Post #6: An look into the letters of Vera Brittain

 Words: 274

The excerpt from a “Testament of Youth”, was written by Vera Brittain, a woman from a decent middle-class family in England who went to Somerville College. Her time at the university was short since World War 1 was going on. She left the university to become a volunteer nurse in the war for a few years. Through the tragedies of the war and the losses of her fiancée and her brother came her letters which were compiled together to create “Testament of Youth”, covering 25 years of her life.

            Upon receiving the news that Captain E. H. Brittain M.C. was killed, Vera’s life was shaken. She described her loss and how she would break down and cry out for him. She was hurt badly by this loss, but she continued to press into what had happened. She finds the Colonel, who recognized her because her eyes are just like Edward’s, her brother. Throughout the excerpt, we get to how the memory of her brother lingers in all that she does. We see this on page 85 where Vera writes, “I remember walking down the shimmering Sunday emptiness of Kensington High Street on the hot summer morning after the telegram came, intoxicated, strangely exaltee, lifted into incongruous ecstasy by a sense that Edward’s invisible presence was walking there beside me” (85). She then talked of how all the build-up of all her pain relapsed and she was paralyzed by it all and not even writing her letters could achieve an ounce of relief. Her letters we so impactful, despite the pit in her own life left by the loss of those she held dear.