Historical War Drama
Amidst the chaos and confusion of World War I, the devastation that the war brought about profoundly impacted both men and women. Men had to battle for a sense of honor and duty, while women experienced trauma because of the idea of war being brought into domestic life. Ultimately, the war created a lot of change for men and women because they both had to face reality itself. In Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier, West depicts trauma as a way to shift the generally accepted norms of gender roles because the war blends men and women together as people who suffer from the hardships of reality.
West reveals part of the traumatic effects of World War I as a force that transforms Chris into a passive individual. The women actually do their best to keep the house operating efficiently, but the war essentially made Chris a hollow man. Additionally, Chris went to the stables and attempted to interact with the animals. Nevertheless, Chris still takes pride in his domestic life. Ultimately, the war made Chris a senile individual, but he still honors his fundamental roots as a family man who loves both his wife and his home.
While Chris might have turned into a weak individual, the war made the women stronger because of the trauma that they had to face. For example, Kitty and Jenny both had to help Chris deal with his issues. Even though the women did their best to be strong, they still can never fulfill the desire to have the life they had prior to the war. The metaphor that compares domestic life to a stage show implies that the women essentially have to employ a façade of a pleasant life even though the war directly impacted both the men and women involved. In the end, the women could try to recreate the happiness that existed prior to the war, but the consequences involved with the war made its aftermath a struggle that is hard to endure.
Not only does Chris have to suffer the dire consequences of war, but he also loses a sense of his masculinity. The desire to have a sense of magical transformation implies that Nick yearns for a sense of power upon his supposedly victorious return home. The fact that Chris can never return to a normal life reveals how war can cause a man to lose his own sense of figurative strength because dominance is a key feature in typically masculine ideas. Chris essentially loses his masculinity, and becomes very docile. In contrast, the women have to help Chris with his hardships, which implies that the women have strength to help the men. Essentially, the war inverts stereotypical gender roles so that the women gain strength while the men lose their ability to dominate society. Ultimately, West employs characters who defy traditional gender roles to reveal how harsh war itself can be.
Not only do the men lose a sense of masculinity, but the women have to rise up to the challenge of being more courageous rather than dainty. Both Jenny and Kitty are fully aware that war traumatized Chris, and the two of them now have to work together in order to help him with his frail state of mind. As Chris attempts to recover from the traumatic effects of war, the women respond to the horrors of war by becoming more masculine as Jenny and Kitty rise up to the challenge of aiding a damaged individual. The women essentially had to cope with so much stress that they lose their sense of the generally accepted idea of female fragility, and have to gather enough strength to deal with post-war trauma. Therefore, West reveals that war can truly change people, and its effects on these characters are examples of what could happen to men and women after they experience traumatic events.
Additionally, the men and women experience disconnections between each other, which suggest that war has the ability to shatter personal identity, and disregard the gender of people all together. Specifically, war has the ability to tear people apart because of its traumatic effects. Kitty’s observations imply that war and trauma essentially destroy the gender, and overall identity, of people because some individuals who suffer from the aftershocks of war lose their basic humanity. Ultimately, Kitty reveals harsh realities about the bleakness of war because its traumatic effects destroy people both physically and emotionally as such people lose their ability to be their natural selves.
In spite of the traumatic effects of war, the new gender roles that the male and female characters have reveal the inevitability of change. Indeed, the characters do not weep at all, and instead embrace the change that the war did to them. It is true that Chris became delusional, and the women have to cope with stress, but the events of war are in the past, and the characters have to accept that change. In fact, the characters did change dramatically because Jenny and Kitty now must endure the aftermath of war, and move forward in their lives.
Finally, Rebecca West reveals that even though war can be traumatic, there are still some facets of human life that will never fade into obscurity. Jenny mentions that, when it comes to Margaret, “While her spell endured they could not send him back into the hell of war. Margaret is still a very kind woman even though she is from a different social class than the one that Chris occupies. Nevertheless, she still loves Chris, which reveals the enduring power of love.
In the end, men and women have their own reactions to warfare. Some of the soldiers suffered from so much trauma that they lose their ability to return to their former selves. Additionally, the women also could not return to the lives they used to live prior to the war because it affected the men that would have originally cared for the women. Nevertheless, the men and women still love each other. War might have shifted the roles that men and women play, but the love they share serves as a reminder of the triumphant power of the human spirit.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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