Dulce et Decorum Est vs. The Open Boat: Setting Analysis

Introduction

The two works of literature chosen for this comparison both reflect the insignificance of human life and the arbitrary nature of the universe. Each sets man's struggle to survive under extraordinary circumstances at its center. "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen is a poem set on the battlefields of the First World War, while "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane is set on a lifeboat adrift on a raging sea. In Owen's poem, it is society that is indifferent to the significance of a man's life; in Crane's short story, it is nature that plays that indifferent role. Both works are set in the early twentieth century, and in each case men are thrown together by circumstance and forced to confront life-and-death situations.

War and Nature as Hostile Settings

Owen's poem speaks of the horrific deaths men suffered from poison gas on the battlefields of World War I. The poet portrays the sickening conditions of death brought on when soldiers are subjected to a chemical weapon attack. The battlefield is described as sludge that exhausted warriors must march through, limping along "drunk with fatigue" (line 7). The actual gas attack creates an ecstasy of fumbling as the men struggle to get their gas masks on before the vapors reach their lungs. The death of those too slow to respond — worn down by the constant fatigue of battle — is compared to drowning under a green sea: "And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin" (lines 24–25). The images of this kind of death in the service of one's country are stripped entirely of nobility.

Crane's short story tells of the plight of four men lost at sea in a small lifeboat after the wreck of their sailing vessel. The men are ceaselessly assaulted by the ocean's waves. This constant battle to survive the next wave demonstrates the power of nature and the ever-changing demands of the present moment. Just as the men surmount one wave, they are faced with the next. The implication is that just as man is unable to control the sea, his life too is beyond his control. Mother Nature is unpredictable and uncaring. Man can only respond as best he can to the forces that are continually thrown in his path. Crane uses the sea to show how the challenges blocking an individual's progress toward any goal can be purely random.

The Futility of Noble Death in Owen's Poem

The last two lines of Owen's poem — "The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est / Pro patria mori" (lines 27–28) — translate as "it is sweet and right to die for your country." The graphic depiction of the effects of gas on the human body, the "guttering, choking, drowning" as "the blood comes gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs," undermines any concept of gallantry or nobility in a battlefield death. There is no honor in dying this way, and a society that sacrifices its young in this manner is cruel and inhumane. Owen uses the battlefield setting to expose the futility of war and the callousness of governments that subject their citizens to such suffering.

Conclusion

These works are demonstrative of the impotence of man against his final fate. Both authors acknowledge that death is waiting for us all, and any thoughts of the ability to direct or avoid that destiny are purely delusional. Circumstances may contrive at any moment to remind us how insignificant and tenuous our lives are, whether the threat is driven by nature or by society. We are all like leaves blowing in the wind, at the mercy of forces beyond our control no matter what we tell ourselves. The settings of these two works — the gas-filled trench and the storm-wracked lifeboat — deliver that message with striking force.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. "The Open Boat." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R. V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2000, pp. 176–194. Print.

Owen, Wilfred. "Dulce et Decorum Est." The War Poetry Website. Saxon Books, 1998. Web. 20 February 2013.