In Memoriam Chapter Seventeen: The Cost of Survival

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

After dark, Ellwood crawls back to the British lines through No Man’s Land. He is almost shot but is rescued by Lonsdale's wiring party. Returning to his trench, he learns Hayes served as temporary captain. Ellwood notices Hayes's deteriorating mental state: Hayes flinches at a dropped mug and later wakes Ellwood in billets, confessing his terror of going mad and asking Ellwood to shoot him if he loses his mind. Ellwood calms him. The naive aristocrat Gosset—nicknamed “the Little Duke” by the men—is killed by a shell. In June 1916, the company receives orders to leave Ypres and march toward the Somme.

Key Events

Ellwood waits until dark, checks his hip wound (a graze), and begins crawling through No Man’s Land toward the old brick wall.
He is fired on by both sides but reaches the wall and waits for a wiring party.
Lonsdale leads the party; Ellwood whispers to him, and the men help him back through the wire.
Hayes greets Ellwood, visibly shocked that he is alive; they exchange a few light words.
Gosset joyfully hugs Ellwood, mentions asking his uncle’s friend General Haig for a medal; Hayes laughs.
Ellwood learns Hayes was made temporary captain while he was missing.
Hayes admits he sent men out to search for Ellwood.
Thorburn arrives as Watts’s replacement, seeming unflappable; Hayes’s nerves are revealed when he dives to the ground at the sound of a dropped mug.
German soldiers attach a bell to the wire; Ellwood volunteers to cut the string, leaving Hayes pale.
In billets, Hayes sleeps on the floor because the bed gives him drowning dreams.
One night Hayes wakes Ellwood, frantic, confessing he feels he is going insane and begging Ellwood to kill him if he loses his mind.
Ellwood talks Hayes down, reminding him of their bet to last the war, and offers to write to the colonel for a rest course; Hayes refuses.
Hayes asks if Ellwood ever wanted to go to war as a boy; Ellwood admits he did.
The men grow fond of Gosset, calling him “the Little Duke”; he is killed by a shell while on sentry duty.
In June 1916, the company receives orders to leave Ypres and march toward the Somme.

Character Development

Ellwood

Ellwood demonstrates physical endurance and tactical calm during his crawl back to safety. More importantly, his emotional side deepens when he comforts Hayes in the middle of the night. Having spent much of the novel trying to break through Gaunt’s defenses, Ellwood here must build those walls back up for a friend—revealing a new kind of maturity and empathy. He takes charge of the bell-cutting mission, but his primary role in this chapter is as a stabilizing presence for Hayes.

Hayes

Hayes’s evolution from a confident officer to a man on the edge of breakdown is the chapter’s emotional center. His extreme reaction to a dropped mug and his sleepwalking confession show that the cumulative trauma of war is eroding his composure. He articulates a central fear: that madness is worse than death, and that he cannot afford to become unreliable because too many men depend on him. His vulnerability is stark, and Ellwood’s steady reassurance is the only thing that anchors him.

Gosset

Gosset remains the comic, naive aristocrat, blissfully unaware of real danger. His death is abrupt and ironic—the lucky duke loses his life while the terrified Hayes survives. The men’s affection for him (calling him “the Little Duke”) makes his death more poignant, underscoring war’s randomness.

Thorburn

As Watts’s replacement, Thorburn is introduced as a man with “nerves of steel.” His unflappability contrasts sharply with Hayes’s frazzled state, but also suggests that such stoicism might be its own form of shell-shock, or at least an unsustainable coping mechanism.

Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

The Fragility of the Mind

Hayes’s breakdown vividly illustrates shell-shock and the terror of mental collapse. The motif of madness—previously associated with Carrington and Gaunt’s brother Henry—now directly threatens a main character. Hayes’s plea to be shot if he loses his mind echoes Ellwood’s earlier actions with Carrington, creating a grim parallel.

Survival and Luck

Ellwood’s escape from No Man’s Land is a physical miracle; Gosset’s death is a random, senseless tragedy. The chapter emphasizes that survival in war has little to do with skill or bravery—Ellwood gets lost and lives, Gosset stands sentry and dies. This theme reinforces the novel’s anti-war stance.

Friendship and Support

Ellwood’s role as Hayes’s anchor shows that even in the dehumanizing environment of the trenches, personal connections provide a lifeline. Their quiet conversation contrasts with the noise of battle, highlighting the importance of human intimacy for mental survival.

The Inevitable March

The chapter ends with the order to leave Ypres for the Somme. This movement toward a “Big Push” foreshadows the massive bloodshed of the Somme offensive, hinting that the current strain is only a prelude to far worse.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter Seventeen serves as a turning point for Hayes’s character arc, exposing the psychological toll of war that will intensify in later chapters. It also marks the end of the Ypres period for the company, moving the narrative toward the infamous Battle of the Somme. Ellwood’s growing emotional maturity is cemented here, as he learns to provide comfort rather than just break down barriers. Gosset’s death reminds readers that no one—no matter how comic or well-connected—is safe.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Hayes react so strongly to the dropped mug, and what does this reveal about his state of mind?
Hayes throws himself to the ground and covers his neck when Ellwood drops a mug. This overwhelming startle response shows that his nervous system is in constant fight-or-flight mode, unable to distinguish between actual shellfire and minor noise. It reveals that he is experiencing a severe form of battle fatigue, where ordinary sounds trigger the same terror as incoming rounds.

2. How does Ellwood’s treatment of Hayes differ from his earlier attitude toward Carrington?
When Carrington was showing signs of breakdown, Ellwood dismissed him as a coward and later shot him. With Hayes, Ellwood listens, physically comforts him, and talks him down—refusing to see Hayes as a coward. This contrast shows Ellwood’s growth in empathy and his recognition that mental collapse is a genuine illness, not a moral failing.

3. What is the significance of the detail that Hayes sleeps on the floor to avoid dreams of drowning in mud?
The floor is a choice born of trauma: Hayes would rather endure physical discomfort than relive the nightmare of drowning in mud, a common trench fear. It symbolizes his attempt to control his environment as his inner world becomes unmanageable. It also foreshadows the muddy horrors of the Somme, where drowning in mud will become a literal threat.