Shell Shock and the Crisis of Masculinity In the First World War

 Shell Shock and the Crisis of Masculinity In the First World War

Introduction

The First World War began after Australia-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28th July 1914. The war was as a result of the assassination of the Austria-Hungary throne heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo the previous month. On the 4rth of August the same year, Britain joined the war right after Germany had declared its war on France by invading Belgium. The British then recruited male soldiers from all its colonies, and within the next years, the nation raised the second largest army of volunteers in history. The First World War had over 2.5 million men from the United Kingdom joining the armed forces, without having any legal compulsion to do so.[1] Over a hundred years since the First World War and scholars continually attempt to comprehend what was the motivation of the men to fight and continue amid the horrific trenches. Undoubtedly, living up to noble masculine ideals guided the decision of most volunteers which, however, led to one of the greatest masculinity crises.

The upbringing of the young men with glorification of the Ancient Rome and Greece stories led them to believe that participating in war was a great way to test their masculinity, thus the ran to volunteer. The initial campaign for recruitment involved the issuance of white feathers by women to all the men that did not volunteer to symbolize their cowardice.[2] Even while in school the literature that boys studied glorified patriotism through war, the games they played promoted dedication, over obsession for winning. This spirit was highly advantageous to the recruiting. The actual war experience was far worse than the soldiers expected. The soldiers were constantly under a stress with repeated exposure to gory wartime sights much of which eventually overwhelmed most of the soldiers. Understanding the soldiers to date can never fully succeed since diaries and letters were often a re-interpretation of the conflict by the soldiers since even they themselves were unable to fathom themselves as fearful cowards since at that time, manliness was not accommodative of such feelings.

Trench raids involved making minor surprise attacks on the enemy’s position during the night. Between trench lines was a no man’s land, raids involved crossing into the enemies’ line to destroy their weapons, fortifications and also kill their defenders. The raids further involved returning with some prisoners. The attacks grew more significant as the war progressed to extents of the use of artillery barrage and even poison gas.[3]

The reality of the war to the man as an individual

The successful voluntary soldier recruitment only partly represented the victorious ideal of what presented itself as manly behavior. However, a number did not manage to live up to the very demanding discourse of the ideal man, irrespective of how hard they tried. Just a few months into the war, since it broke out, soldiers from the various nations in combat began to show odd mental and nervous symptoms. Doctors from the different countries identified the similarities of the symptoms to traumatic neurosis, hysteria, and neurasthenia. As the war continued the doctors continued, to formulate psychological theories that all explained why that was a result of an internal conflict of the instinctive self-preservation in every being against the passion for fulfilling and attaining one’s duty. The signs also sourced from attempting to repress the memories recorded within the warfare experience. Eventually, doctors concluded at shell-shock that in modern constructs means (PTSD) post-traumatic disorder. [4]

Outside the soldiers diagnosed with shell-shock, it is more likely that the rest still silently suffered. The men went through perturbing memories and horrific nightmares of the trench warfare, among other traumatic experiences. Such however, put in their best to cope during their days, thus avoiding the doctor. The ideology of the perfect man so profoundly instilled that like zombies then arose from nightmares and went back to the same battlefield all through the war. F. Jourdain, a British officer, realized after a while that he suffered from shell shock, which he initially did not believe was real. Bangs and anything going off sent him to frightening jump. As soon as the realization Jourdain was sure he would not let anyone know since, in his words, the perception of shell shocked soldiers was cowardice. Fortunately, it disappeared after three days. [5]

World War doctors attempted several treatments whose target was to restore the manliness in shell shock victims that often returned into the battlefield after treatment. According to William Collins, part of the Royal Army Medical Corps, depending on the officer dealing with them, a shell shock victim either faced charges for malingering or sent to hospitals. Most of the treatments by psychologies aimed at restoring the self-resilience, self-control, and character strength that ‘belonged’ to a man.

The Masculinity Crisis

The mass breakdown during the First World War inevitably led to the re-shaping of the ideals of masculinity. The government used the heroic soldier to idealize masculine identity. Apart from the glorification of the soldiers as heroes, the narrative of the victims of shell-shock accompanied the narrative as a representation of a coward and frightened boy. Shell-shock slowly began to represent the masculinity crisis by inadvertently protesting not just the conception of war but the ideology of the proper way of being manly too. The condition was opening the society’s eyes to the reality that a man can breakdown under high stress and revealing the fragility of a man as a human and threatening the existing inflated stoicism that related to masculinity. Donald Price, a British Private, told that soldiers under shell shock were far from cowards. He explained that the mere ability to go up the bombardment watching fellows thrown up in the air, yet remain for several days, knowing that at any moment, the same could be you, was enough of courage. Any resultant shell shock to him was life’s failure and the inability of the mind to take up the large depression.[6]

Conclusion

The new sprouting identities only brought about a masculinity crisis since the society was not open to gulping the reality of who a man is and what is masculinity. Alfred Griffin, part of the Royal Rifle Corps, felt that some of the shell shock victims needed to get on a train for repatriation. Griffin explained how one of the sergeants repeatedly had episodes like extreme trembling whenever he reached within the shelling range[7]. The CO’s response was always getting the sergeant on a stretcher to go back and rest when instead of sending him back to England would have been better. Though they didn’t all necessarily come back from doctors as combats, the soldiers that faced trauma still came back to the very same place that traumatized them to render services. That response, therefore, reinforced the significance of accomplishing and living up to the expected character of the ideal man.

The inability of authority holders to view masculinity differently fired up the crisis even more. The available doctors aimed at restoring the honorable, stoic militarized masculine man. Patients confronted an impossibility on escaping these troubling memories. From a culture so deeply rooted in them, the doctors were blind to the fact that their treatment means was an imposition of the very same masculine traits and standards that the patients were unable to live up to. The doctors were to help the shell shocked men regain their assumingly week or lost male values.

The inability to embrace the live and let live system was an underpinned war of the culturally acceptable masculinity and the newly growing aspect in the war. The live and let live occurrence showed the willingness of troops from opposing sides to embrace an environment with reduced hostility and come together for celebration, which was unfortunately illegal.[8] The inability of the authorities to gulp down the truce in a subconscious effort to hold on to the masculine ego just steered up the already brewing masculinity appraisal. World War one was a shock to the soldiers, from the muddy trenches, body lice, daily gunfire, grenades, and death so close. The soldiers were inherently experiencing factors, mostly weaknesses that they deemed impossible in the skin of a man. There lacked proper redress to it, and it only spurred one of the greatest masculinity crises in history.

Bibliography

. Bronstein, Jamie L., and Andrew T. Harris. 2012. Empire, State, And Society Britain Since 1830. Ebook. 1st ed. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Dutton, Phil. “Everything You Need To Know About Trench Raids In The First World War.” Imperial War Museums. Last modified June 13, 2018. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/everything-you-need-to-know-about-trench-raids-in-the-first-world-war.

Dutton, Phil. “The Unofficial Rules Of Trench Warfare.” Imperial War Museums. Last modified June 14, 2018. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-unofficial-rules-of-trench-warfare.

“Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock.” Imperial War Museums. Last modified June 6, 2018. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock.

“Voices of the First World War: The Christmas Truce.” Imperial War Museums. Last modified May 31, 2018. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-christmas-truce.

[1] Bronstein and Harris 2012

[2]Bronstein and Harris 2012

[3] Phil Dutton, “Everything You Need To Know About Trench Raids In The First World War,” Imperial War Museums, last modified June 13, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/everything-you-need-to-know-about-trench-raids-in-the-first-world-war.

[4] “Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock,” Imperial War Museums, last modified June 6, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock.

[5] “Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock,” Imperial War Museums, last modified June 6, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock.

[6] “Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock,” Imperial War Museums, last modified June 6, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock.

[7] “Voices of the First World War: Shell Shock,” Imperial War Museums, last modified June 6, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-shell-shock.

[8] Voices of the First World War: The Christmas Truce,” Imperial War Museums, last modified May 31, 2018, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-christmas-truce.