Regeneration

by

Pat Barker

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Siegfried Sassoon Character Analysis

Siegfried Sassoon is technically in the antagonist’s role, though he is still very much a hero of the story and Rivers’s friend. Sassoon is a decorated Second Lieutenant in the British army who is notably brave and revered by his troops. However, Sassoon’s witness of horror and needless atrocities in war lead him to write an anti-war protest declaration, which results in his getting sent to Craiglockhart to be determined if he is insane, though he was hoping to be court-martialed instead and become an anti-war martyr. At Craiglockhart, Sassoon forms a close friendship with Rivers and comes to view him as the father figure he never had as a child, even though Rivers’s stated goal is to convince Sassoon to abandon his protest and return to war. Sassoon plays cricket and hunts, and is a published poet and art lover. Sassoon is also a homosexual, which he admits only to Rivers and his friend Robert Graves, and struggles with society’s embrace of male relationships in the form of camaraderie but outright rejection of male relationships in the form of sexuality, which he sees as not altogether different from each other. Rivers shares this consternation, and their conversations around the issue suggest society’s irony and hypocrisy in its attitudes towards male relationships. Although initially Sassoon never intended to return to combat, Rivers observes that he has something of a death wish and hates the thought of his friends fighting and dying while he sits safely in the hospital. When Sassoon begins hallucinating about men who died in war, watching him at the hospital, the guilt becomes too much, and he ultimately agrees to return to combat, even though he never withdraws his declaration that the war should be over.

Siegfried Sassoon Quotes in Regeneration

The Regeneration quotes below are all either spoken by Siegfried Sassoon or refer to Siegfried Sassoon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“What’s an ‘unnecessary risk’ anyway? The maddest thing I ever did was done under orders.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“I mean, there was the riding, hunting, cricketing me, and then there was the…other side…that was interested in poetry and music, and things like that. And I didn’t seem able to…” He laced his fingers. “Knot them together.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

[Sassoon] was more corruptible than that. A few days of safety, and all the clear spirit of the trenches was gone. It was still, after all these weeks, pure joy to go to bed in white sheets and know that he would wake.

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“If I were going to call myself a Christian, I’d have to call myself a pacifist as well. I don’t think it’s possible to call yourself a C-Christian and… j-just leave out the awkward bits.”

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Everywhere saurian heads and necks peered out of winged armchairs, looking at the young man [Sassoon] with the automatic approval his uniform evoked, and then—or was he perhaps being oversensitive?—with a slight ambivalence, a growing doubt, as they worked out what they blue badge on his tunic meant.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

“It makes it difficult to go on, you know. When things like this keep happening to people you know and and …love. To go on with the protest, I mean.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

[Sassoon had] joked once or twice to Rivers about being his father confessor, but only now, faced with this second abandonment, did he realize how completely Rivers had come to take his father’s place. Well, that didn’t matter, did it? After all, if it came to substitute fathers, he might do a lot worse.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 145
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

The bargain, Rivers thought, looking at Abraham and Isaac. The one on which all patriarchal societies are founded. If you, who are young and strong, will obey me, who am old and weak, even to the extent of being prepared to sacrifice your life, then in the course of time you will peacefully inherit, and be able to exact the same obedience from your sons.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“It’s only fair to tell you that…since that happened my affections have been running in more normal channels. I’ve been writing to a girl called Nancy Nicholson. I really think you’ll like her. She’s great fun. The…the only reason I’m telling you this is…I’d hate you to have any misconceptions. About me. I’d hate you to think I was homosexual even in thought. Even if it went no further.”

Related Characters: Robert Graves (speaker), Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
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Siegfried Sassoon Quotes in Regeneration

The Regeneration quotes below are all either spoken by Siegfried Sassoon or refer to Siegfried Sassoon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“What’s an ‘unnecessary risk’ anyway? The maddest thing I ever did was done under orders.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

“I mean, there was the riding, hunting, cricketing me, and then there was the…other side…that was interested in poetry and music, and things like that. And I didn’t seem able to…” He laced his fingers. “Knot them together.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

[Sassoon] was more corruptible than that. A few days of safety, and all the clear spirit of the trenches was gone. It was still, after all these weeks, pure joy to go to bed in white sheets and know that he would wake.

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“If I were going to call myself a Christian, I’d have to call myself a pacifist as well. I don’t think it’s possible to call yourself a C-Christian and… j-just leave out the awkward bits.”

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Everywhere saurian heads and necks peered out of winged armchairs, looking at the young man [Sassoon] with the automatic approval his uniform evoked, and then—or was he perhaps being oversensitive?—with a slight ambivalence, a growing doubt, as they worked out what they blue badge on his tunic meant.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:

“It makes it difficult to go on, you know. When things like this keep happening to people you know and and …love. To go on with the protest, I mean.”

Related Characters: Siegfried Sassoon (speaker), William Rivers
Page Number: 118
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

[Sassoon had] joked once or twice to Rivers about being his father confessor, but only now, faced with this second abandonment, did he realize how completely Rivers had come to take his father’s place. Well, that didn’t matter, did it? After all, if it came to substitute fathers, he might do a lot worse.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 145
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

The bargain, Rivers thought, looking at Abraham and Isaac. The one on which all patriarchal societies are founded. If you, who are young and strong, will obey me, who am old and weak, even to the extent of being prepared to sacrifice your life, then in the course of time you will peacefully inherit, and be able to exact the same obedience from your sons.

Related Characters: William Rivers, Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“It’s only fair to tell you that…since that happened my affections have been running in more normal channels. I’ve been writing to a girl called Nancy Nicholson. I really think you’ll like her. She’s great fun. The…the only reason I’m telling you this is…I’d hate you to have any misconceptions. About me. I’d hate you to think I was homosexual even in thought. Even if it went no further.”

Related Characters: Robert Graves (speaker), Siegfried Sassoon
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis: