In Camberwell Versus Death, Part 3, Vera Brittain addressses the ability of war to change people. It is evidenced in her letters to and from Roland that they both felt as though they were being changed by the war's presence. Brittain wrote about this feeling of change in one letter to Roland, "I wonder how much really all you have ssen and done has changed you. Personally... I feel I shall never be the same person again" (page 215 in my edition). Roland echoes this sentiment in a responding letter, saying, "I wonder if your metamorphosis has been as complete as my own. I feel a barbarian, a wild man of the woods..." (page 216).
Of all of Vera Brittain's experiences that I have read about so far, this aspect of her life and observations is most significant to me because everybody was thinking the same thing; if not about themselves then about their loved ones on the front. Families wondered if their fathers, sons, brothers, or husbands would come back home the same as they were when they left, and worying that they wouldn't. Brittain worried about the "almost physical barrier" (215) that seemed to be between Roland and her, and I got the sense that she was concerned that Roland was no longer the man she fell in love with, and was afraid that she would not love the man who returned to her.
The war had a way of changing people's perspectives on life, as evidenced by the following quote: "The War... was dividing us as I had so long feared that it would, making real values seem unreal, and causing the qualities which mattered most to appear unimportant" (215). With these kinds of changes in Brittain's, and presumably the country's, perspective, it is no wonder she worried about who she or Roland were becoming.
Comments
Jeff Drouin
Sun, 01/27/2013 - 15:26
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The worry of how the War
First, to everyone reading this -- PLEASE remember to tag your posts with all authors, titles, genres, and subject keywords that you're writing about. So, at a minimum, you would need to add the tags Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth, Memoir, and (for Olivia here) something like Selfhood, Love, Metamorphosis, or Disillusionment.
The worry of how the War would change oneself and well as loved ones on the front was certainly a common experience. I'm intrigued, though, by your quote at the end, where Brittain says that the War makes "real values seem unreal." That little statement represents one of the single greatest impacts of the War -- the disillusionment in traditional (Victorian) values like Progress, Duty, Sincerity, Propriety, etc.
I'd be curious to know what you think about Brittain's experience in regard to those Victorian benchmarks.
Will Boogert
Sun, 01/27/2013 - 15:34
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All of those Victorian
All of those Victorian benchmarks were being used to promote the war, but I think the fact that they were the benchmarks of the older generation is partly what made the younger generation question their application at the time. Brittain describes a couple of stories about soldiers from opposing sides who had agreed not to fight, since they had no personal animosity towards each other. This goes against the nationalistic standards which started the war, which said that "Germany is bad" instead of "certain expansionist Germans are bad". Brittain, being a pretty strong feminist, I think realizes how empty those Victorian values are, especially in how they are being used to promote the slaughter of all of the young soldiers.