Critical appreciation of the play “The Boy comes Home” by A. A. Milne

Critically appreciate the play “The Boy comes Home”

    

       The play “The Boy comes Home” contains various themes like War and its effect, youth of warfare country, youth and innocence and  all these themes adds various elements in the reading and understanding of the play. All the characters have their own mindsets. All characters have their own point of views and nobody is ready to understand and accept the life style of each other.

      In the play we can find many important points which can make us think about the time and condition in which Philip and Uncle James are living. The life of Uncle James is totally different than the life of Philip. We may find various elements like,

Parental attitude:

       We can find different parental attitudes of Uncle James and Aunt Emily for Philip. Both are the guardians of Philip. Philip loves Emily but he is not that much attached with his uncle. As he says in the play that,

“PHILIP. I know. _You've_ been a darling to me always, Aunt Emily. But (awkwardly) Uncle James and I—“

     Both have different attitudes towards treating Philip. Emily loves Philip and takes care of him. She is not strict like James and also allows Philip to live in his own way. Uncle James is a dominating one. He wants everyone to follow his rules and obey his decisions. Because of these two different attitudes Philip is also using different manners of behaving with his aunt and uncle.

War and its effect:

        War has played a prominent part in the development of the plot as well as the character of Philip. Philip has spent almost four years of his youth in the war environment. He has spent most crucial years of his life in the war. It was the time to learn and design his career but he was learning how to use guns, bombs and how to kill enemies. After this much training and experiences he is ready to live his life without fear. Now he is the master of his own life. He is capable enough to understand all the problems of his life and people around him.

       War has made him a man with no fear from the innocent boy. He was immature and free but war taught him the real meaning of ‘freedom’. He was now ready to have whatever he wants infect anyhow.

Freedom and discipline:

      Discipline is good for life but it should be self-discipline rather than rules and regulations. Every human gets a single life to live and he/she should be allowed to live life with his/her will. Uncle James is not able to understand this concept of freedom and because of this Philip has used particular way of teaching him a lesson.

“We used force to put down force.”

      Though as a reader we are in confusion that it was a dream or reality when Philip says this.

Fear of Life and Death:

     Philip was in war environment and there he learned that there is no space for fear in life. On the other side, Uncle James was so afraid. He was not ready for this kind of situation. James was so afraid that he came on his knees and said,

“JAMES (on his knees, with uplifted hands, in an agony of terror). Philip! Mercy! What are your terms?”

     Philip is quite young though he has not any kind of fear of death but James is frightened with death.  

Immaturity and maturity:

       In the sense of maturity Philip seems more mature than James. Maturity has not any connection with age. It is all about sense of understanding. By the episode of Mrs. Higgins and Philip we can observe the smartness and maturity of Philip. On the other hand by the dream sequence, we can observe the immature behaviour of James.

Dream v/s reality:

      In the play there is one dream sequence which has changed the life of James and also his way of thinking. As a reader we are in confusion whether the dream was real or not, but we can feel that, that dream has changed the mentality of James.

Importance of comic elements:

      In the play, Milne has used a comical and witty style to express the most serious topic of war. The play can be seen as the satire on the parental attitude and warfare countries. The message presented is,

"War is destroying the youth of country"

       But the message is presented with comedy and satire. As the writer is famous for his comic timing. 

For character of Philip - click here
For character of James - click here