The Role Of Censorship In Richard Aldington's Death Of A Hero

In Richard Aldington’s novel, Death of a Hero, Aldington is forced to censor his novel due to inappropriate content. Aldington responded to this forced censorship by addressing it, using replacement words and using asterisks to replace passages that were censored. By not removing the censored pieces Aldington forces the reader to think, imagine and put themselves into the scenes of George’s life and the war, creating a more intimate and alive piece.

Aldington addresses the censorship of his novel at the beginning in “A Note from the Author”. In this note Aldington states, “The novel in print differs in some particulars from the same book in manuscript. To my astonishment, my publishers informed me that certain words, phrases, sentences and

Many of the asterisks replace just one word and are easy to fill in. One such example is, “Get the stretcher-bearer, and send those windy ******* back here” (263). A few words come to mind when reading this part; bastards, fuckers and assholes among others. Here, any of those words work and get the point that Aldington was trying to make come across. Aldington is making a point by keeping the asterisks, War was not pretty and the men who fought it did not talk pretty and proper. By leaving parts like the previous example within the novel, Aldington manages to keep the language and the feeling of the war alive within the novel, because most readers can imagine and fill in the blanks for themselves. Some of the asterisked parts are lengthier and require more engagement and thinking on the part of the reader, for example; “’ ‘Ere, you, Frost…” (216). The part directly following this quote contains eighteen words in asterisks and ends with a question mark. This passage, unlike the first example becomes harder for the reader to fill in and forces the reader to think about the war, the imagery of the war, George’s mindset, George in the war and the language George and soldiers use in the war. This makes the novel and the war come alive; and forces the readers of the novel to place themselves within the situations that George faces in order

He does this knowing that the audience knows exactly what he means, “A very faint murmur of ‘Muckin’’ old fool’, ‘Silly old mucker’, ‘’struth!’ came from the draft…” (209). The use of the word muck, allowed Aldington to blatantly use the word fuck without having them fall to becoming asterisks like other curse language and material deemed inappropriate by Aldington’s publishers and society. This echoes the tone that is present in “A Note from the Author” at the beginning of the novel. He does this in spite of the publishers and society that censored not only he’s novel but the war. It also allows Aldington to censor the novel without having to lose more words. This blatant use of the word both critiques the use of censorship and laughs in the face of the people who try to censor the world, especially a world that is based in war. This use of the word muck also allows the reader to experience the language that was present in the war and between the men of the war without having to fill in or guess what was being said or happening.

The use of asterisks and replacement words also builds on the setting of the novel. If Aldington were to give in to complete censorship, the war setting of the novel would have been lacking the grit and realism that it needed. By leaving the replacement words and the asterisks in, it allows the audience to experience George’s life and the war more vividly than