Testament of Youth

Brittain’s discussion of clothing and hats is frequent. She complains of the restrictive clothing she must wear as a young student at St. Monica’s boarding school, explaining that it taught her a valuable lesson about moving her body even while feeling restrained. Brittain also describes the nursing uniform in detail, as well as the uniforms that Roland, Edward, Geoffrey, and Victor all wear while OTCs and while soldiers at the front. Symbolically, these uniforms, as all uniforms are intended to do, have an equalizing effect on the wearers, just as death has an equalizing effect. While in uniform, individuals no longer exist; Brittain’s emphasis on these forms of dress echoes the grim reality that, in death, a circumstance that surrounds her, individualism also loses all significance. 

Clothing is also a symbolism of positive emotions, no matter how temporary they might be. Brittain describes her black hat with the red roses as well as the clothes she buys in London just before Christmas 1915 in anticipation of Roland’s Christmas visit home; these clothes take on a sinister meaning when linked with the sadness of bad news and mourning, but the brightness of the roses, for example, represent the hope and optimism that filled Brittain at the moment at which she bought the clothes.