LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Author: John Osborne

Title and subtitle: Look Back in Anger, a play in Three Acts

Editorial and year / place of publication: Faber and Faber, 1957 London

  “Dramatis personae”: Alison: she is Colonel Redfern’s daughter. Her father is a retired person of the British army. She is married with Jimmy. In the first act she is wearing a cherry red shirt of Jimmy’s. She is tall, slim, and dark. Her eyes are large and deep. She is twenty-five years old, the same age of her husband. She is not confident with her husband, she is shy with him however, with other people she is confident.  She is a “typical” woman, she is always doing all the housework. In the play she has a role of “subjected” woman since she can stand what her husband tells her, does to her and gives to her. Jimmy: he is married with Alison. He is tall, a thin man about twenty-five years old. In the first act he is wearing a very worn tweed jacked and flannels. He is sincere and cheerful, cruel, restless, importunate and full of pride. And also he is distrustful since he doubts about his wife’s virginity. In this play he has the role of an “old” man, in other words, he behaves like a man who thinks of women as inferior.  Cliff: he is Alison and Jimmy’s friend. He is short, dark, and big boned. He is the same age that the others. In the first act he is wearing a pullover and grey, new, but very creased trousers. He is easy and relaxed. Helena: she is Alison’s friend, but she is a Jimmy’s enemy (at first). She is of medium height and very attractive. She is dressed in the first act carefully and expensive. And also she is nosy.

  Plot: Alison and Jimmy are married. They live together but their relationship was not good. Alison was tired, it seemed that she wanted not to be with her husband and she wanted to go with her father although, she continued living with Jimmy. Helena did not stop to tell Alison bad things such as, she could not bear Jimmy… After, Alison went away. She went to her father’s house when she was pregnant because she felt fear and she did not say it her husband (she was pregnant). Helena went to live with Jimmy since Alison was not there. They fall in love. Their relationship was very good and without problems. When Alison returned, she found Helena and her husband together. Helena in this moment thought about her life, she did not live this way and went away. Then, Helena told his husband everything (she had lost her child…) and finally they returned.

  Space and time: the action takes place in Jimmy and Alison’s flat just in a room, so the space is single, urban and it is closed. The action occurs for one or two months since between the first act and the second pass two weeks, between the scenes pass only one afternoon, and between the second and the first passes one month, and also occurs in the scenes following.

  The language that he used in his play is colloquial. There are some idioms and swearwords. The play is written in prose although also in verse.

  Other aspects: we can see that in this play there is a situation of machismo (social-cultural aspect) and we can also see that there are a bit characters wherewith the play was not cost quite money (economic aspect)

  As I see it, I think that Osborne made a good work since his play reflected how the society was, concretely the couple’s life. And it also shows us situations that still nowadays occur such as the machismo.