Testament Of Youth Literary Analysis

War is an immense tragedy that brings about loss and sorrow in ways that often cannot be shaken. To Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth, the sorrow of war is a close, yet unwanted companion in her life. Throughout much of her novel, Brittain speaks of how the war was cruel and unjust. In doing so, she shows her complete disdain for the war. Brittain’s viewpoints on the war are unique because she is able to clearly show the tragedy that it brought not only to her own life, but to other’s lives as well. Brittain is able to establish this emotional trauma in her novel as she depicts her experiences not only as a bystander but as a participant of the war as well.
According to scholar Richard Badenhausen, in writing Testament of Youth,
The amount of death she had to deal with was astounding. Not only did she have to deal with the death of her lover Roland, she also had to deal with the deaths of her friends Geoffrey and Victor as well as the death of her brother Roland. Brittain takes these deaths hard and they seem to have the biggest impact on her life. Brittain’s life starts to spiral out of control for the remainder of the war and the years following the war as she is haunted by the deaths of her loved ones. Badenhausen theorizes, “She [Brittain] cannot accept consolation because she wishes to remain faithful to those who have died, for to process their deaths successfully would in some respects serve as a betrayal…” (Badenhausen 423). I agree with Badenhausen and his statement because in most of the novel, it feels like Brittain is looking for closure after the deaths of her loved ones. This is many years after the war is over. Badenhausen compares Brittain’s experiences and memories to “shell shock”, now known as PTSD (Badenhausen 423). This is clearly seen throughout the novel when Britain reflects on her personal fears about the war. “Why couldn’t I have died in the War with the others?” (Brittain 490). I believe that this quote shows that Brittain suffers greatly from the losses of her loved ones. Her life is put on standstill after her friends and family die and she does not appear to
In a book review of Testament of Youth it is said that, “She [Brittain] records her personal impressions of the shattering changes that smote her world” (“Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain”). These shattering changes are the experiences she had as an active participant and bystander of the war. Brittain’s nursing days and personal loss go in hand in hand in regards to her sense of loss in the war. According to Badenhausen, “Brittain's experience of the war was extreme in two ways: she spent most of the war tending the mangled bodies of soldiers, and she suffered the deaths of her dearest loved ones” (Badenhausen