THEMES OF LOOK BACK IN ANGER

THE MAIN THEMES OF LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Anger

Critic George E. Wellworth is of the opinion that Look Back in A game sym Boverforyouts the author’s dissatisfaction with the society, just like this perpetu the as John Wain, Kringsley Amis and John Brat Through the character of Jimmy Porter the youth of the Post war Bit ainlashes out at the society, individuals and institutions. He is there nothing ingot the post war youth who looked around the world and for symbolise the furit Jimmy as the angry young man” is believeand and irrevocabl fury of the youth of his time who felt betrayed, sold and irrevocably ruined by its elders. Jimmy’s anger is born out of fruit tration because he feels that society has been pretty unfair to him. He friend and paraduate who is running a sweet stall with his unedules friend and partner Cliff. He is capable of suffering for others, on behalf of others and living in other people’s life. He experienced the bitterness disillusionment of his dying father at a very young age. He was the only one in the family who seemed to care about the dying father. He is dis fressed to learn about Mrs. Tanner’s illness, the news that hardly af

each other

Her place

ring and

end enoug

old his mi

was on He

and rough

feels lost

lost

escape lor

ness.

Feelings

The p

feeling an

essentiall

that he w

them less

Look Bas

Histori

The

on the sta

because o

contempo

post-war

temporar

Class Struggle

Class struggle or Class consciousness is also a dominating theme in the play. Jimmy’s anger is directed towards the member of the upper class to which his wife belongs. He wages a constant battle against the upper class and treats his wife as a “hostage”. Through Jimmy, the un- derprivileged British youth responds to the structure and spirit of the Welfare state. By bullying his wife he wants to take revenge on the upper middle class which he detests. He wanted the “hostess” to submit to his class culture and to do so he expects her to disown her past through a purgatory of suffering and humiliation.

Jimmy regards himself as the representative of the “working class”, On behalf of the working class he declares a war on the upper middle class. The target of his attack is Alison’s mother who represents the upper middle class. He seems to take pleasure on attacking Alison’s mother in the harshest possible language. Jimmy together with Hugh raids the houses of Alison’s friends and relatives in an attempt to hu- miliate Alison and which they consider to be a war tactic. He is inspir- ing in his attack on his wife’s family, and Helena too becomes the target Jimmy’s of his vicious attack some time. His grudges against the upper class comes from his feeling of being deprived of a suitable job in spite of being highly educated. The intellectual genius in him rebels against sionmen what he feels in a social injustice.

THE MAIN THEMES OF LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Love and Sex

R

only Feelings

dis

The actual action of the play is centred around Jimmy’s relation- ship with his wife Alison. In spite of Jimmy’s scathing attmy’s relation sallying her, trying to inflict pain on her by his constant tirade against ber family one thing is evident that they are both deeply in je against game symbolises that hardly can be denied. The bears and squ with deep each other. Deeply in love the couple we tending each other’s ego and eventually provoked by the Helena, the wife feels she can bear no more and leaves her husband. Brit Her place in the house is taken over by Helena. Jimmy has an overpow- repering and indeed tis disthered for love. He was involved with a woman ound old enough to be his mother when he was just eighteen years old. She dt was his mistress. When Alison is gone, Helena fulfills his need of a woman out and on Helena’s desertion he turns back to Alison. Beneath his crude frus and rough behaviour there lies a very soft and sensitive person who He is feels lost without love. After Helena’s desertion he is anguished. He ated looks lost and the fear of loneliness haunts him. So in an attempt to half escape loneliness he turns to his wife complaining about her callous-

The play Look Back in Anger is not about anger only but about af feeling and about despair. Though it is about any of these themes but is essentially a dramatisation of these concerns. Osborne himself claims that he wanted to make people feel “I want to make people feel, to give me in them lessons in feeling. They can think afterward”, he says.

per Look Back in Anger: A Realistic Play

the

un-

Historil Importance (Realism)

The aim of realistic drama is “putting ourselves and our situation on the stage”. Look Back in Anger appealed to the audience of that time because of the immediacy of the subject matter. Osborne presented the ugh contemporary scene on the stage and expressed the disapproval of the post-war youth of the society through Jimmy. By his command of con- ss temporary idiom, his sharp comments on subject ranging from the “posh” dle Sunday newspapers and ‘white tile’ Umnusities to the Bishops and the the Bomb, Osborne caught the fancy of the audience of his time. The youth on’s of his time identified themselves with Jimmy Porter, a dissatisfied, dis- ugh gruntled young man who lashes out at everyone with his scathing com- tements. The hero represented the post-war British youth who looked bir around the world and found nothing right in it.

the

the

mit

et Jimmy’s Tirades against Others, Himself and the General Con- ass ditions of Life

of

The play gives out an intense feeling of frustration, anger, disillu stenment, hatred etc. The atmosphere, the speeches by the protagonist

LOOK BACK IN ANGER: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

THE MAIN THEMES O

the frustrated

Alison has

with her fathe

with Helena. H

It indicates the

is about to give

apartment app

negative appre

she is a perpet

reconciled ther

started living

is based on na

every speech

Class-war ar

The play s

the structure

identifies then

life has been

being a Unive

haps he belie

origin. These

whom he con

He continuou

remarks aga

Alison’s motl

middle class,

in debunking

as tactics in

In a fam

cause. He ac

are not able

left in the w

good causes

having the

“oversized r

The Crisis

The her

harassing h

members. L

of criticisin

stitution. E

to the mark

have an authentic power. The play depicts the tradition room of the tional disintegr naturalist theatre, where the hero rages at the world, attacking people, institutions. He is enraged by the lack of imaginative response he meets everywhere. “Did you read Priestley’s piece this week?” he asks Alison and Cliff. Without waiting for their answer he adds, “why on earth I ask I don’t know. I know damned well you haven’t.” Being a University gradu ate he is running a sweet stall. He feels he has been deprived of a suit. able job because of his low social background. He feels society has been cruel to him. So he attacks social system, the upper middle class whom he considers as his enemy and against whom he wages a constant battle

88

The Disorganised Life Look Back in Anger has been regarded as marking the emergence of

working-class drama at a particular stage of cultural and social change in Britain. The life depicted in this play is that of disorganised and drift. ing. The play reflects the general feeling of restlessness, frustration and disorganised. Jimmy, the protagonist expresses his dissatisfaction and lashes out continuously at people and institution. It presents a realistic picture, a strained marital life because of the disparity of class, a frus trated unemployed youth who constantly bullies his wife. The wife a passive sufferer, silently tolerates her husband’s tantrums, refuses to believe in the husband’s philosophy of life. The husband humiliates his wife in presence of his friend by comparing her sexual passion to that of a python. Provoked by friend Helena and feeling that she cannot take it anymore she walks out on her husband. Helena who came to stay as a guest becomes the mistress of Jimmy after the wife has left. Again Alison returns unexpectedly and an uneasy atmosphere is created. Helena’s middle class morality arouses her consciousness and realising her guilt as having lived as a mistress to her friend’s husband, she decides to go out of their life for good. So the whole play is about disorganised lives of

the people. Women as the Symbol of Frustrated and Disorganised Society Women are the victim of the twentieth century society. People feel that women are quite insignificant. They feel that she is a burden on man. Jimmy speaks of Alison’s passion in these words: “She just de- vours me whole every time, as if I were some over large rabbit,” etc.

In the plot development of this play the hero Jimmy has not fixed motives and ideas. His idiosyncrasies and whims do not make the women happy and cheerful. The sexual disturbance, between Jimmy and Alison shows that women are symbol of frustrating society. There is no healthy atmosphere in Jimmy’s apartment. He keeps on criticising his wife for the slightest fault. He is shifting from one woman to another i.e. Alison to Helena and then back to Helena. So we find the stupid establishment back of causes and general emotional in capacity. In story we find eme

THE MAIN THEMES OF LOOK BACK IN ANGER

tional disintegration, Hence we justify that women are the symbol of the frustrated

Alison has left her husband. She is in a family way. She is staying with her fat is fruwhile Jimmy has started a sexy she is staying with Helena. He is frustrated, but his attitude should be very tienthiy It indicates that he feels his wife is not a good companion although the is about to give birth to a child. The congenial atmosphrion although she apartment appears when we feel women do not give us solace. This is a negative approach to life, but there should be a positive approach that she is a perpetual partner. We feel pleasure in the end when they have reconciled themselves after the game of bears-and-squirrels. They have started living cheerfully with Helena leaving Jimmy forever. This story is based on naturalism and realism. Our natural feelings are refuted in

every speech of the characters of the play. Class-war and Sex-war

The play seems to be a response of underprivileged British youth to the structure and spirit of the Welfare state. The younger generation identifies themselves in the “angry young man’ i.e. Jimmy. He feels that life has been unfair to him. His inability to secure a good job in spite of being a University graduate makes him all the more aggressive. Per- haps he believes that he has been deprived of the privileges for his low origin. These beliefs have led Jimmy to declare a war on the upper class whom he considers to be his opponent and treats Alison as the hostess. He continuously bullies his wife by making offensive and rather crude remarks against her family members. His rhetoric condemnation of Alison’s mother whom he regards as the representative of the upper middle class, his gibes at brother-in-law Nigel, his partnership with Hugh in debunking and desecrating upper class gathering can be perceived as tactics in his class warfare.

In a famous speech in which Jimmy laments the absence of a good cause. He accuses women of bleeding men to death. He says that men are not able to die of any good causes because there is no good causes left in the world. He sarcastically comments that there is nothing, no good causes to die for except butchered by women. He accuses his wife having the passion of a “python” and devouring him as if he was an “oversized rabbit.”

The Crisis of Isolation and Terror

The hero Jimmy a crude man of working class background keeps harassing his wife by his offensive remarks hurled against her family members. He is projected as an energetic young man who is never tired of criticising and carrying on his verbal assault against people and in- stitution. But when it comes to emotional strength, he does not live up to the mark. On Alisons’s unexpected arrival in the last scene, Helena is

90

LOOK BACK IN ANGER: A CRITICAL EVALUATION

ready to desert him. On hearing about Helena’s decision he is stunned The fear of loneliness grips him. He then turns to Alison. In a pathetic love he says to her that the voice that cries out in pain is not necessarily that of a weak creature. Sometimes the strongest animal cry out in pain because he finds himself absolutely lonely and companionless. The fear of isolation haunts Jimmy which made him patch up the differences with his wife who walked out on him months ago. Alison on the other hand had undergone the tragic suffering of losing her child through miscarriage. She has gone through the trauma of loneliness. During the month of separation from Jimmy, Alison faced the crisis of isolation and to free herself from the grip of loneliness she had returned. The loneliness phobia or the fear of isolation does not spare Cliff who says that the house would lose much of its charm in Alison’s absence.

LO

Som

more