Understanding the Reality and Futility of War: An Analysis of Wilfred Owen's 'Exposure', Study notes of Life Sciences

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Exposure

Key Learning:

Understand Owen’s use of imagery to

convey his opinion about war.

Exposure

Soldiers are exposed to the horrors and

reality of war – this is not what they

signed up for.

Physical exposure to the elements. The living

conditions meant that many soldiers died as a

result of illness rather than as a result of dying a

hero’s death in battle for their country.

Owen’s message is about the reality and futility

of war.

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,

Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,

Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.

What are we doing here?

Personification of wind – as though the

wind is the enemy trying to break

through the defences of the barbed

wire.

Simile to

compare

wire’s

movement

to the

way it

moves

when a

person

falls into

it – links

physical

enemy

with

natural

one.

Metaphor – links

natural world to

their man-made

defence –

suggests nature

is just as harsh

as warfare is to

these men.

Simile to reflect

idea that the war

is happening but

it is far away –

seems unreal to

them.

Question

reflects their

feelings – war is

pointless as

they are not

doing anything.

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow...

We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag

stormy.

Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,

But nothing happens.

Words and colour here all

associate with despair and

hopelessness – this is what

they feel.

List here

emphasises

their reality

of war – it is

dull and

drawn out;

forever

waiting for

something for

happen.

Personifies the dawn

as the leader/

general in an army –

she ‘gathers’ her

‘troops’ to attack

them.

Metaphor - the poor weather the

enemy – it continues and they grow

weaker in the fight against it. Cannot

beat nature.

Repetition

reflects the

futility – they are

waiting for the

‘actual’ fight with

a physical enemy

but in reality are

becoming weak,

fighting nature.

Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces -

We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-

dazed,

Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,

Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.

Is it that we are dying?

Personification of snow/cold – it is

seeking them out – no escape. Hiding

from the

enemy

(in this

case,

the

weather)

They can no longer

see the enemy –

literally as the

snow is too heavy

but also because it

is unclear who the

‘real’ enemy is

anymore.

Death seems probable – from

exposure to the cold, not from the

fighting/bullets.

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires,

glozed

With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;

For hours the innocent mice rejoice: The house is

theirs;

Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are

closed, -

We turn back to our dying.

Metaphor - this is what

they have become.

They are thinking about

life back home.

Can’t grasp it – can’t

actually go home.

Fire at

home is

precious –

the warmth

is something

they are

missing now.

Repetition of

closed shows the

hopelessness of

their situation.

They can’t escape

it and will

probably never

return home.

Back to their reality – death is

inevitable.

Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,

Shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp.

The burying party, picks and shovels in the shaking grasp,

Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,

But nothing happens.

Dead bodies will be found frozen to the

ground – this is the effect of nature on the

dead.

The soldiers who

must bury the dead

• shaking from

cold/fear/emotion.

Metaphor – the eyes

of the dead have

frozen OR the eyes of

those who must bury

them – they have to

be numb to the

emotion of the

situation.

War is futile – these

deaths happen but

nothing changes –

they just recruit more

soldiers to die in the

same way.