Presentation of War in Literature | The Man He Killed and Dulce Er Decorum Est

Presentation of War in Literature The Man He Killed and Dulce Er decorousness EstThe Man He Killed by Thomas venturesome (1840-1928), and Dulce et Decorum est, by Wilfred Owen look the theme of contendf ar, they both take similar views on life during and after the tr separatelyerous times that war created, and its lasting effects. However, the poets choose to display these faces finished and through their poetry in different ways. In brazens song, the poet adopts the person of a war veteran in the Boer war. The verse is about his actions in this war and their lasting effects. In Dulce Decorum est, the poet prefers to take a step back, he is non as directly involved as Hardy, besides he continues to get his message across very effectively by describing the curses he witnessed. Though the songs were compose in different wars the messages they portray are very similar as the rimes do not break dance into the actual wars they were based on, precisely, instead on the inn er dynamics of war on a whole.Wilfred Owen is cognize as being one of the most famous poets of the First World War. He wrote Dulce et Decorum Est while he served as a s honest-to-goodnessier in the appalling conditions of the trenches. Dulce et Decorum Est gives a distressing bill of the futility of war, generated from his hold personal experiences. It was composed during the summer of 1917 when Owen wrote a series of poems about the war. The preface to this collection was My landing field is War, and the pity of War. This surfaces Owens view to war and his purpose for writing the poems was to show the disgusting horror that war created to an ill-informed and nescient au run outnce back at fundament in England. Though the war do Owen famous it at long last led to his demise a year later.The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy was written to express Hardys beliefs. Hardy felt that war was inhu composition, he despised the heartlessness atrocity between men. The poem is specifica lly addressed to the Boer War, which Hardy was passionately against. The poem may seem very simple at first however in fact it is a very skilful one, it is hampered with irony and Hardy makes interest use of colloquialism (writing in a conversational agency). Hardy prenomend the poem The Man He Killed, in the third person. However, the poem is narrated in the first person. The person in the poem, the he in the title and I in the poem, is clearly a soldier of the Boer war attempting to explain and perhaps clarify the reasons to stamp out an some other man in battle. The short lines, simple rhyme scheme, and colloquial language make the poem almost like pleasant nursery rhyme as it is so simple and easy to read, however, this is an ironical contrast to its less than pleasant subject.In Dulce et decorousness est, Owen is showing how the press and public at home were comforting themselves in the belief that all the young men destruction in the war were dying noble, heroic dying s. Owen on the other hand, shows how the reality was quite different the young men were dieing horrible and repugnant deaths in the trenches. I believe that Owen wanted to open the eyeball of the ref to what was really going on in the war to illustrate how vile and inhumane war really is. The first line sets the sapidity for the rest of the poem Bent double, like old beggars beneath sacks. He uses the simile like old beggars to show how the average soldier was not being treated nobly or with respect but like someone the lowest class (a beggar). It likewise shows how the young, vibrant boys who signed up had the life interpreted out of them by the war and were becoming old well out front it was their time. This put the reader in the right frame of mind about the war, it casts out any false pretences they had about the war and opens their eyes to the inhumane truth war created. He uses bitter imagery like coughing like hags and but limped on, blood shod. All went lame all bli nd Drunk with fatigue to show how these apparent new-fangled and strong men had been broken by the war and become prematurely old and weakened. Owen takes pity on these tired and weary soldiers as he describes them in the most unglamorous, inglorious manner.Similarly, in The Man He Killed, Hardy also banishes a common misconception about war, that extinguishing a man was a honor and noble thing to do. In the first stanza Hardy establishes that things could have been different in more favorable circumstances between him and his foe Had he and I but met they could have had a drink unitedly By some old ancient inn. However, in the second stanza, Hardy shows the true circumstances in which they did meet, which is in stark contrast to the first stanza. Ranged as infantry Hardy once again reemphasises the rase that the men are not natural foes but have been ranged, which means that they have been set against each other by someone elses decision. The phrase as he at me indicates they are both in similar situations. This tells the reader how your foe may have been your friend in indifferent circumstances but because someone higher has said they are your foe means you must kill them, in message you must banish your own moral and personal views on the person you are about to kill because someone has told you, falsely, it is your duty to kill them. Like Owen, Hardy takes pity on the soldiers, as it is not their fault, as he shows it is kill or be killed in war.In The Man He Killed, Hardy also exhibits the dark side of man, especially his capacity for violence and cruelty. He does this in the last stanza where concludes with a repeat of the contrast between his treatment of the man he killed and how he might have shared cordial reception with him in other circumstances, Youd treat, if met where any bar is, or even been ready to extend charity to him Or help to half a crown. Before this he says that war is quaint and curious, as if to say war was is bit of a harml ess puzzle. This may give the impression that war is undamaging and acceptable, but as the reader now knows from the events described in the poem and the knowledge he already has of war, make it clear that Hardy applies this phrase quaint and curious with great irony, knowing full well that this statement is far from the truth. It forces the reader, through Hardys irony, to divulge deeper into the ethics behind war and the brutality and inhumanity it creates, and to consider how humans are lots victims of sheer circumstance and fate, which has lead them to take another persons life. Hardy has very cleverly through colloquial language and simple statements, made the reader think as though they have made a judgment of whether war is right or wrong on their own, when really Hardy has inconspicuously made that decision for them.Furthermore, Owen also shows how war has changed man into a killing beast. He concentrates on the use of gai choi gas, a new devastating weapon used in the Fir st World war. If inhaled without the protection of a mask, the gas quickly burns away the lining of the respiratory system. Owen shows this as he compares the soldier who has suspire in the toxic fumes with a man consumed in fire or lime. When you have disenfranchised in the fumes, it is of often compared with drowning, as mustard gas effectively drowns masses in the blood from their own lung tissues. Owen accordingly skilfully uses a metaphor to tie into the drowning theme as he says As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. This was because Mustard gas had a green colour, he calls it a sea to show how it was impossible to get away from. Owen continues this aquatic theme as he views this floundring man as if through an underwater mask, Dim through the misty panes. This gives the impression that Owen was unable to fully admission the situation through his gas mask, there is also a helplessness felt by Owen as there is nothing he can do, which adds to the surreal and nightmarish atmosphere of the poem, in all my dreams, before my helpless sight. This dream then becomes a harsh reality as the guttering, choking soldier plunges at the helpless speaker, seeking help, in an effort to escape his inevitable death, Owen uses triple emphasis to engrave this blistering image in the readers head. Owen can do nothing for the man there is still a feeling of responsibility and guilt. This vivid imagery creates a bleak image in the readers mind, Owen is exhausting to make them header whether the suffering and torture created by war is really worth it. His despair at war and the press release of morals it results in are shown in phrase sores on innocent tongues, as Owen realizes that this soldier, though he is fighting in a war, is innocent and there was no reason for him to die in this way. Owen then uses alliteration to further emphasize the inhumanities man does to man by describing the soldiers slow death, he repeats initial harmonic sounds in closely related w ords wagon, watch, white, writhing. Owen then continues to use bitter imagery combined with similes much(prenominal) as, Like a devils sick of sin to describe the soldiers dying face. This exceptionally dramatic imagery creates a lasting and distressing impression on the reader, as Owen reveals the true horrors that go on during times of war.In The Man He Killed, Hardy illustrates that the reason for killing a man because they are your foe is not good enough. This is shown in the third stanza. The colloquial style Hardy uses enables him to repeat the word because, when he is trying to justify the reason for killing the man, implying hesitation, and therefore doubt as he doesnt know why he killed him. He uses repetition of my foe and the of course this also shows that there is an element of doubt as the speaker tries to convince himself of his justification for the killing. Hardy has already made it clear that the men fighting each other because of an artificial hostility created by others. He adds at the end of the stanza Thats clear enough which is obviously ironic, as the reason for killing is far from clear to the reader because of the reasons above. The last word of the stanza although ultimately destroys the whole intact believability of the reason he has just given. I believe the main point of this poem is to show that there is never a good enough reason to kill another man. Hardy shows this through illustrating how these men would have been friends if they had met under different circumstances yet because someone has said they were there enemy this was a good enough reason to take the other persons life, thus showing how war is a pointless and frivolous act.On the other hand, in Dulce et Decorum est, Owen in not against the reasons why soldiers are killing each other but the fact that these young, innocent and possibly naive men were sign up based on the belief that it is sweet and fitting to die for your country (which is Dulce et decorum est the ti tle of the poem in Latin). At the end of the last stanza, Owen sums up the poem. Owen speaks directly to reader calling the reader my friend, this draws the reader into the poem. He says you would not tell with such high zest, to say directly to the reader that if they had witnessed the horror that he had witnessed then the readers attitude towards the war would change. Therefore, the reader would not repeat patriotic slogans to make people sign up, To children ardent for some desperate glory. The title of the poem Dulce et decorum est is used with a trustworthy sense of irony as the poem is all about how it is not sweet and fitting to die for your country. However, Owen abandons this irony and just says The old Lie, showing how more soldiers will die in the circumstances of the fall soldier in this poem, if the reader continues to spread that lie to young men who have been blinded by this sense of patriotic duty to their country. The final line brings about the full chilling effec t of the poem Pro patria mori to die for ones country. Owen shows how people are signing up to the war on lies like Dulce et decorum est, however, this is far from the truth as nobody deserves to suffer the fate of the fallen soldier in the poem for their country. Within Dulce et Decorum Est the poet utilises a variety of powerful poetic devices in order to depict death in war as a brutal and horrifying experience. It is through the use of this simile that the poet arouses the liberality of the responder as they witness the grotesque nature of such a death.In Dulce et Decorum est Owen masterfully uses a variety of potent poetic devices to depict the horrifying nature of death in a war to stimulate a response from the reader. He uses metaphors and similes to provoke sympathy for the people who were dying in the war, as the reader witnesses the grotesque death of the soldier who died in the poem. By doing this Owen portrays his message in a very bold and tasteful way. In The Man He K illed Hardy uses a colloquial style of writing combined with an ABAB rhyme scheme, this makes the poem very easy to read and long lasting. Hardy uses bank to get the reader involved in the poem, this allows Hardy to make a strong point in highlighting the irony behind how war can turn friend into foe simply by association and sway the reader against war. Both poems are against war and the reasons and ethics behind them. Though Hardy uses a more direct approach to get his point across, both poems successfully complete the design that the poets had for them, which was to open the readers eyes to the true reality of war.