To what extent do you consider ‘Journey’s End’ to be a realistic portrayal of the war on the Western Front

The ‘Journey’s End’ is surely written to convey to the audience the realities of war. The author Sherriff served as a captain during the First World War. He would no doubt have heard eyewitness testimonies of the events taking place. Perhaps many of the characters and situations in Journey’s End are drawn from his own experience. This is one reason why I feel that this script is as real a portrayal of life, as a letter or diary entry.

Statistics are always thought to be an accurate portrayal of war. Massive casualties and deaths, such as 908,000 British soldiers killed, tell a tale of pain and tortuous death. This is certainly not ignored in ‘Journey’s End’. In the few minutes it takes Osborne and Raleigh to conduct their raid, a total of seven men are killed, by machine gun bullets and a hand grenade. Stanhope tells the colonel “four men and Raleigh came safely back, sir.” By the end of the play we must assume that many more men are killed.

I believe the play ...