Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Regeneration, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health
War, Duty, and Loyalty
Male Relationships
Trauma and Mental Illness
Alienation vs. Belonging
Summary
Analysis
In a statement titled “Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration,” Siegfried Sassoon announces that, although he is a soldier, he is done fighting. He recognizes that the war is being unnecessarily prolonged by those who profit from it, and he and his fellow soldiers can no longer tell what the war’s aim is.
In an office, Rivers and Bryce read the declaration and discuss the nature of the man who wrote it. Rivers seems sympathetic to the statement. Sassoon is coming to Rivers to be treated for shell shock, and Bryce reveals that the military boards have decided to treat him as insane to try to delegitimize his protest. Rivers laments that the hospital will be dragged into a scandal and gain a reputation for harboring “conchies” (conscientious objectors), but he will take the case.
“Conchie” is short for “conscientious objectors,” people who refuse to fight in a war over moral objections. Both Rivers and Bryce seem immediately decent and reasonable men, even though they are set in opposition to Sassoon. It’s worth noting that, although Sassoon is introduced first, Rivers occupies the protagonist’s role in the story.
Themes
Elsewhere, Sassoon boards a train, bound for Craiglockhart, which begins to roll down the platform. He looks out the window, hoping to see Robert Graves running after him, but he is disappointed. He finds himself a seat, away from people, and is irritated when several civilians cast admiring glances at him. His mind wanders back to when he’d met Robert at a hotel a week ago. Robert is angry about the declaration he’s written, but Sassoon believes that getting himself arrested and court-martialed is the only way to make his protest heard. Sassoon is also angry with Graves for doing nothing about the war, and exclaims this is the hardest thing he’s ever done. A few days later, Graves swears that, rather than court-martial him, they’ll lock him in an asylum. However, he’s arranged for a medical board to examine Sassoon, but only by betraying the secret that Sassoon has hallucinations.
Sassoon’s antipathy towards civilians is immediately apparent, though yet unclear as to why exactly. Sassoon’s intention to get himself court-martialed and imprisoned for the duration of the war and perhaps much longer indicates that he is ready, and even eager, to make himself a martyred figure, suggesting an inclination to bold or even rash actions. Graves, on the other hand, is introduced as someone who shares Sassoon’s convictions, but certainly not his passion, since he seems altogether more tepid and cautious, his concern for Sassoon outweighing his desire to protest the war.
Themes
Rivers sits in his office, reading an honorable citation given to Sassoon for single-handedly recovering the wounded from a dangerous battlefield. In the report, Sassoon threw the medal away, which confounds Rivers. Rivers is unsure what to make of the man; he wishes him to be mentally ill, since that would simplify the whole situation, though so far he sees no real evidence for it. Rivers hears the taxi arrive, and from his high office window watches as Sassoon stands before the massive building, squares his shoulders, and enters, in spite of his fear.
Although Sassoon appears at least somewhat cavalier, he also clearly is afraid, demonstrating that, in spite of his boldness, he is a regular man trying to face up against an enormous military institution. Rivers’s confoundedness about Sassoon sets the tone of most of the story, as Rivers tries to reason against Sassoon’s arguments while also admitting that they make a great deal of sense.
Themes
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