1. POINT 1: WAR IS DESCRIBED AS A TEAM GAME IN POPE’S POEM – choose
three quotes (1 from the start, one from the middle and one from the end)
that are portraying war as a game and analyse them. Discuss why Pope
portrays war in this way (wants men to enlist). Ostracised from society and
emasculated if don’t join…
‘the biggest that’s played’ = superlative = exaggerate its importance =
not there then lose out
‘the red crashing game of a fight’ = violence but energy and exciting.
Game = masculine…
‘Out of the fun’ = not there then no part in shaping the world. Ostracised
from society
POINT 2: SAY HOW SHAKESPEARE ALSO USES THE METPAHOR OF A
GAME BUT DIFFERENTLY… war is described as a solo sport – a game of
tennis in Henry V Act 1 Scene 2. Set up the ‘match’ that will be played
over the course of the play. Choose three quotes (1 from the start, one from
the middle and one from the end) that are portraying war as a game and
analyse them. Discuss why Shakespeare portrays war in this way (wants
Henry to seem powerful). Has to prove himself worthy of being a divinely
chosen King.
‘match’d our rackets to these balls’ = will be equal in strength and power and
this sets up his motive for the play = to prove his worth as king as leader
‘play a set’ = extends the metaphor = ‘set’ = monosyllabic and plosive =
sarcastic and has a brittle and sharp edge to it… perhaps a warning of the
lengths which henry will go to guarantee his international status and to win
the game
‘balls to gunstones’ = he turns the insult to a threat on France.
‘a thousand widows’ = he directly threatens that the game will know no
bounds… the hyperbolic use of ‘thousands’ implies that the destruction will
be absolute
POINT 3: SHAKESPEARE DESCRIBES HENRY GOING TO WAR IN FRANCE
(AS HE SAID HE WOULD IN ACT 1 SCENE 2) AND ATTACKING HARFLEUR
YET WHEN THEY DON’T SUCCESSFULLY CONQUER IT HE THREATENS
TERRIBLE SUFFERING AGAINST THE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO WIN. Choose
three quotes (1 from the start, one from the middle and one from the end)
that are portraying war as bringing terrible suffering. Discuss why
Shakespeare portrays war in this way (wants Henry to seem ruthless?). Can a
Christian king behave in this way? Or is his just the nature of war and
Shakespeare is brave enough to show it?

2. ‘Naked infants spitted upon pikes’ naked = vulnerable (like France?)
spitted = very violent verb = disrespectful. Pikes = hard, cold and metallic =
represent war?
‘defile the locks of your shrill shrieking daughters’ = sibilant alliteration =
we are forced to hear the extent of their suffering
‘fathers taken by their silver beards and their most reverend heads
dashed to the wall’ silver = precious to represent the respect that should be
given to them in their wisdom BUT this is the reason that they are destroyed.
Dashed = disrespectful and graphic
POINT 4: SITT SASSOON ALSO SHOWS US THE SUFFERING THAT WAR
BRINGS BUT HE CREATES EMPATHY FOR THE VICTIM RATHER THAN
FOCUSING ON THE VICTOR. Say a bit about Sassoon and his declaration – he
wasn’t anti war but though that the level of suffering was unnecessary and
futile. Choose three quotes (1 from the start before he goes to war, one from
the middle in war and one from the end where the people at home are
pretending that the men are not suffering) that are portraying war as
bringing terrible suffering. Discuss why Sassoon portrays war in this way
(wants the reader to empathise with the ‘simple soldier boy’ and understand
how the degree of suffering is unmanageable)
‘who grinned at life in empty joy’ = grinned = childish verb = happy to be
alive and needs no reason (‘empty’)
‘winter trenches’ = seasons reflect his mood = everything is dying and no
hope again
‘with crumps and lice and lack of rum’ = list and repeated conjunction =
endless. Look at the items in the list = what do they tell you about physical
and psychological suffering
‘he put a bullet through his brain / no one spoke of him again’
Put = very ordinary and not dramatic = was not irrational – it actually
seemed like a rational decision = nothing to live for.
Why put the bullet through his brain rather than head? Destroy his thoughts?
People back home ‘cheer’ and are ‘smug faced’ but they send them to
‘hell’. Sassoon thinks that they should ‘sneak home’ = ashamed…
POINT 5: SHAKESPEARE SUGGESTS THAT SACRIFICING YOUR LIFE IN
WAR WILL MAKE YOU A HERO AND ELEVATE YOUR SOCIAL STATUS.
Choose three quotes (1 from the start, one from the middle and one from the
end) that are portraying war as giving you a heroic status. Discuss why
Shakespeare portrays war in this way? Wants to make the Queen Elisabeth
look like she is from a family of brave and heroic leaders whom God favours,
even when they seem outnumbered.

3. POINT 6: OPPOSITE TO SHAKESPEARE… MANY OF THESE WAR POETS
ACTUALLY FOUGHT IN THE WAR WHERE SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID.
THEIR AIM WAS TO WRITE THE ‘TRUTH’ ABOUT WAR… Give the
number enlisting when war started in 1914 and what they hoped they’d
gain from war. Many war poets present war as stripping individuals of
their identity. Ideas = one of many – the dehumanising machine of war…
Loss of masculinity… No name or importance…treated as animals or objects…