Key Discussion pp. 95-97

The motif of silence in the novel plays a significant role in preventing patients from being emasculated because if they do not speak and avoid to participate in any unmanly acts such as discussing their fears and emotions, they are less likely to become emasculated. Prior is the one who is silenced, because it is as if he seems to disagree with Rivers methods of expressing feelings in order to be healed of an illness. In a way, Prior's mutism gives him power. By not speaking, he is disobeying Rivers who is the man in charge at Craiglockhart and is deliberately refusing to participate in the course, perhaps putting Rivers on the spot and making him vulnerable to be manipulated by Prior. Sassoon is another character who has been 'silenced'. Although he has no physical complications and he is far from being mute, by being sent to Craiglockhart, Sassoon has been silenced in a way that his thoughts and opinions about the war would never be heard by other people. By being 'locked away' at a mental hospital, his ideas about the war would merely be seen as ideas coming from a 'loony'. With him being in a mental hospital, Sassoon would be too far away to be able to influence the minds of any others.

According to Rivers, mutism is more common amongst private soldiers and others of lower ranking than amongst officers. He mentions that if a soldier was to say what they wanted to say, there could be serious consequences and thus by refusing to speak at all, they are able to avoid such consequences. Silence is related to the theme of class division because it is those of a lower ranking who are more likely to be silenced, due to the reality that a man of a lower ranking would face far worse consequences than an officer who was to speak his mind.  "the labouring classes illness has to be physical. They can't take their condition seriously unless there's a physical symptom." This quote mentions how little care there is for people of labouring classes. Unless they have a physical symptoms, their condition is simply disregarded or ignored. This shows the large amount of neglect there is of people of the lower ranks. Barker successfully challenges these notions of class division through the character of Prior. Mutism is very rare amongst officers and Prior is an officer with temporary mutism. He is of a labouring class which gives him vulnerability to obtain physical symptoms like other men of the labouring classes but unlike the rest, he was able to work his way up to becoming an officer. This could explain why Prior's mutism is only temporary because he is midway between being an officer and being a man of lower class so he technically has both chances of being and not being mute.