Character analysis

Sherriff shows the diversity between the characters once we meet Stanhope.
We learn about the different types of people, how anyone can be in war, from Raleigh who's fresh out of school aged 18; to Osbourne who is a very intelligent older man who was a teacher, yet he's second in command.

Mason - A slightly lower class chef. Cooks for the commanders and isn't really educated.  He is sometimes used as a dramatic devise, bringing the audience down to a completely different level when he worries about the fact that he was brought apricots rather than pineapple chunks. He is almost a comedy role, taking on a totally different side of the war, and almost making it seem funny and stupid that you worry about that sort of thing; the fact that they are in the middle of the First World War and he's worried about pineapples. 

Stanhope - Is in charge, he's bossy and known as a major drinker. However Osbourne is a big fan of him, defending him, saying he's the best company commander in the army and works harder than anyone else. He's shocked when he first sees Raleigh questioning him quite harshly, 'how did you get here?', and as a result of this becomes slightly dismissive, goes quiet and perhaps slightly uncomfortable because he recognises this boy, and for some reason which we learn later on in the play, he doesn't want Raleigh to see what he's really like. Possibly because of his sister. 


'She doesn't know that if I went up those steps into the front line - without being doped in whisky - I'd go mad with fright.'

'I knew I'd go mad if I couldn't break the strain, I couldn't bare being fully conscious all the time.'

These two quotes that Stanhope tells Osbourne are extremely important and a turn in the play, showing what the war was like from a man who was regarded as one of the bravest men out on the front. How must the others have coped?! 
We see Stanhope as a strong man, brave and completely in control the whole time, but from those two quotes we learn that he's still as terrified as everyone else. You could almost say he is a good actor, covering up his emotions, along with a lot of whisky washed down with it. It is funny what a war can do to a man, as Stanhope tells Osbourne, he promised himself that he'd go into the war and be strong and brave and come back fit and healthy for his girl. Yet once he got there he couldn't go through the day not being slightly drunk during some of it. 

Osbourne - a much older man than anyone else in the company, given the nickname 'uncle' by everyone else he's seen as a fatherly figure and perhaps a role model. Second in command to Stanhope, he could be more intelligent since he was a teacher but has little to non-experience compared to Stanhope and believes that wholeheartedly. He comes across as a nice man, who sees the best in people, no matter the circumstances or situation and in this case, war. He looks after Stanhope when he gets drunk and rowdy, worrying about Raleigh and the contents of the letters he might send home.