I will be comparing the soldiers’ experience from ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’, a television sitcom written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis with ‘Journey’s End’ which is a play that projects the reality of the war written by R.C. Sherriff. These are two texts that convey a dark impression of WW1. The similarities between both the texts is that they both were set in the final stages of the war but with ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ set in many different places whilst ‘Journey’s End’ was set in one common setting. However the differences in genre can sometimes increase or decrease the severity of the impression created for the audience. I personally think that ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ is an anti-war message, where it mocks the way WW1 was orchestrated by the Generals and the government, whereas in ‘Journey’s End’, a serious play, the focus is more on the psychological, claustrophobic conditions of the war and what really happens in the war. Thus it has been said that ‘Journey’s End’ is a compelling account of warfare, based upon Sheriff’s own experience as a Captain in the East Surrey regiment, depicting war as a meaningless and destructive. However this leads me to the conclusion that Journey’s End creates a darker, sombre impression and mood with its realism rather than the comical Blackadder even though it had a tragic outcome.

R.C Sherriff mostly tries to implant a realistic picture of the war by looking at the horrors of war through its physical setting. Also the playwright used one setting for the entire script which takes place in the Officers trench, this can be seen as a claustrophobic environment where it is focusing more on the thoughts of the officers and their behind the scenes activity and also their reaction to calamitous consequences rather than being out there in midst of the battlefield. To deflect from the harsh side of the war, Sheriff made one character particularly comical who was Hardy. Hardy jokes about the bombs and describes them as ‘horrid little things like pineapples’. Although it may appear to be comical to the audience, Sherriff’s use of irony, but it’s a reference to the fact that the soldiers used dark humour to get through the traumatic conditions of the war.

Similarly, in ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ during the sitcom we see that the mood and the seriousness of the setting are lightened by the use of food. The extreme living conditions in the trenches were more comical and exaggerated, when sugar was replaced with ‘dandruff’ to draw the audience’s into the claustrophobic settings also showing the food deprivation that the soldiers experienced. Also the use of humour and slapstick was used to lighten the tension of the fear from the soldiers’. For example when Blackadder was putting his “underpants on his head and two pencils up his nose”, he tried doing this so that they would think he is insane and send him home. “Right, Baldrick, this is an old trick I picked up in Sudan…“wooble” – a poor gormless idiot”. The fear of dying and the desperation to be allowed home in the war shows the audience that the war was ruined by the Generals’ incompetence.

Sherriff was himself a survivor of WW1 and he wanted others to know the horror of the war, the horrific waste of life and of good men, like young Raleigh who represented the naive and enthusiastic young men in the war, the dependable kindly ‘Uncle’ Osborne, the loyalty and service of Mason, the good humoured Trotter and the frightened, battle weary Hibbert who, nevertheless, stays the course and loses his life for it. Sherriff wanted to paint a realistic picture of his memories and experiences of the war. This has been showed when Stanhope uses bitter irony after Osborne’s death ‘How awfully nice – if the Brigadier’s pleased’. This helps Stanhope to make the point about the unnecessary loss of life. Likewise, in ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ Curtis and Elton try to emphasize the importance of life but the soldiers’ know it won’t be too long for their turn. They both emphasize the sense of bravery within the soldiers’, it brings to light the fact that these soldiers know that the battles make them helplessness and there’s no way of winning.

Curtis and Elton use symbolism effectively in Blackadder which adds to the darkness of the war, at one point there is the image of Field Marshal Haig playing with toy soldiers whilst he is on the phone to Edmund. He firstly “knocks down an entire line of soldiers” and by the end of the conversation, he “hurls the dead platoon over his shoulder”. These toy soldiers are subtle representations of the real soldiers who are viciously fighting for their country and their lives. The significance of Haig in this scene is connected along with the higher ranked officers who are sending young men to their deaths. Melchett represents the soldiers’ who were seen as buffoons, in a different way as Hibbert from ‘Journey’s End’. Melchett seems out of touch with reality of war and sees it as a game. He is insensitive especially towards Darling. Hibbert, on the other hand, isn’t ignorant, he fully understands the inevitability of his death also he is afraid and tries desperately to be invalided back to the ‘blighty’.

In Act 2 of Journey’s End, the audience witness Osborne recounting a memory of an experience of his war life: “We had a man shot ...trenches to blazes”. This conversation emphasizes that all the soldiers are still humans whether English or German, “Boche”. The next day the reality of war kicks in as the shelling and bombing continues but there is no hiding the fact that this scene brings a touch of humanity to the stark reality of the war. This is where reality meets horror and creates a very dark impression of the war which ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’ failed to create. The audience’s attention would be captured by the poignancy of this scene and would understand some of the pain that was caused by the war, being placed in a soldiers’ shoe.