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Form

The form of a text is the type of text you are reading or watching. The form of Journey’s End is a dramatic play, which means the text we study is the script used by actors and directors to perform the play in front of an audience.

Journey’s End is a realist or naturalistic drama.

This is shown immediately in Sherriff’s detailed opening stage directions in which the setting is made to mimic real life.

For example, in the first act the stage directions note the gloominess of the dugout but add that there are "a few tattered magazine pictures pinned to the wall of girls in flimsy costumes."

The realistic setting lets us know immediately where we are. It reflects the horrors of war while showing how the men tried to make their surroundings homely or personal.

This gives the play verisimilitude.

This kind of naturalistic drama began to be popular around the beginning of the 20th Century.

It attracted audiences who would previously have felt that theatre was too ‘high-brow’.

Journey’s End appealed to people from every walk of life. Winston Churchill - who went on to be the British prime minister during World War Two - was reportedly a fan of the play.