?I was dressing a man who was covered with painful boils, and he looked at me dully and said, ?It`s over then?? ?
(Mitchell D. 1966 P.201)
This quote encapsulates the weariness felt by the whole of Europe who were sick of the death, destruction and futility of the conflict. It is noticeable that he did n`t say ?Did we win?? because in effect, nobody won. In fact, it could be argued that the millions who died in the conflict were probably better off out of it, those who survived carried the mental, physical and emotional scars for the remainder of their lives, not to mention the bereaved families who struggled to come to terms with the senseless loss of life. Perhaps a mixture of emotions kept the VADs at the makeshift hospitals on the front, the hope that somewhere one of her nursing sisterhood was tending to the needs of her own wounded husband/ boyfriend. Perhaps there was a feeling of guilt, in that they had cheerily waved their loved-ones off to the front in the early months of the War, they had taken part in recruitment drives and had liberally button-holed seemingly able-bodied young men with a single white feather. They simply had to make up for it now that they learnt of the horror of the situation. When it was all over, the aftermath was distinctly unappealing. No-one could go back and pick up where they left off , that world did n`t exist anymore.
BibliographyFrench, Lord ?1914? (London,1919)p.11 in Marwick p41
Macdonald, L. ?The Roses of No Man`s Land? (London,Penguin,1993
Marlow. J. ?The Virago Book of Women and the Great War? (London, Virago, 1998)
Marwick, A. ?The Deluge? (London, Pelican, 1967)
Mitchell,D. ?Women on The Warpath? (London, Jonathan Cape, 1966)
Reilly, C. ?Scars Upon My Heart,- Women`s Poetry and Verse of The First World War? (Virago 1981)