Credits

• Attitudes to War
• Human Dignity
• Responsibility and the Morality of Killing

While Hall uses these themes to illustrate the horror of war, they are not presented as one-sided issues. It is not an 'anti-war' play, it is a play about ordinary people and how they react to the circumstances they are faced with. The themes are examined from the different perspectives of each of the play's characters.

Attitudes to War

The most important theme of The Long and The Tall and The Short is war.

The conscripted soldiers of the patrol have unrealistic views of war. Their dislike of the situation is bound up with their separation from their families, the tedium of kit inspections, pointless patrols, obeying orders and the unfamiliar environment. They think of army life as boring, and pointless, which promotes their cynical approach to the war. War is an inconvenience and not much more. Their panic on hearing a Japanese voice on the radio highlights their inexperience.

When the patrol capture the Japanese soldier, they have to face the decision as to whether or not to kill him. All the conscripts, except Bamfoth, recoil from the horror and brutality of the situation.

Mitchem has a realistic attitude to war, soldiering is a job which involves killing a man in cold blood, without hate. He thinks war 'stinks' but doesn't see that he has any choice but to fight. War is not a game to Mitchem but a deadly conflict.

Johnstone is not a sympathetic character but he is the most consistent and realistic in his approach to war. His brutality reflects the brutality of war.

The The Long and The Short and The Tall, is not a propaganda play, it doesn't glamorise war but it doesn't suggest it can be avoided. The play shows that war is an integral part of human nature, as realized by Mitchem.

Human Dignity

The theme of human dignity is explored through the patrol's treatment of the Japanese prisoner.

When the play was first performed, the audience would remember the atrocities the Japanese army committed and their treatment of British prisoners of war. To establish the prisoner's humanity, Hall, draws our attention to the similarities of the prisoner's life to those of the members of the patrol. He is as afraid of the patrol as they are of him. He has a stolen cigarette case but Whitaker has also looted property. He has a wife and child, like Smith.

The patrol begins to see the prisoner as an individual - Bamforth shares cigarettes with him and insists he has water. Macleish cannot kill at close range, Mitchem can if he denies the enemy's human dignity. "It is something in a uniform and it's a different shade to mine."

Johnstone's character illustrates the denial of human dignity - he remains contemptuous towards the prisoner and is prepare to kill him from the outset.

None of the men are evil, but the stress of war means they act without dignity and are willing to sacrifice another human life to save their own.

Responsibility

The theme of responsibility is presented throughout The Long and The Short and The Tall, in a number of ways.

In Act One, Macleish announces that as he is now a Lance Corporal and must support his fellow Non Commissioned Officers (NCO's). Hecannot allow the men to speak disrespectfully of Johnstone.

Macleish's conversation with Mitchem in Act Two, makes him realise that he has more responsibility than just discipline, and he states he "would rather lose that responsibility than carry such a burden".

Bamforth's sole responsibility is to save himself, he informs Evans and Smith that he will disguise himself and flee at the first sign of danger.

Mitchem feels he has a duty to the army as a whole, wanting the prisoner to be taken back to base hoping he will provide further information on the enemy. However, when the prisoner becomes an obstacle to their safe return, he is willing to kill him, as his primary duty is to his men.

In the closing moments of the play, the theme of responsibility is explored more intensely. Hall, makes the audience face an intense moral dilemma as - while he dramatises different attitudes to the death of the prisoner. Mitchem is reluctant but will sacrifice the prisoner to save the others, in doing so he is accepting the responsibility of his rank.

Bamforth insists that the prisoner is also a man. He sees his responsibility as the responsibility of one human being to another.