Siegfried Sassoon

• Important details: Middle to upper class poet. His father died when he was 8. Sent to CL on the basis of his declaration. He is not a pacifist, because he rather likes the feeling of camaraderie on the front line and the sense of belonging war entails. He struggles with his identity: undertones of homosexuality, no father, different ideology to most upper class men. He is often mistaken for arrogance due to his confidence and pride. We as readers soon find out it's his place in society he wants to discover hence his cold, skeptical attitude. Important ties with fellow war poet Owen.
• Sassoon had had hoped to be court-martialed so that he could bring more attention to his pacifist cause. Graves convinces him that he must go to the mental hospital.
• Rivers watches as Sassoon overcomes his fear and walks into the gloomy building.
• Motives + Thoughts C1: Sassoon tells Rivers that the medical board has been rigged; the decision to send him to a mental hospital was made before the Board even evaluated him. It is easier for the Board to pass his letter off as madness rather than admit that it represents a valid charge against the government. Sassoon admits that he does not have any religious reason for opposing the war; he is merely horrified at the senseless brutality of it.
• Ideology: Sassoon tells Rivers about some of his hallucinations about corpses, and about some of the things he was asked to do in the war. He admits that he no longer hates the Germans. Rather, he hates the "Callous complacence" of civilians at home who allow the war to go on, completely blind to the atrocities it entails. Sassoon asks Rivers if he thinks that he is mad; Rivers replies no, of course not. Nevertheless, Rivers informs Sassoon that he cannot be impartial; as a psychiatrist in the mental hospital, it is his duty to convince Sassoon to return to the war.
• Sassoon's internal conflict stems from his passionate pacifist sentiments and his simultaneous desire to protect the men with whom he fought. His open declaration against the war represents a very brave move. Sassoon hopes to be court-martialed, thereby gaining publicity and drawing attention to his campaign to end the war. In Chapter 2, however, he acknowledges the futility of his mission. He feels powerless to stop the metaphorical "large ship" of war that pushes toward him.
• The question then becomes what the best decision is that Sassoon can make at the time. Sassoon, convinced by Graves that he will not be court-martialed, sees no other option than to allow himself to be admitted into the mental hospital. While in the hospital, however, he is burdened by the knowledge that he does not belong there, and is plagued by the guilt that he is safe while others are dying.
• Ch4: Sassoon tells Rivers that both his brother and father are dead. He never knew his father well, as he left home when Sassoon was five, and died when he was eight. Sassoon never went to the funeral, though he was told that it was Jewish, and foreign to him. Sassoon was educated at Marlborough and Cambridge, but he never felt able to catch up on his education. Most importantly, Rivers discovers from this session that Sassoon is extremely uncomfortable being safe and out of danger. He feels contempt for those who live in safety while others fight for them.
• To add to Sassoon internal conflict: CH6: Sassoon claims Bertrand Russell did not influence him, and that his first introduction to pacifism was several books by a man named Edward Carpenter. Sassoon is a great fan of Carpenter, who also wrote a book called The Intermediate Sex. Sassoon skirts around the issue, but implies that he is a homosexual. Rivers claims to be familiar with that book as well (his sexuality is unknown). Rivers advises Sassoon to be careful about letting his secret out, as there are many people who would use his personal life to discredit his political views.
• CH7: Opening. Sassoon wakes up during the night to the sound of screams and running footsteps. Screaming patients are very common at Craiglockhart, and he is thankful that his own roommate does not scream. Nevertheless, Sassoon fears Craiglockhart more than the front; its patients have stammers, stumbling walks, and a look of being "mental.'" "He feared Craiglockhart more than he ever did the frontline"
• CH10: Sassoon makes a trip to Rivers's Conservative Club.Internal conflict ressurected here: As he waits for Rivers, he overhears two older men discuss their sons at the front and he builds up a hatred for them, for the men who only sit and talk while others fight. "When did you two last get it up?" But Sassoon soon feels sickened by himself. He realizes that, by agreeing to go to Craiglockhart, he is no longer protesting or doing anything to help his fellow soldiers: he has been pacified. When Rivers arrives, they sit down to a meal. Sexual conflict + war conflict revoked here. GOOD POINT.
• CH11: Owen enters Sassoon's room to talk. They make conversation about Rivers. Sassoon is frustrated that Rivers makes him imagine a future after a war. He feels that Rivers knows how to get to him by making him feel guilty about sitting in a hospital while his friends are out on the front dying. Sassoon admits that Rivers is wearing away at him and that he sometimes feels inferior because Rivers is much better educated than he is (Sassoon left Cambridge without a degree).
• CH11: Sassoon gives Owen one of his poems to publish in the Hydra, the literary magazine of Craiglockhart, for which Owen serves as editor. Owen asks Sassoon to read some of his poems and comment on them. He agrees that he should write about the war because it has been such a personal experience for him. Sassoon thinks that Owen has promise as a poet, but that he should work harder and more diligently on his writing. Sassoon agrees to be a mentor for Owen if Owen agrees to publish some of his own work in the Hydra.
• CH13: Sassoon falls into a troubled sleep and dreams that his friend Orme is at the door, but then he realizes that Orme is dead. Sassoon wakes up and waits for the morning so that he can talk to Rivers before he goes on leave. He rushes down to Rivers's office, only to find that the doctor has already left on the early train. Sassoon is dejected. He returns to his room and thinks of his father who has abandoned him. He realizes how completely Rivers has taken his father's place, and how much this feels like a second abandonment.
• CH16: Sassoon tells Rivers of some of the hallucinations he has had. They have not been frightening, but Sassoon considers them irrational. He sees his dead friends coming to knock on his door. They are puzzled by Sassoon's presence in the hospital when there appears to be nothing wrong with him. Sassoon is troubled by these hallucinations, and he gives Rivers a poem that he wrote about them. Sassoon feels guilty for abandoning his men. Finally, he tells Rivers of his decision to go back to the front. Rivers admits that he is pleased by Sassoon's decision.
• CH18: Sassoon tells R the news about Peter, G's friend. S was hurt that G should make it so clear that he finds homosexuality disgusting. S is also upset that they are sending P to a psychiatrist to be "cured"; he thought that people had been growing more tolerant. R explains to him that in wartime the powers that be want to make it very clear that there is a right kind and a wrong kind of love between men. They do this by punishing what is deemed the wrong kind. Rivers advises Sassoon to keep his private life private, or else he may find himself to be considered an enemy of his own country.