Journey’s End - Plot - CCEA

• Officer Osborne – second in command of C Company – and Commanding Officer Hardy are in a dugout. Hardy and Osborne are from different companies. They discuss the Commanding Officer of C Company, a man called Dennis Stanhope. While they converse a new young officer, Raleigh, enters the dugout. We find out that he too has known Stanhope in the past.
• Stanhope enters the scene. He asks for a drink and shows little sympathy for an officer’s complaints of neuralgia.
• Stanhope and Osborne discuss the possibility of a German attack in the following days.
• The Colonel enters the scene and tells Stanhope he thinks Raleigh and Osborne should participate in a raid on the German line the next day.
• When the officers are told about the raid they all react differently. Young Raleigh is enthusiastic about his fate. The Colonel promises them the Military Cross for bravery once it is over.
• After the raid, we find out that Osborne and six other men have been killed. A German soldier is taken prisoner and interrogated.
• Raleigh has changed his attitude. He has lost his idealisticbelief that it is a privilege to fight for one’s country. He does not join the post-raid celebratory dinner.
• The Germans attack in the final scene. Raleigh lies dying with Stanhope by his side. The dugout collapses as Stanhope leaves the stage. The ending is ambiguous and we are left uncertain about the fate of the remaining characters.

• The play opens in a dugout in the British trenches in Northern France. The action begins on the evening of Monday 18 March 1918 and continues over three days. It ends at dawn on Thursday 21 March 1918.
• Captain Hardy is about to be relieved by a Captain Stanhope. The play begins with Hardy and Stanhope’s second in command – Osborne – discussing what Stanhope is like. Osborne and Stanhope are the main characters for the rest of the play.
• After Hardy leaves, a new young officer – Raleigh – enters. Raleigh has managed to get himself placed in C Company because he knew Stanhope at public school. Also, Stanhope has been in a relationship with Raleigh’s sister, Madge.
• Osborne tries to hint to Raleigh that Stanhope is a changed man from the one he might remember. But Raleigh fails to understand and seems to have an idealistic picture of Stanhope as a mythical hero figure. It is also clear that Raleigh is excited and enthusiastic about being on the front line. His youthful energy and exuberance already seem in contrast to the more experienced officers.
• When Stanhope enters it is clear he is shocked and uncomfortable at Raleigh’s presence. We find out that he fears Raleigh will write and inform Madge that he has become an alcoholic and – despite Osborne’s advice to the contrary – he threatens to censor Raleigh’s letters.
• Through a conversation with Osborne we discover that Stanhope’s addiction was caused by the terrible realities of trench life.

Scene 1

• Early on Tuesday morning Osborne and Raleigh discuss their past lives before the war. They talk about rugby and how slowly time passes in the trenches. Poignantly, they reflect on how the Germans are just normal decent people.
• Stanhope tells his officers that a captured German soldier has revealed that an attack on their men is planned for two days’ time.
• In World War One it was normal practice to check and sometimes censor soldiers’ letters home, but officers’ letters were usually allowed through unchecked. However, Stanhope – because he is so worried about Raleigh revealing his alcoholism to his sister – insists on checking his letter home. On reading it he finds that Raleigh has only the highest praise for Stanhope, describing him to Madge as “the finest officer in the battalion and the men simply love him”. Stanhope seems to feel ashamed at his initial mistrust.

Scene 2

• The Colonel arrives to inform Stanhope that Raleigh and Osborne will participate in an imminent raid on the Germans.
• An officer called Hibbert tells Stanhope that he is suffering from neuralgia – shooting facial pain – and can no longer cope. Stanhope will not allow him to go sick and threatens execution for desertion if he does.
• Eventually Stanhope – using the powers of persuasion and leadership that the officers respect him for – convinces Hibbert to stay.
• Osborne seems resigned to his fate, but he and Trotter express their disapproval of the timing of the raid. Raleigh on the other hand is unaware of the extreme danger and looks forward to the excitement of battle.

Scene 1

• It is obvious that Stanhope too thinks a daylight raid is ridiculous and dangerous, but the Colonel is adamant. He tells Stanhope, "It’s no good getting depressed.” The audience gradually begin to question just how much the army superiors really care about those on the front line.
• Again, Osborne talks acceptingly about the plans and Stanhope insists – unconvincingly – that all will be well.
• We see Osborne and Raleigh quoting a passage from Alice in Wonderland in the moments before the raid. They are trying to keep calm, but admit they are nervous and have “a sort of empty feeling inside”.
• A young German soldier is captured in the raid, but Osborne and six other men are killed. Raleigh is wounded.
• Stanhope finds it difficult to hide his contempt for the Colonel’s apathy about their deaths.

Scene 2

• Later that evening the officers are having a post-raid celebratory dinner. Stanhope seems in a particularly bad mood. He has a drunken argument with Hibbert and gets angry with Raleigh for not attending the dinner.
• Raleigh explains that he is grieving for Osborne.Stanhope shows his devastation at Osborne’s death. In an emotional outburst he describes his friend as "the one man I could talk to as man to man – who understood everything”. We realise that his drinking and jovial dinner chat has all been to cover up his grief.

Scene 3

• This final scene takes place at dawn on Thursday morning. It is pitch dark and there is silence apart from “the distant mutter of the guns”. Stanhope is woken by Private Mason – the cook – and is drowsy and cold.
• There is tension in the dugout as the men and the audience wait for the attack.
• It is finally here, having first been mentioned two days earlier. Hibbert is frightened and reluctant to go out, but with encouragement from Stanhope and Mason he leaves to fight.
• The battle begins. The Sergeant Major arrives to tell Stanhope that Raleigh has been badly injured – his spine is broken. Raleigh is carried into the dugout and Stanhope gets Osborne’s bed ready for him.
• It becomes clear that Raleigh is dying. Stanhope stays by his side, comforting him. He attempts conversation, but there is no reply.
• Stanhope is called to leave as the battle intensifies. As he ascends the steps to the battle the dugout roof collapses, with Raleigh’s body inside.
• The fate of the other characters is left ambiguous, but we assume they all die.