Poetry and Dulce et Decorum Essay

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Before the modern era of warfare, there was an understanding of a romanticized, altruistic honour of dying for ones nation’s security. The 20th Century had completely changed that sentiment. Propaganda, lip service and platitudes designed to demonize the enemy, convinced societies that war was in the best interest of the public. This replaced that hopeful, romanticised honour. The short story, War by Luigi Pirandello and the poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen both effectively use irony to convey this sense of a ‘faceless’ war. In contrast, the prose in War is based on dialogue and rhetoric questions whereas the poetic structure of Dulce Et Decorum Est offer an emotional impact through imagery, meter and descriptive language. These wars are portrayed as timeless in these readings to drive the point that any modern war is an unjustified sacrifice.

Dramatic irony is used in both Pirandello’s prose and Owen’s poetry to convey that war has little meaning. After the grieving parents discuss the necessity of sending their children to battle, a woman brings the encounter back to an emotional level. After witnessing the reactions of the parents riding the train, the woman poses an unassuming question to one traveller who insists on justifying the reason to go to conflict: “… just as if she had heard nothing of what had been said and almost as if waking up from a dream, she turned to the old man, asking him: ‘Then… is your son really dead?”’ (Pg. 3). This transition in the story shows that the parents were comforted by the platitudes of war. However, towards the end of the story, it is clear that

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