Suicide In The Trenches Analysis

Gassed is a painting by John Singer Sargent, an American artist. Sargent was among several artists who were commissioned by the British War Memorial Committee of the British Ministry of Information. These painters were commissioned to create a large painting for the Hall of Remembrance, Sargent himself was asked to create a piece depicting Anglo-America co-operation. Sargent therefore traveled to the Western Front to gain inspiration for an epic piece which depicted many people; however, he found it difficult to find a scene with both American and British figures together. One of the only scenes Sargent saw where American and British soldiers were working alongside each other was the aftermath of a German barrage that he witnessed in August …show more content…
These men, though very far in the background, appear to be oblivious of what is happening at the medical station, oblivious of the suffering. This can be suggested to be indicative of life back at ‘home’. This aspect of the painting is truly sadistic of the society the painting was made in. At ‘home’, these men’s lives were merely mass numbers, not individual lives lost in agonising battle. 'Suicide in the Trenches' by Siegfried Sassoon incapsulates what I believe Sargent tried to display in his artwork. In the poem, Sassoon talks about a young soldier who committed suicide by shooting himself while at war. The poem states ‘He put a bullet in his brain, No one spoke of him again’, this suggests that this young man, promised glory, was never remembered and was never even spoke of again. This relates to the message presented by the football game in the background of Sargent's painting as it presents that not only do these men, these soldiers, have to endure such a horrific war, but they return home or die simply one man of many remembered only as one in a mass of men. In addition, the people at home are oblivious to the true horrors of war, seeing their soldiers as heros not seeing the pain and anguish, not knowing what hell the men had been through, a hell so horrific that the young boy in Sassoon's poem felt his only escape was death, that he had to kill himself. Furthermore, the use of a football game suggests that those who were not at war saw it as a game. A game where they had to sacrifice a few players to win, oblivious of the consequences, ignoring the effects and the devastation. I addition, the game in the background mimics the trivial games played at home and suggests that through the pain and bloodshed, the soldiers still attempted to maintain some part of civility and normal life, using the