The Ways in Which Willis Hall Conveys the Effects of War in The Long and the Short and the Tall

The Ways in Which Willis Hall Conveys the Effects of War in The Long and the Short and the Tall

Willis Hall was born in Leeds in 1929 and he grew up there learning

about the North Country working class life. He first wrote the play

‘The long and the short and the tall’ in 1952 it was his third play

that he released, before he wrote plays he wrote fro

newspapers/magazines etc. ‘The Long and the Short and the Tall’ was

then published in London in 1953. He wrote his plays to slowly reveal

emotions and characteristics of all of the characters that he wrote

about. Willis Hall based this play on a true event, the British

invasion on Japan. This play is about seven men in the army on a

routine patrol in the forest on a Japanese island, most of these men

have no experience in war and just want to go home, but they end up

staying in a abandoned house in the woods where they stay for the rest

of the day, this eventually leads to arguments and side taking within

the group this is also more interfered with by a Japanese man who

walks in and is taken as a prisoner of war by the British patrol. You

can tell that Willis Hall knew a lot about the army and the language

they use because he uses a lot of the words that they would have used

such as ‘Sten’ and ‘bint’.

The first signs of tension are revealed when you are being introduced

to the characters, when they are talking about what they would do when

the Japanese army come and attack them, this causes uneasiness within

the group because they are worried for their lives when it eventually

occurs even though they don’t know that the 'japs' have broken through

the lines. Bamforth says “You’ll not see my tail for dust.” This is

showing the effect the war has had on him. Also he says “I wasn’t

meant to be a hero” This further shows how he dislikes war and the