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The Sentry (Themes (Loss of religious faith (“I can see your lights”…

- - - - Sentry duty involved many sleepless nights which often led to irrational thinking in soldiers during the war.
        
        The sentry sees a ‘light’ that does not exist. Owen and the soldier's lights, which represent religious faith and hope had died out. In another sense, the light could represent the fire and drive with which the soldiers fought, which has now dimmed down.
  - - - Owen shows that in the frenzy of war the only life he could fend for was his. Camaraderie is lost at the point where the soldiers realize they have no escape from war.
        
        Shell shock was associated with a lack of moral fibre, meaning that Owen lacked the ability to make rational decisions; his lack of instantaneous compassion for the sentry is justified. In the same sense, the sentry's lack of compassion for Owens life is also justified. Hence, this theme brings out the whollness of the horror caused by war. There is no good or bad, all participants are victims.
        
        The Sentry's dialogues all begin with 'I', which also reflects the idea that Owens loss of camaraderie is justified, as the Sentry has no life in mind but his own.
  - - - The mental state of helplessness is attained when the soldiers have no religious faith. The tragedy and horror they have witnessed has erased the idea of God, for them, the only hope is to die.
  - - - Both in the Sentry and Sassoon's trench duty, the sentry is represented to be in a rainy environment, muddy water splashing everywhere and into the dug-out.
        
        Nature can no longer protect the soldiers, the waterfall of slime moving into the dug-out is symbolic of the soldiers drowning and being enveloped by nature.
  - - - No backbone. Taken out of natural habitat.
        
        This allows us to shift our focus to another important theme
- - - - The Western front was immersed in a mud that plagued the entire battlefield. Harbinger of infectious disease 'trench foot' which ate flesh and developed blisters.
        
        Sentry drowning in the same mud is symbolic of his will to live and false expectations from war being victims of the disease and death caused by the mud.
  - - - Adaptation of Lady Macbeth's line "Hell is Murky".
        
        Derives implications of the dug-out's stank and sour olfactory sensations and the smoke that dulled sight from the whizz bangs
  - - - polite "O Sir" and "I'm blind" show that in the horror of war, the sentry knows the importance of camaraderie only on the verge of death. This is lost amongst the soldiers as Owen "forgot him there".
- - - - The regular rhyme allows for the reader to visualise or even taste in his mouth the fluidity with which the events took place. As if the entire event was one flash from war.
- - - - Prepares the reader for a tribute but attacks him with the reality of war.