Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" : Revealing Brutality of War

Unmasking the Horrors of War: Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"

The Paradox of Patriotism: Examining War's Dark Legacy and the Silence Against Technological Advancements

The First World War brought into focus that aspect of human existence which had acute lament for a major part of the 19’Th century---war and patriotism. War has a hoary heritage since mankind has taken a perverse pleasure in that burial activity which is celebrated in the name of patriotism. The heroism age heroism and heroic poetry of the ages past were based on only one kind of heroism that displayed in the warriors courage and achievement in battle. It is Horace who had most perfectly and memorably articulated the notion of war being a glorious opportunity to die for one’s country: “dulce et decorum est propatria mori” (Odes lll.ii, 13) ("It is sweet and proper to die for one's country.") what is however amazing is that the beginning of the 20th century none voiced a protest against the technological innovations to invent weapons of greater mass destruction.

Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est": Unmasking the Inhumanity of War

As late as in 1915, when the first world war had already begin, Robert Broke, the celebrated ‘old-style war poet’ declared that war is clean and cleansing, that it was a grand change from all the little emptiness of love (peace), and that cleats in war was the supreme honour for a noble young man. It was therefore left to Wilfred Owen, a poet as well as a soldier, to reveal the brutality of war, fact that it is something which not only destroys the physiques, but more significantly de-sensitizes the fillings and devastates the psyche. In contrast to Brooke he would reveal war to be inhuman rather than superhuman, indeed as an occasion for ‘superhuman inhumanities’, of ‘immemorial shames’ (spring offensive). 

Challenging the Illusion of Heroism: Wilfred Owen's Graphic Portrayal of Soldiers' Suffering in "Dulce et Decorum Est

 "Dulce et Decorum Est" is a renowned poem written by Wilfred Owen during World War I. It is a powerful and poignant piece that reveals the harsh reality and brutality of war. "Dulce et Decorum Est" is perhaps his single most severe indictment of mankind foisting of war as a display of patriotism and of innate courage. The poem begins in a vivid manner which is startling or even shocking in its presentation of the seamy and noisome quality of war. Owen describes the physical condition of the soldiers returning from the trenches. He paints a vivid and disturbing image of their exhaustion, using similes such as "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks" and "coughing like hags." These descriptions depict the soldiers as weary and broken, contrasting the romanticized image of heroic soldiers: 

"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind."

‘Bent Double, like old beggars under sacks’, soldiers are no longer resplendent princes glorying in that display of youthful enthusiasm but senile and poverty – stricken creatures who caught like hags and curse like the rabble they have to trudge through ‘Sludgs’, rather than march smartly to the true of military bands. The war had deprived them of all their vitality and sensibility, They were ‘lame’, ’blind’, ’drunk with fatigue’, and ‘deaf’ to all sounds except perhaps the sound of shells to which they had developed a mortal fear. Many of them were in such a woebegone state that they knew not when they had lost their shoes and limped on, their feet caked with blood.

From Beastly Struggle to Haunting Dreams: The Tragic Fate of a Soldier in Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"

But the inert soldiers are suddenly goaded into action with the realization that gas shells were falling among them, pouring out noxious fumes. The transformation is shocking as well as revealing. The frenzy of action reveals that war reduces human beings to a beastly struggle for survival; their fervid action has been inspired not by line desire to achieve something noble, not by a quest for personal glory, but by an animal instinct for life:

"Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning."

One of them, however, does not succeed in putting his helmet in time, and this has disastrous consequences. The poet –speaker looks on as a soldier seems to drown before his very eyes, the image of the green sea suggesting the gasping effort to breathe while becoming gradually submerged, His helplessness to this sight would subsequently haunt him even in his dreams:

"In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning."

Owen recounts a horrifying experience where a comrade is unable to put on his gas mask in time, and as a result, succumbs to the poisonous gas. The use of sensory imagery intensifies the brutality of the scene, with phrases like "guttering, choking, drowning" to emphasize the agonizing death the soldier experiences. Owen directly addresses the reader, using the phrase "you would not tell with such high zest" to challenge the glorification of war propagated by those who have not witnessed its true horrors.

Challenging the Deceptive Charms: Owen's Denouncement of the 'Old Lie' in "Dulce et Decorum Est"

The attention shifts from the speaker to the reader in the third stanza. Owen denounces the propaganda that encourages young men to join the war effort. Once, the reader has vicariously felt that which the soldier has already experienced, be would never again enthusiastically declare that it is sweet and glorious to die for one’s country. He would realize that the Horatian statement was ‘the old lie’ perpetrated on generations of unsuspecting and foolishly innocent young men by war mongers. Owen argues that it is not sweet and honorable to die for one's country, but rather a bitter and senseless sacrifice. The hitherto remote and seemingly nonchant auditor is boldly addressed with the personal pronoun ‘you’, and brought into the vortex of the action. He is his death-throes; watch the wagon which carries the lungs:

"If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori."

Conclusion: Dulce et Decorum Est: Exposing the Terrible Truths of War

Thus does Owen reveal the terrible truth behind the facile optimism about war and patriotism, what is however significant is that he does it not by dirty statement but by providing a briatlly realistic picture of war, so that the style and the subject matter are in perfect harmony. Through vivid imagery, powerful language, and a critical tone, Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" forces the reader to confront the true brutality and suffering experienced by soldiers on the front lines, challenging the romanticized notions of war prevalent at the time. Owen's poem serves as a poignant reminder of the devastating effects of war and the need to question the glorification of such conflicts.
  
  Ardhendu De

References

The Poems of Wilfred Owen (edited by Jon Stallworthy) (book) : Wilfred Owen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/wilfredowen_a