Barker makes everything about Yealland seem sinister, especially during River's visit. .
Barker makes Yealland's? treatment of his patients appear more shocking by building the tension and feeling of horror as Rivers enters Queen Square to visit Yealland, another physiciandealing with the psycho-neuroses of war?. We realise there is something sinister and not right when Riversjudged it more expedient than pleasant that he should accept? an invitation to visit Queens Square, where Yealland practises. We are told that Rivers? night had been more disturbed than usual and this foreshadows that he is about to witness something awful. The reader is given an anticipating feeling of dread as Barker describes how Riverspushed through the swing doors on to a long empty, shining corridor which as he began to walk down seemed to elongate?. These bleak descriptions of the hospital corridor, make it seem never ending, and could symbolise how the soldiers can't escape, not only from their experiences of war but of the experiences they have to undergo at the hands of Yealland. The vivid description of the corridor makes it seem very eerie, and unnatural as we hear a place that contains millions of men seems devoid of life. Barker compares the hospital to a landscape apparently devoid of life that actually contained millions of men? which makes the hospital and Rivers visit to Yealland seem more sinister before we have even met Yealland. I think this represents that although the men are still physically alive, mentally they were dead as soon as they were put out to fight for the war through the events they had to endure. .
When we meet Yealland we are also introduced to Callan, a soldier who has fought in and been affected by many battles. Barker moves the reader when Yealland poignantly and coldly lists all of the battles Callan has fought in. It is the way Yealland is so casual and comfortable when he listsMons, The Marne, Aisne, first and second Ypres, Hill 60, Neuve-Chapelle, Loos, Armentiéres, the Somme and Arrás? that disturbs the reader.
