Mental Cases

What happens/ main idea/ How it is shown/techniques

First stanza describes Owen entering a mental hospital for victims of shell shock and being horrified at the picture of victims sitting obviously traumatized by the war It is so bad he even wonders if he is in hell.	Rhetorical Questions “Who are these? Why sit they here in twilight?” This makes us see the victims and appreciate their hopelessness, they sit out of the full light. Simile “Teeth that leer like skull’s teeth wicked.” Owen gives a close up graphic description of the way the men are in such mental agony they bare their teeth so fiercely they look like they are skulls. This is horrific. Metaphor “ What slow panic gouged these chasms round their sockets?” This creates a picture of huge furrows underneath the eyes of the victims and the slow panic suggests that it has been exposure to a long time of stress that has caused this. We cannot help but feel sorry for them As a result.
The second stanza comes as a response from someone who knows what the situation with these men is. He describes the mental agony the men are suffering and describes the horrific visions they are forced to continually relive.	Alliteration ‘multitudinous murders “ In describing the huge numbers of people killed thus the poet makes us aware of the magnitude. It is not just because of one or two isolated incidents that these men are suffering but from prolonged and horrendous exposure. Hyperbole “Always they must see these things and hear them.” Owen is referring to the memories they have of flesh and torn bodies piled high in huge piles that the men cannot get around nor can they escape . they are doomed to always hear and see them. Rhyme “Batter of guns and shatter of flying muscles” The rhyme gives a suggestion of the sound of the guns; Owen is good at the specific detail of forcing other sense into play. He doesn’t want us to just see it in our minds. He wants us to hear it and touch it and smell it. Only when we fully appreciate the horror will his poetry have worked.
The last stanza continues the explanation describing how it is because of these continual memories that they look as they do, and behave as they do. And ultimately, he ends with the idea that it is those of us who pushed war and promoted it as something they had to be involved in that are to blame. A similar message to Dulce Est Decorum.	Personification, “ their eyeballs shrink tormented back into their brains.” This gives a sense of horror as even the eyes, those things that are meant to see cannot bear to be exposed to the horror that is before them. Simile ´” Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh “ A brilliant comparison, indicating that these men have no way of escaping from the hell that surrounds them, every morning brings more horror, more memories, rather than any hope. Metaphor “ Sunlight seems a blood smear, “ Even sunlight , which we traditionally associate with hope and joy offers nothing but pain and continued memories. Everywhere for these people there is blood. Memories of the war and killing that will affect them for ever.