Comparing Irony of War in Dulce et Decorum, Regeneration,...

Irony of War Exposed in Dulce et Decorum, Regeneration, and Quiet on the Western Front Many of the young officers who fought in the Great War enlisted in the army with glowing enthusiasm, believing that war was played in fancy uniforms with shiny swords. They considered war as a noble task, an exuberant journey filled with honor and glory. Yet, after a short period on the front, they discovered that they had been disillusioned by the war: fighting earned them nothing but hopelessness, death and terror. They had lost their lives to the lost cause of war, which also killed their innocence and youth. They were no longer boys but callous men. Wilfred Owens poem Dulce et Decorum Est, Pat Barkers novel Regeneration, and Erich Maria†¦show more content†¦He uses An ecstasy of fumbling (9) to describe the men grasping for their gas masks during the attack. The fact that ecstasy is used with fumbling is surprising and disturbing but suggests the difference between the societys beliefs about the war and the actuality of it. Images such as floundring like a man in fire or lime... (12), He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. (16), His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin (20), Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs (22) hurls the pain of war and death into the readers face. By the end of the third and last stanza, the irony of the title has completely unfolded: My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (25-29) Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors, Owen wants people to stop lying about how sweet and fitting it is to die for ones country. Pat Barkers 1991 novel, Regeneration, represents her fictional-historical account of Rivers treatment of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon. The novels anti-war message is very clear and well argued from Barkers point of view because by emphasizing on war and madness she shows us how the minds of her characters were damaged by the war. The novel begins with Sassoons letter of resignation: I am a soldier,