In both Journey’s End, and Birdsong, the audience are cognisant to how loved ones can keep the characters limits at bay. This is especially true of the protagonists Stephen Wraysford, and Stanhope regarding women.
Wagstaff uses frequent flashbacks in conjunction with the scenes of war; this differs from Journey’s End, where Sherriff uses the claustrophobic setting of the trench, to imply the suffocating nature of trench warfare. Wagstaff’s form is used in order to illustrate how Stephens memories of Isabelle, are the only thing keeping Stephen from exceeding his limits. This is made explicit to the audience when the phrase “you gotta ‘ave something, someone worth living for”, is used, portraying how significant Stephens recollections of Isabelle are, as soon after this is said, Stephen quickly recuperates. These “dreamlike” memories indicate a …show more content…
Some audiences may find this rather unrealistic and cliché, however Wagstaff illustrates well, the emotional attachment of Stephen. This is apparent during the prostitute scene, when Wagstaff projects all of Stephens’s irritation towards Isabelle, on to the prostitute, who represents women as a collective noun, “Stephen runs the knife down the girl’s body”, this is deplorable to the audience who are exposed to how Stephen has been transformed, and the juxtaposition of his gentle character in Amiens, compared to the detached, fragmented character he has become. It can be interpreted as Stephen wanting to mark the girl’s undamaged body, as it seems almost foreign to him, to see a body that’s not “rotting” physically or mentally. This demonstrates how