Account By Nurse Millard example essay topic
421 words
The main differences between the three accounts are who wrote them. The first account is by Allen. He was a soldier who fought in the trenches. He witnessed the gas attacks and alarms first hand. The second account is by Nurse Millard. She was a nurse during the war. She probably worked in a hospital that was fairly near to the front line. This is because she is dealing with gas burns that have happened on the battlefield. The last account is by a military doctor. This would be a post-mortem he is writing up. The clinical terminology and the sentence structure show this.
The three accounts follow on from one another. Account one, is in the trenches before they get gassed. Account two is in the hospital after the soldiers have been gassed. The final account is once the soldier had died and the autopsy had been carried out. Another major difference is the intended audience of each account and the style in which it is written. The account by Allen seems to be in the style of an article, therefore indicating that he is intending a wide everyday audience.
The account by Nurse Millard is of a more personal nature, i.e. in the form of an extract of a letter. This shows that it was directed at someone close. The report by the military doctor is most definitely set in the style of a medical report for the army, 'Case Four', with no feeling coming through. This shows it was aimed at high standing officers and the government. The accounts by the two professionals, the doctor and Nurse Millard, are in total contrast to each other.
The way Nurse Millard is allowed to express her emotions is effective. The high level of personal detail is shocking and hard-hitting. In contrast to this the descriptive clinical terms do not have the same impact because there is no feeling behind them. The first account does not deal with the after effects of gas at all.
This is unlike the second and third accounts, which deal with the stages after being gassed. The account by Allen shows the feelings of the soldiers, 'nerves highly strung'. The account by Nurse Millard Does not show the feelings of the men but their feelings of pain, 'cannot help crying out'. The doctors account has no feeling.
