LOOK BACK IN ANGER

AUTHOR: John Osborne

TITLE: Look Back in Anger

EDITORIAL: University Photocopies (first edition printed in England in 1957)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

In this play there are five characters:

-Jimmy Porter: He is 25 years old, very tall and thin. He smokes in pipe. In the play, the author describes the characters like they seems, looking their appearance. He seems sincere, affectionate, honest and cruel. Alison is his wife. He is always criticizing all (Sundays because always does the same thing…). He had a mistress when he was 18 years old, and he reminds her yet. Jimmy also critizes Alison’s brother, and all the things she do. He plays the trumpet. He has bad temperament and in the middle of the play he kisses Helena, a very good friend of his wife. Alison, his wife, names him “bear”.

-Alison Porter: She is 25 years old. She is more difficult to describe than other characters. She is thin, tall and she has pretty eyes. She loves her husband, but he is very bad, and she sees her type of man in Cliff. He is her best friend, and he entends very well her thinking. She met her husband in a party. She lost a baby. Jimmy name she “squirrel”.

-Cliff Lewis: He is 25 years old. He is dark, and he seems a little bad, relaxed. He loves Alison, and his best friend is Jimmy, but he criticizes somethings that he does.

-Colonel Redfern: He is Alison’s father. He is old, and he only appears in the middle of the play when Alison goes to his house. He does not like Jimmy, he says that they speak different languages.

-Helena Charles: She is the best friend of Alison. She appears in the middle of the play. She loves Jimmy, but she loves Alison too, and she said to Alison that Jimmy needs her (Alison). She says that Jimmy seems to stay sometimes in the middle of the French revolution, because his thinking.

PLOT AND SUMMARY

The play shows the life of three or four people that are very different. In it there are the inconformist, like Jimmy; the girl that want to be the perfect wife, like Alison; the modern girl, like Helena; and the perfect friend who has open-minded like Cliff. Their lives are very bored, because they have a routine. Alison is pregnant but she says nothing to Jimmy because she is afraid of him. Cliff helps Alison with her trouble, and he is a big support in her life. At the end, when Alison has been out for a time, and Jimmy has had a relation with Helena, Alison returns and her marriage returns to be the same. Alison and Jimmy are very happy.

SPACE AND TIME

The play takes place in one-room in Midland town. It is the flat of Jimmy and Alison, and Cliff lives in it, too. All the scenes take place in it. The play entails some months. The play is divided in three acts. The first is a singular day in spring (April). The second scene takes place two weeks latter and the third scene passes several months later.

LITERARY RESOURCES

In the three acts of the play the language is easy, and colloquial, very bright. We can find insults like (pig, bitch, bloody…) and a lot of adjectives. The play uses the dialogues between characters to tell us the history.

We can talk about famous names that are in the play. We find “Vaughan Williams”(page 17, since “Oh yes. There’s…” ). This person was, for many people, the greatest composer Britain has seen. And we find “Emily Brontë” ( page 19, since jimmy says “I’m not talking about…”). He was a great writer, who published one novel Wuthering Heights, in 1847.

Moreover, we can talk about the title of the play, that is an important part of this. In this case, the title refers to the story, because the characters change their lives when the time passes. It is like they could see their lives and could change what is wrong in it. They look back in time, and change their minds, their lives, and their behaviour.

PERSONAL OPINION

For me, this play is a little complicated (the story). I think that Jimmy represents this people that have troubles in their lives, and do not affront them. He blames her wife for them, and he is worry about his routine, his life… he has not dreams in his life. But when he changes it, when he lost his wife, he realises that he has someone very valuable in his life and he does not want to lose it. In the play many types of people are represented, and we must learn from them.