Stanhope

Looking and thinking about the character of Stanhope and how the audience are expected to feel about him.

When we are introduced to Hibbert he is complaining of his supposed illness called ‘neuralgia’. Stanhope is not convinced of it and just nods along not really paying attention but agreeing with him regardless. Stanhope uses different techniques to stop Hibbert from leaving. He uses his own emotions, telling Hibbert that he knows how he is feeling: “I feel the same – exactly the same! Every little noise up there makes me feel – just as you feel. Why didn’t you tell me instead of talking about neuralgia? We all feel like you do sometimes, if you only knew. I hate and loathe it all. Sometimes I feel I could just lie down on this bed and pretend I was paralyzed or something – and couldn’t move – and just lie there till I died – or was dragged away.” Stanhope tells him that he feels exactly the same as Hibbert. He has to show a tenacious exterior as he is the Company Commander and he has to be tough for his men. He stays in the army because if anything happened to his men when he had left he couldn't live with himself.   He also explains to Hibbert that he has told the doctor to send him back up if he did go down. “I’ve seen the doctor. I saw him this morning. He won’t send you to hospital, Hibbert; he’ll send you back here. He promised me he would.”
Stanhope threatens to shoot him for "deserting" and cowardice which is a really bad thing because his whole family will be shamed.     We like Stanhope because he is acting fairly. He thinks that everybody should fight in this attack. He has a very strong sense of what is right. As an audience, we know he is stressed because he has a lot of weight on his shoulders, he still haven’t told Osborne and Raleigh about the raid, he is struggling about Raleigh and his sister, he is worried because he thinks the battalions are rubbish and aren’t going to stand up against the Germans. He has a lot of tensions which might...