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
Sassoon awakes to screaming and the sound of running footsteps down the hall. He stands and looks out the window at the night air. Elsewhere, he knows his declaration is being reviewed, and wonders what happens next. Shivering with fear, Sassoon realizes that Craiglockhart scares him more than front ever did.
Sassoon’s fear of Craiglockhart suggests that he is far more fearful of what is inside of himself that might be revealed by mental illness or by Rivers than any physical harm a bullet or explosion could do to him.
Themes
Rivers sits with Prior in his room again that morning. Prior resents the fact that the nurses woke Rivers up because of his screaming and asthma. He is combative once again, insisting that though many patients probably see Rivers like a father figure, he refuses to. After more bickering, Rivers finally coaxes Prior into speaking about France, about the front. Prior felt that he didn’t really fit in there; he wasn’t manly enough. But he insists that that really wasn’t so much a bother to him as much as the fact that, despite people’s insistence that there are no class distinctions on the front, there absolutely are: where one sleeps, what one eats, how much time they get with a woman at the brothel, everything depended on whether one is an officer or enlisted.
Prior’s feeling that he was not accepted because he was not traditionally masculine enough suggests that society’s ideal of manhood exerts undue pressure on men who do not live up to that narrowly defined ideal. Although the novel does not dwell much upon class distinctions in wartime, it’s worth noting that unlike Prior and his blue-collar upbringing, as officers, most of the major characters would be from upper-class families who could afford enough education that their sons would be made officer.
Themes
Rivers tries to bring up the nightmares again, but Prior refuses to talk about them, insisting that he remembers nothing, even though he paces the halls for hours each night. Rivers decides to leave again, since Prior refuses treatment, but as he does so, Prior asks again if they can try hypnosis. Rivers will consider it, but it’s usually a last resort. They’ll try therapy again tomorrow. As Rivers leaves, he feels a certain sense of dread about Prior’s case, though as a psychiatrist he knows not to give it much weight.
Rivers’s decision to leave whenever Prior is being too obstinate suggests that, unlike physical medicine—which is easiest to perform when a patient is unconscious—psychiatry requires the patient to actively participate in treatment and to ultimately have a desire to get better, which Prior seems to thus far lack.
Themes
Rivers meets with Sassoon in his office. Sassoon’s declaration has made the paper, but he’d rather talk about the casualty listings in the paper instead. Sassoon is always disgusted by how calmly the people running the war always take the news of more deaths. While they are speaking, Sassoon notices that Rivers has picked up a slight stammer, but does not mention it. Instead, they chat about Sassoon’s intention to start writing poetry again and that he will probably start playing golf with Anderson, which Rivers thinks is a good idea. As Sassoon begins to leave, Rivers mentions that he is about to write his formal report of Sassoon, but he will leave out any “intimate details.” Sassoon remarks that is for the best, since his intimate details “disqualify” him from being in the military.
Sassoon’s disgust at the casualty numbers contrasts with his subsequent talk of poetry and golf, highlighting his own disconnect from the war at present, now that he is confined to the peace and safety of Craiglockhart. At the same time, Sassoon’s easy transition from one to the other suggests that he is falling into the same trap as the people he despises: making the war and the people dying in it just another topic of conversation amidst the day’s proceedings. River’s stammer suggests that he has his own suppressed neurosis of some kind. “Intimate details” refers to Sassoon’s sexuality.
Themes
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Rivers writes his report on Sassoon, describing how he joined the army in 1914 and rose through the ranks, sustaining several injuries both in training and in combat. During his hospital stay for the most recent injury, he began communicating with well-known pacifists and felt that he could no longer justify the horror and slaughter he saw in France, prompting him to write his protest declaration. Sassoon is intelligent, healthy, with no physical symptoms of neurosis. He does, however, feel hopeless about the war. Rivers also notes that, despite his failed educational endeavors, Sassoon is a published poet.
Sassoon’s great irony is that he is a model soldier and officer in nearly every way: brave, fit, wounded yet unfazed. Yet he protests the war and the killing, even though he himself is quite good at it. Though ironic, this increases his protest’s weight, since it cannot be argued that Sassoon is merely a coward who does not want to fight, but rather that he rejects the war on its foundational principles from the perspective one who has fully participated in it.
Themes
Craiglockhart’s medical officers meet together for coffee after dinner twice a week, and on this occasion Bryce mentions that he granted Broadbent’s request for leave, though nobody believes he is going to see his mother. Brock, another officer, prompts Rivers to speak about Sassoon, since his name was in the paper this week. Rivers announces that he is continuing to meet with Sassoon three times a week in hopes of persuading him to return to combat. Brock thinks he ought to just leave the man alone, let him remain discredited and stuck in Craiglockhart, but Rivers ardently disagrees. Brock gently but pointedly insinuates that Rivers’ is taking Sassoon’s case rather personally.
Bryce’s granting Broadbent’s leave request, even though everyone knows he is lying, subtly highlights the absurdity of military hierarchy and process, as well as its potential for abuse. Meanwhile, Brock’s insinuation suggests that Sassoon is beginning to mean more to Rivers than just a mere patient. At the same time, it seems that if Sassoon were in a less virtuous doctor’s care, such as Brock, they would likely just declare him insane or leave him trapped in Craiglockhart, unable to continue his protest.
Themes
