Regeneration Themes

Tags

Top Highlights

• parent-child dynamic.

• patients depend on him for care and guidance,

• “male mother”

• nurturing is viewed as a feminine trait

• shifting gender roles, Dr. Rivers remains a strong parental figure to his patients.

• mirrors the relationship many of the officers have with their men

• memories of the war shape the characters’ lives in disturbing and unexpected ways.

• communicate the traumatic nature of combat

• flashbacks of mangled corpse

• ability to remain safely in Craiglockhart

• Prior cannot escape his memories of the war;

• emphasizes the power of the intrusive past with her language, comparing mundane noises to machine-gun fire, shelling, and explosions.

• no longer able to function in civilian society

• haunted by flashbacks and memories of the front

• Even ostensibly sane men like Sassoon

• simply a sane man’s reaction to the insanity of war.

• whether shell-shock is truly a mental illness