Comparing Relationships In Journey's End And Regeneration

Compare and contrast relationships between men in Journey's End and Regeneration.

Relationships between men, and the strengthening of bonds, is incredibly important in war literature. This is because men's relationships strengthen greatly during stressful situations and war is the most stressful situation a man can be in. The First World War was a brutal war which killed millions of men and is the main theme of Journey's End and Regeneration. Journey's End is a play set wholly in an officer's dugout during the First World War, while Regeneration focuses on mental patients living in mental-asylum Craiglockhart, during the First World War.

These are two different settings that revolve around the same time period as each other but the relationships
between the men are surprisingly similar, especially the avuncular relationships that are shown. One character that stands out as being uncle-like, and is a main talking point during this essay, is Journey's End's Osbourne, referred to as "Uncle" by other characters during the play. Osbourne lives up to his epithet when talking to Stanhope ("How's that? Comfortable", "You go to sleep"), as well as other men in the company ("Your coffee sweet enough?" Osbourne to Raleigh) and shows his caring nature and moral obligations. It could be argued that Sherriff wrote Osbourne as a moral compass for the play, as he is often in conversations as the voice of reason (he'll say nothing-rotten-about you). He is a relatable character in this sense as he behaves as how we wish to see ourselves behaving in the character's situation.

As said before, Osbourne is a father figure towards Stanhope, with Stanhope calling him "Uncle" often. The importance of Stanhope calling Osbourne "Uncle", even around his men, is an important point. Stanhope attempts to not to show his personal weaknesses around his men, instead putting on a facade of a strong and mentally stable leader (Osbourne even states that "[Stanhope] is a long way the best company commander we got"), when, in fact, he relies on alcohol to "forget" and says to Raleigh that there is "a limit a man can bear". This means that to call Osbourne "Uncle", when he calls the other men by their names and rank, Stanhope must have affection towards Stanhope. We know this as the only other time he shows affection towards the men that he is around is when he calls Raleigh by his first name as Raleigh lays dying. He could be trying to distance himself from his men by addressing them formally. This would make sense as Sherriff deliberately makes Stanhope a withdrawn character in the play and makes Osbourne his obviously caring opposite. When Raleigh is dying, Stanhope shows love towards Raleigh when he "runs his fingers through Raleigh's tousled hair" and "gently takes his hand", showing that Osbourne had an influence on him, even after his death.

Osbourne is similar in some ways to the character of Rivers in Barker's novel, Regeneration; they are both of similar age and can both be seen as avuncular characters.
Evidence of Rivers' avuncular nature is the fact that he wishes the most for the best for the men he is caring for; for example, when Burns collapses on the beach near his home and Rivers "[holds] him, coaxing, rocking" Burns. This is very similar to Osbourne's treatment of Stanhope under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol ("Osbounre [fumbled] the blanket around Stanhope"). Rivers is also similar to Osbourne as he defends Prior during his conversation with Prior's father, when he says "[Mrs Prior] seems to have succeeded" when Mr Prior says of how she tried to make Prior more "succssessful". Prior's father, who is rude and obnoxious towards Rivers, during their conversation, but doesn't react physically. This conversation is very similar to Osbourne's conversation with Hardy, the commander of the regiment that Stanhope's regiment is relieving. Hardy talks about Stanhope's drinking in a negative way ("drinking like a fish, as usual?") and tells Osbourne that Osbourne should be the company commander, rather than Stanhope. His reasons why he believes Osbourne should be the new company commander are unclear but, like Rivers with Prior, Osbourne defends Stanhope. Sherriff and Barker know that a relatable paternal character would be a person that defends the people that they care for to their faces, but an
avuncular character defends the people that they care for from a distance. They are written as guardian angels to fuel the story line and for realism, which is particularly needed for Barker's novel as it needs to be historically accurate; if Rivers was a father figure to Sassoon he may not have convinced him to return back to France. It's similar with Osbourne, the characters would not be realistic if him and Stanhope were having emotional goodbyes before he went on the reconnaissance mission.

Osbourne's uncle-like manner is also evident when speaking to Raleigh before the raid: he moves the conversation away from the war and the raid ("not much [pause] personally I like cocoa for breakfast" to Raleigh over his question about smoke bombs) and on to other subjects, such as home ("I know Lyndhurst well").
This varies wildly from Stanhope's encouragement methods towards Hibbert, to fight with the men in the trenches, as he draws a loaded gun on Hibbert, threatening to kill him where he stood and shoot him "between the eyes". Stanhope handles situations with an iron-fist, while Osbourne handles situations with a velvet-glove, and both compliment each other as a great commanders because of these aspects. It could be argued that Sherriff is attempting to represent the two extremes in command in stressful situations during the war: the brutal and courageous, and the kind and
courageous.

However, Stanhope, after threatening Hibbert with a gun to his head, shows a kind side as he sits with Hibbert and comforts him by saying of how he felt "the same" towards the situation. Despite previously calling Hibbert a "little worm", Stanhope shows kindness towards Hibbert. This shows Stanhope acting a lot more like Osbourne and acting as an avuncular figure towards Hibbert and, from a writer's point of view, this was the point where Osbourne had to die for Sherriff. Once Stanhope starts following Osbourne's lessons and acting like Osbourne, Osbourne is no longer needed in the play..

From looking at the evidence above, we can draw the conclusion that the similarities between the relationships between men, in Regeneration and in Journey's End, were avuncular. This is due to the naturally caring nature of the older men (Rivers and Osbourne) and the responsibility bared by the men to care for them (Stanhope to Hibbert). The men looked for a father figure in the trenches, someone to protect them and a person to look up to and they ended up with Uncles, and perhaps that was better for them.