The Comparison of Prewar and Postwar Ideas of War and their Reflection in Literature

The World War One, also known as the Great War, escalated in 1914 by the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and lasted till 1918. One hundred thirty-five countries participated in the war and, by doing so, they have left over fifteen million bodies behind them. The World War One can be seen as a milestone after which the people’s perspectives were changed. The losses of many lives, global proportions of the war, modern ways of fighting, and terror have made people to look at war, not as a way of becoming immortal, but as an event that destroys our dignity and humanity. The changes in perspectives, how people perceived war also took place in literature. From the Homer’s Iliad, as the work in which war is ideologically presented, and Rupert Brooke’s poem “The Soldier’’, in which we can se the impacts of how ancient Greeks perceived war, to the Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est’’, which is in contrast to prewar ideas.

The prewar idea of war has its roots in the ancient Greek’s comprehension of war which is best described and represented in Homer’s epic poem Iliad:

And someday one will say, one of the men to come

'there's the mound of a man who died in the old days, one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed.'

So they will say, someday, and my fame will never die. (101-105)

The idea is that by participating in war a person will become immortal, because he will be spoken and written of. It was an honor to give your life for your country and to fight in a battle because all your strength and courage could be shown. The idea “urged men to enlist in the British Army by appealing to ideals of masculinity, heroism, pride, and loyalty’’, so many young, inexperienced and old, incapable men rushed to jo...

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...rs realized that men’s courage cannot be seen in the war, because it was not them fighting, but money, machines, and politics; they were just instruments for achieving goals of the individuals.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold, ed. Poets of World War I. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002.

Brooke, Rupert. “The Soldier’’. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., vol. II. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 1955. Print.

Homer. The Iliad. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications, 2006. PDF file

Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum Est’’. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., vol. II. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 1974. Print.

Robinson, Fiona. “British Art and Literature During WWI’’. Smarthistory. Web. 14 May 2014.