Bent Double Like Old Beggars Analysis

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The brutality of war shown in Henry V is matched by the war poets. In Dulce et Decorum Est, Owen conveys the horror of war, but this time from the perspective of a normal soldier going through a horrific experience- a gas attack. In this poem Owen tries to convince us that war is not noble, glamorous or heroic but in fact quite the opposite. He describes the soldiers as “bent double, like old beggars”. This eliminates the stereotype of soldiers being proud, powerful masculine beings and instead showing them as broken, depleted and just slowly staggering on only thinking of survival. The last thing they’re thinking of is patriotism and honouring their nation. Owen presents the soldiers as crippled, weak and their frail exterior reflects their internal feelings of weariness. “bent double like old beggars” is also a simile with compares the marching soldiers to beggars. To start the poem off …show more content…

Sassoon shows his view of the crowds (the common men) throughout the last stanza, and he uses quite an aggressive and angry tone. When he says “you smug faced crowds with kindling eye” the word “you” includes us all- he's addressing everyone who's reading as one and making us all feel guilty of being “smug faced” when soldiers walk by. This also shows us the the crowd are being falsely patriotic, the common men watching the parade of soldiors are acting like they are contributing to the war effort but they don't actually know what war is like and prey that they never have to know. They are trying to prove that they know and can empathise with what the soldiers have been thorough but they really can’t. The common men don't feel for the soldiers and they are selfishly just thinking about themselves and are glad they are not the ones fighting. Sassoon shows the hypocrisy of the common men because they don't care or feel appriciative of what the soldiers have

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