The Impression of Life on the Western Front in the Blackadder Goes Forth series

1617 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The first world war eassy

To what extent does the 'Blackadder Goes Forth' series give an accurate impression of life on the western front?

In this essay I will be writing about life on the western front and the trenches in The First World War and how accurately the 'Blackadder Goes Forth' series portrays it.

The First World War started on 4th August 1914 because the Archduke of Austro-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand got shot by a Bosnian named Gavrillo Princip. Austro-Hungary declared war on Bosnia and all the allies got involved and it turned into a huge World War which lasted longer than expected. The war then finished in 1918.

Blackadder goes Forth was written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton in 1989. Both of them have historical backgrounds. Blackadder is a BBC comedy series set in the trenches of the Western Front in The First World War. It starred Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Tony Robinson and Stephen Fry. It was filmed in a studio in front of an audience. It was intended for an adult-thinking audience. It was made to entertain and also give the audience some historical knowledge about the trenches. I will be evaluating the last episode ?Goodbyeee? to see how it compares to real life on the western front.

On the western front the soldiers had to build trenches to provide defence for the army and hold their position to show their opponents they weren?t going anywhere. The trenches were built in a crocked line next to each other because if the line was straight and a shell landed on it the explosion would kill and injure much more people then if it was straight. They had barbed wire and Sandbags at the top of trench to protect them from enemies coming in and attacking them. The trench had many layers and at the bottom there were dug outs were the sold...

... middle of paper ...

...ries. There was lots of useful information to a historian about recruitment, the tactics and if they were changed the casualty rate could have decreased, and that there was a huge presence of death in the trenches. There was also some information about the weather and the trenches but it didn?t seem too wet and cold in the dug outs, which it would have been because of the awful weather at that time. Some things were imprecise about the trenches like there wouldn?t have been a sink, the dug out was too big and it looked too warm in there. The inaccuracy is because of the filming conditions and they wouldn?t have been able to fit a camera crew and the actors into a smaller dug out and they couldn?t have made it too wet as they were filming in a studio. I would still rely on the episode ?goodbyeee? to tell me what life was like in the trenches and on the western front.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of David Snead's An American Soldier In World War I

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    In An American Soldier in World War I, David Snead examines account of George Browne, a civil engineer who fought as part of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I. Snead shares Browne’s account of the war through the letters he wrote to his fiancé Martha Ingersoll Johnson. Through Browne’s letters and research conducted of the AEF, Snead gives a concise, informative, and harrowing narrative of life as a soldier serving in the camps and front lines of the Great War. Snead attempts to give the reader an understanding of Browne’s service by focusing on his division, the 42nd Division, their training and preparation, combat on the front lines, and the effects of war on George and Martha’s relationship. As Snead describes, “Brownie’s letters offer a view of the experiences of an American soldier. He described the difficulties of training, transit to and from France, the dangers and excitement of combat, and the war’s impact on relationships.” (Browne 2006, 2) Furthermore, he describes that despite the war’s effect on their relationship, “their

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front as an Anti-War Novel

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    All quiet On the Western Front, a book written by Erich Maria Remarque tells of the harrowing experiences of the First World War as seen through the eyes of a young German soldier. I think that this novel is a classic anti-war novel that provides an extremely realistic portrayal of war. The novel focuses on a group of German soldier and follows their experiences.

    Read More

  • TRENCH WARFARE

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    In my opinion the trenches were terrible in most case, from the awful stench and the infestation of rats to the lice and shell shock; the front line trenches were unforgiving, brutal and cruel. In opposition, not everything was terrible, the trenches were for many, the first time many soldiers had the chance to have a three course meal, and they could rest and make letters. However these sources are limited by the fact that it focuses on only one aspect of the First World War and hence leave out the full picture. Overall, the sources are reliable and as such help me to understand the conditions of the trenches through the experiences of the soldiers of the First World War.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    Whenever one reads or hears about World War I or World War II, you hear of the struggles and triumphs of the British, Americans or any of the other Allies. And they always speak of the evil and menacing German army. However, All Quiet on the Western Front gives the reader some insight and a look at a group of young German friends who are fighting in World War I. “This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.....” The soldiers of this war felt they were neither heroes nor  did they know what they were fighting for. These soldiers were pulled from the innocence of their childhood, and thrown into a world of rage. Yet somehow they still managed to have heart and faith in man kind and could not look the opponent in the eye and kill him. For he was man too, he too had a wife and children at home, he too was pulled out of his home to fight for a cause he didn't understand.

    Read More

  • Life on the Western Front During World War One

    2401 Words  | 5 Pages

    Life on the Western Front During World War One A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily reduce both trench systems to total ruin.

    Read More

  • Summary Of All Quiet On The Western Front

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front is about men going on a very difficult battle. The battle that they go through is World War I. These men volunteered to fight in the war, but they didn’t expect it to be this hard. They face many hardships, including food. Food is hard to find during this time and in this part of the war. Many people died, and the ones that survived had to witness their friends that they met die. Some people in war do not die, but they are seriously injured. These men must face big complications during war, and this book helps show readers how life was like during World War I.

    Read More

  • Experiences of War: All Quiet on the Western Front

    1333 Words  | 3 Pages

    World War I was a time of despair, rivalry, and hatred between a number of countries due to not one, but many reasons. The experiences people had during World War I were gruesome and not something they would ever want to happen again. Unfortunately the event of a Second World War broke out after the first one ended. Every soldier’s nightmare was to fight this battle for a second time. There were many underlying causes to the war and upon hearing and realizing how bad of a time it was through what people went through, it was a horrific time for everyone who experienced it including Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Britian, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan. A book, All Quiet on the Western Front was written about a young German soldier and his experience and perspective on the war. Paul Baumer enlists in the German Army when the Great War broke out in 1914. His enthusiasm as being part of an Army wanes and turns into him living in constant fear of being apart of fighting in a war. Along with Paul Baumer, there were millions of others who had the experience of fighting in World War I. Poems including, In Flander Fields, Anthem for a Doomed Youth, Dulce et Decorum Est, The Happy Warrior, Before Action, and Back were also written to incorporate the themes of the horror of war. The horrendous war led to experiences that were surreal and terrible enough not to be mentioned by those who were in it. During the aftermath of the Great War, a new perspective was created on modern war and society by analyzing the frightful encounters everyone had, including Paul Baumer in All Quiet on the Western Front which identified his experience of war.

    Read More

  • The Danger and the Difficulties Faced by Soldiers on the Western Front

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    Text Box: Henry Gregory of 119th Machine Gun Company was interviewed after the war about life in the trenches. “When we arrived in the trenches we got a shock when the other soldiers in the hut took their shirts off after tea.

    Read More

  • How World War I Changed The Development Of Trench Warfare

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    The construction of the trenches was an unfamiliar strategy for the soldiers on both sides. They were used to offensive maneuvers and battles, but this was a complete opposite type of war. It was worse than offensive war by far and overall had a negative impact. At first, soldiers dug individual holes linked to form fire line trenches; they consisted of ditches six feet deep with a fire step at four feet where soldiers stood to fire at the enemy; they were called fire steps because soldiers would stand on them to fire into enemy territory. They were especially useful for sentry duty, sniper use, and unit defense. While they might have been useful and semi-practical, they were acutely uncomfortable because of how small they were. For added protection, they had sheet metal roofs that concealed any movement in the trenches. To make life in the trenches easier, communication trenches were dug. These were typically more narrow, and in a zigzag pattern to avoid enemy fire; they were also a few miles long. They were used to deliver vocal messages and supplies between battle trenches. Francis Buckley describes the construction of the trenches in the book Hot Blood and Cold Steel: “...The trenches themselves were built and revetted with sandbags and dry enough even during the wettest weather, we had only small shelters-the deep

    Read More

  • Timothy Findley's Realistic Journey in The Wars

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Timothy Findley Creates a fictional world through his novels, where readers can relate to the situations and characters. The protagonists that Findley creates are often similar and connected to the hardships that they eventually encounter and defeat or that which they are defeated by. Findley takes his readers back in time to the First World War, displaying his knowledge of history and research, where the hardships of a young soldier’s battles internally and externally are brought to the reader’s attention in his historical-fiction novel The Wars. Findley writes about the reality and absurdity of the First World War, and takes the reader’s on a journey through the active reading process to find what is “sane” and “Insane” throughout the duration of the novel. Following the journey of the protagonist, Robert Ross as he enlists in the Canadian Army after the death of his sister Rowena, and undoubtedly is the turning point of the text and ideally where Findley initiates the active reading process, and where the contents placed in the story by Findley, are analyzed and opinionated based on the reader’s perception and subjectivity of truth. Essayist Anne Reynolds writes “ Findley manages, through technical prowess, to combine Hemingway-like choices of clear moment searing horror and truth at the battlefront with scenes depicting the effects of war on the families and lovers of the soldiers.” (Reynolds, 4) According to Reynolds Findley has been able to display the absurdity and affect that not only the First World War has caused but the ludicrousness war in general has caused the families of soldiers, and society as a whole. Using the literary theory of deconstruction many aspects and scenarios in The Wars can be analyzed, as Fin...

    Read More

  • Mother and Son in The Wars by Timothy Findley

    2021 Words  | 5 Pages

    World War One or “The War To End All Wars” was one of the most devastating events in the history of humankind. When looking back at such a gruesome war it is understandable that we might dwell on the key battles and tactics, which are often summarized by statistics on death tolls. However, we often forget that statistics create an illusion that warps our perception of death. As Stalin put it “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is just a statistic”. In the novel “The Wars” by Timothy Findley, the author draws away from traditional war stories by showing a true appreciation for life that truly touches the reader on a human and emotional level. Timothy Findley narrows in something anyone can relate to: a loving mother worried about her son risking his life in a war. This mother in the “The Wars” is Mrs. Ross, who represents the home front while her son, Robert Ross, fights for the British in World War One. As the book progresses and Robert gets further into the death trap known as the “Great War”, Mrs. Ross becomes increasingly obsessive and connected to her son as his fate becomes more clear.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    World War I had a great effect on the lives of Paul Baumer and the young men of his generation. These boys’ lives were dramatically changed by the war, and “even though they may have escaped its shells, [they] were destroyed by the war” (preface). In Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Baumer and the rest of his generation feel separated from the other men, lose their innocence, and experience comradeship as a result of the war.

    Read More

  • The First World War (WWI)

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    World War 1 World War 1 was called “The Great War”, “The war to end all wars”, and “The first modern war”. It has many causes and a few repercussions and I will describe them in detail. The most widely known reason for the start of World War 1 was the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in the Serbian capital of Sarajevo. The ArchDuke was there to talk to the Serbian leaders about peace on the Balkan Peninsula. After a Serbian was arrested for the assassination, Austria-Hungary pulled out of the peace talks and declared war on Serbia.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Film War Horse

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...vie also captured the scene where Albert and the other British soldiers were gassed by the Germans using mustard gas, a chemical agent that eroded the skin causing blisters, if breathed in caused respiratory problems, and if it had contact with the eyes it would cause blindness for a period of time. Injured soldiers would have to be carried to medic areas that were understaffed and largely improvised so disease would spread if the surgeons were not careful. This movie portrayed these scenes as close to the real thing as possible. It showed the viewer that the First World War was brutal and survival was very difficult which made the reunion between Joey and Albert that much more powerful. The movie War Horse is extremely historically accurate and, in the three scenes that I have chosen, the movie was able to correctly portray how the conditions and battles were like.

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front - A Book Review

    1912 Words  | 4 Pages

    All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of Paul Baumer’s service as a soldier in the German army during World War I. Paul and his classmates enlist together, share experiences together, grow together, share disillusionment over the loss of their youth, and the friends even experience the horrors of death-- together. Though the book is a novel, it gives the reader insights into the realities of war. In this genre, the author is free to develop the characters in a way that brings the reader into the life of Paul Baumer and his comrades. The novel frees the author from recounting only cold, sterile facts. This approach allows the reader to experience what might have been only irrelevant facts if presented in a textbook.

    Read More

More about The Impression of Life on the Western Front in the Blackadder Goes Forth series

Open Document