Links between the poems and the
Prologue, Act 1 Sc 1 and Act 3 Sc 1
Consolidating last weeks’
work.
• Have you analysed all of
the poems?
• If not do this now in
silence. You have 15
minutes?
• Have you made some
links?
• You have 15 minutes to
complete as many links as
you can.
Homework
• Research the back
ground and attitudes to
conflict of:
• Wilfred Owen
• Jessie Pope
• Siegfried Sassoon
• Rupert Brooke
• Due: Monday 14th
December
Making the links
• I will explain to you some
links that are apparent.
• This is not a conclusive list
you may have other
ideas.
• Please do, however, listen
in silence and make
appropriate notes.
Who’s for the Game
• Pope tries to encourage young men to join up by creating a false
image of war as a though it were a sports game, in a game you
would just come out with a few cuts and bruises.
• She suggests that war is fun and if men did not join they would be
missing out on "fun". The structure and rhyme scheme of "Who's
for the Game" as it adds to the effect of the poem.
• There are four stanzas in the poem each has four lines. The poem
has an Ab Ab rhyme scheme, which is constant throughout it make
the poem sound light hearted and jolly.
• The terrible irony of this is that many men did not foresee how
gruesome the war would be.
• This echoes how at the start of Act 1 Scene 1 and the start of Act 3
Scene 1, first Sampson and Gregory see the conflict as a game. The
use of double entendre
• Mercutio also makes jokes throughout the early part of Act 3 Scene
1, encouraging the audience to feel at ease until his own dying
moments.
The Solider
• The patriotism encouraged in this poem is echoed by Sampson
and Gregory. That despite the fact that the conflict is between
higher powers, ultimately all become involved and suffer.
GREGORY: The quarrel is between our masters and us their men.
SAMPSON: 'Tis all one.
• In both 'Romeo and Juliet', as well as Rupert Brooke's poem
'The Soldier', the characters appear to believe that conflict is
honourable. In that poem the word ‘richer,’ indicates the
glorious rewards of conflict.
• Throughout 'Romeo and Juliet', characters like Tybalt and
Mercutio, the main trouble makers, believe that they should
fight to remain honourable and to prove their masculinity, thus
they are depicted in the play as noblemen. However,
Shakespeare appears to challenge this belief, as, by the end of
the play, the main catalysts of conflict are dead, proving the
futility and pettiness of feud.
The Soldier continued.
• Likewise, the use of first person narrative in ‘The
Soldier’, engages the audience, depicting Brooke's
patriotic beliefs, ‘a body of England's’, and as a result
showing that Brooke believes that he owes his life to
his country.
• Moreover, the fact that Brooke wrote ‘The Soldier’ at
the beginning of the war, indicates how strongly
influenced people were by propaganda at the time, ‘it
is sweet and right to die for your country’, proving that
people thought that conflict and war was going to be
glorious.
• After reading Owen’s poems, Brooke could be accused
of naivety.
Anthem for Doomed youth
• In sonnet form, ANTHEM FOR DOOMED
YOUTH is an elegy, a lament for the dead, in
particular the very young boys who would die
for their country.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
• The title links to the untimely deaths of several of the young
characters of Romeo and Juliet.
• Ultimately Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt and Mercutio are doomed through
the conflict of their families and associates.
• In a similar way, many of the young men of WW1 were doomed to
die ‘as cattle’.
• The first octet contains religious imagery in a similar manner to the
Prince’s speech in Act 1 Scene 1.
• The devilish clamour of trench warfare is carefully set against the
subdued atmosphere of church. These religious images: passing
bells, orisons (prayers), voice of mourning, choirs, candles, holy
glimmers, symbolise the sanctity of life - and death - while
suggesting also the inadequacy, the futility, even meaninglessness,
of organised religion measured against such a cataclysm as war.
• The de-humanising nature of war ‘as cattle’ could also be compared
to Sampson’s comments in Act 1 Scene 1 about ‘dog of war’.
Futility
• This poem uses irony. The irony is that the sun, a
life-giving force, can no longer wake the dead
solider.
• The irony is redoubled as the personified sun
‘touch[es]’ and ‘whisper[s]’ yet the human body is
bereft of life. The ‘fields unsown’ may represent the
lives not even begun – but, Owen may be seen to
argue, what is the point of beginning them if they
are to be destroyed as easily and as brutally as this
solder’s?
Futility
• Owen’s use of the sun as a metaphor for futility is comparable
with Mercutio’s image of a ‘plague’ when cursing the
Montagues and Capulets for their conflict.
• Indeed, their conflict is presented as futile because it is ‘bred
of an airy word’ and only finds its conclusion in tragedy.
Whilst the image of the sun is initially hopeful, the image of a
plague is destructive and terrible.
• It could be argued that Owen’s use of an initially hopeful
image is more poignant as it reflects the vacillation
(indecision) between hope and grief which it is likely that he
experienced, whereas Mercutio’s imagery is more raw and
visceral, spoken by a man on his deathbed.
• Perhaps Owen can be seen as the voice of the dead solider,
pondering the futility of his, and others’, existence.
The Send Off
• In Owen's poem, ‘The Send Off’ we are told of the negativity of
conflict. The men go to battle ‘Down the close darkening
lanes’.
• The words ‘down’ and ‘darkening’ are pessimistic and create a
gloomy atmosphere. Additionally, they suggest the effects of
conflict worsening and becoming more and more serious. This
echoes the structure of Romeo and Juliet as the conflict in Act
1 is combined with a sense of comedy, however following the
death of Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1 the comedy stops
altogether.
• The poem also creates a sense of the inevitability of death as a
consequence of war and conflict as the words suggest that the
men are going into night, perhaps a permanent one.
• This links to the prologue as the main characters deaths are
inevitable.
Other forms of Conflict
• Apart from Physical
Conflict, what other
kinds of conflict are
seen in Romeo and
Juliet?
• What happens between
Act 3 Scene 1 and Act 3
Scene 5?
• What aspects of conflict
can you see?
• Reading Act 3 Scene 5 –
How is conflict
presented in the scene?
Act 5 Scene 3
• Paris comes out of the shadows and challenges
Romeo to fight. Just as he tried at first to resist
fighting Tybalt, Romeo tries to avoid conflict with
Paris. He warns Paris to ‘fly hence’, but Paris
persists and is killed.
• With Tybalt and now with Paris, it seems that
these characters were fated to die and Romeo
was unable to avoid being involved. Again, this
reflects the theme of fate: Romeo tried to avoid
the conflict with both, but was unable to do so.
• The manner in which Romeo and Juliet die forms the final
piece of the puzzle when analysing their characters. Romeo
takes the easy option, having asked the pharmacist
specifically for drugs which are ‘quick’. His desire is an
instantaneous and pain free death and he is given it, dying
with the words ‘thy drugs are quick’.
• Juliet, on the other hand, suffers a much more gruesome
death. Picking up Romeo’s ‘happy dagger’ she stabs herself.
Even when offered escape by the Friar, she rejects the offer.
In many cultures (Roman and Japanese for two) death by
stabbing was seen as an honourable and brave way to die.
Like the Seppuku of the Japanese Samurai, Juliet’s suicide
through stabbing is far more impressive than Romeo’s quick
exit.
• This is just another example of Juliet proving herself to be
more mature than Romeo. It echoes the characters’
juxtaposed reactions to the news of Romeo’s banishment,
where Juliet calculated wisely and Romeo acted like a spoilt
child.
• The play ends in irony; the death of Romeo
and Juliet brings the Capulet and Montague
family together. This means that the very
same problem that prevented them from
marrying openly (their families being at war) is
solved with their deaths.
Suicide in the Trenches
Stanza One
• Young soldier boy signs or is signed up for military action in WW1.
• He was happy to be serving his country.
• He has no life experience – although he thinks this will provide him with a future
in the Army once he’s returned from war.
Stanza Two
• War is not what he expected.
• Conditions are awful; unhygienic, loneliness, surrounded by death.
• He commits suicide.
• He was forgotten.
Stanza Three
• Sassoon criticises the crowds who welcome the soldiers home – they have no
idea of the suffering, pain and horror of war.
• They have no idea what young men of Great Britain gave up for their freedom.
• Annoyed that serving your country is seen as a glamorous responsibility – in fact it
destroys life.
Links
• In a sense, the conflict for both Romeo and
Juliet as well as their internal conflict becomes
unbearable.
• Was suicide the only option?
• Born to a wealthy Jewish family and had a good life.
• Very innocent about war, which people think made his reaction to it even
stronger.
• His brother died at Gallipoli (where Brookes also died) and this had a very
strong affect on him.
• Was called ‘Mad Jack’ in the trenches because of his near suicidal acts during
war.
• Out-spoken about horror of war. He showed his anger at the war and the British
Government through poetry.
• Thought to be suffering from ‘shell (bombs) shock’ so sent to military hospital.
• Met Wilfred Owen in hospital, and mentored (taught) him. Owen is also a very
famous WW1 poet.
• When he was older, religion helped him cope with the horrors of war.
Which of the bullet points do you think links with the final
stanza of the poem and why?
Context
• Under the Tudor monarchy the church and
state took a strict view on suicide as a mortal
sin which was linked to deep despair and
demonic pride. In drama of the period
however, suicide was often depicted in a far
more subtle fashion, with divisions drawn
between ignoble and heroic forms of selfsacrifice.