contrast between Lancashire and France is impersonated structurally: the Pals don't get to France until Act Two which provides a contrast and conflict between opinions and experiences of war. In Act One, the men are enthusiastic and the women, except May, are very stereotypical and all for the war as they believe the propaganda. In contrast to Act Two where the Pals actually go to France and experience the real thing. However the women who are at home are still unaware of the horrors. In Act One the oxymoron is between Lancashire and France. In Act Two the oxymoron is between the men in France at war and the women in Lancashire in peace, as demonstrated by the narrative part at the beginning of Act Two, Scene One: "Ralph is in France...exhausted...Eva sits, quietly tacking the hem of a white muslin dress by lamplight". Exhibiting the use of imagery, 'white muslin dress' produces a euphonic image due to the use of the clean, delicate use of white which creates a sense of peace. In contrast with Ralph whose description produces a dull, cacophonic image. In Act One, Scene Two May says "He was drunk. He can't take drink!" which displays May's protectiveness and disability to confront her love for Tom as well as her anger representing the terrifying realities of war.
Owen's poems: Dulce et Decorum Est and Disabled, both have many similarities with The Accrington Pals. * "Falling in... getting swept along" from the play relates to Owen's poem, Disabled when Owen reminisces the thoughts of a young and severely wounded soldier who has lost all of his limbs and sits helplessly, thinking sadly and bitterly of the past, to the time when he signed up when he was whole. Owen speaks as though it is his thoughts of which he is describing providing clarity as Owen speaks the truth because he has experienced war and knew the horrors that soldiers experienced. The verb 'falling' is parallel to the soldiers' lives: they started young and healthy followed by their selves joining the army after which it has become decreasingly exciting and heroic whilst being a mortally brutal nightmare. From Disabled: "...before he threw away his knees" shows how the man regretted signing up. He should have stood up to the propaganda and fight for his life. Additionally, the verb 'threw' accentuates how the decision was out of control and very sudden once it was made: the man's life went downhill ever since he recruited.
Similarly, the war aged young men. This is demonstrated by the fact that in Disabled, Owen writes as though the speaker's whole life is ending when really it isn't because he recruited aged nineteen years and the war only lasted four years so he is still young. For example, in stanza four the speaker says "carried shoulder-high" indicates how he used to be admired and how he used to be a young, strong sportsman who impressed women and had a good time whereas in stanza six; "he noticed how the women's eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole" presents the opinion that the speaker is lonely and depressed and the things that he most enjoyed (women) didn't care for him like they used to. The women have stopped noticing him because he is injured so is weak and unimpressionable, just like an old man. Reinforcing the idea that he has aged due to the war. There is no reward on injured return. * Additionally in Dulce Et Decorum Est, young men are being described as women, "like old beggars under sacks" this simile accentuates the irony of the youth being described as older people before their time.
The idea of exhaustion, as old people are after their many years of life, is portrayed in Dulce Et Decorum Est, in stanza one, "Drunk with fatigue" which evokes the loss of senses how the soldiers were extremely tired and unhappy. Additionally, the disturbing image from Dulce Et Decorum Est, "He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" infers onomatopoeia verbs and repetition which increases the dramatic effect of the horrors of war. Moreover, "His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin" which is hyperbolic because devils usually thrive on sin proving the horrendous realities of war.
To conclude, the poems and the play both render the ghastly realities of war. In Act Two, Scene One, Ralph's speech is similar to the content of Dulce Et Decorum Est. Ralph says "I'm in a muck sweat" which is similar to the unpleasant image of "guttering, choking, drowning". Certain actions such as "He'd drunk a peg" from Disabled show how the character was drunk when they enlisted. Similar to when May said "He was drunk. He can't take drink!" when Tom had enlisted. Illustrating that you have to be out of our mind and unaware of what you were doing to recruit but as the characters were unaware of their future, it is a coincidence that this hypothesis should be so, proving the relation and similarities of Owen's war poetry and Whelan's play. Indicating war was abominable.