John Osborne

Look Back in Anger, A play in three acts

Faber and Faber, London, 1957

Characters:

Jimmy: He is a 25 years old young man, tall and thin; with revolutionary thoughts which make him a very sincere person and even a loudmouth as his flat-partners think. He is a nonconformist, angry with the English bourgeoisie and the way things happened to him all along his hard life. He smokes a lot, likes jazz and enjoys reading the newspaper although he doesn’t agree with what he reads. His strong character is reflected in everyday discussions with his wife, despite of it, is some occasions he treats her fondly.

Alison: She is also 25 years old; tall, delicate and beautiful, but darkened by the environment that surrounds her, which has turned her into a slow and bored person, almost without life energy. She is pregnant but afraid of telling it to her husband, Jimmy. She has a nice and friendly relationship with her flat-partner Cliff. She used to have a good life before she got married and sometimes she misses her friends, her family and the luxuries.

Cliff: He is an intelligent man, a little bit short and he is also 25 years old. He shares flat with Jimmy and Alison and usually acts as a moderator when the couple argues. He is very friendly and also likes jazz.

Helena: She is an old friend of Alison, medium-high and attractive. She behaves very serious and rational, and seems to hate her friend’s new lifestyle.

There are other characters like the Colonel Redfern (Allison’s father), Nigel (Alison’s ex boyfriend), Hugh (Jimmy’s ex best friend), etc… with less relevance.

Plot:

Jimmy and Alison share a flat in a Midland town with a jazz lover, Cliff. They have a monotone life with common and repetitive discussions about the unfairness of society and usually Jimmy shows his anger against his wife who comes from the high-class. Alison is afraid of telling her husband about her pregnancy and when her friend, Helena, comes to help her, everything gets worse. Helena ask Alison’s father to take Alison home, and she stays with Jimmy and Cliff. Even thought Jimmy and Helena seem to hate each other, they became lovers. When Alison comes back, she apologize for everything (the way she left without saying goodbye, the lost of the baby, and for coming back) and Helena leaves; letting them together again.

Space:

Everything happens in a one-room flat in the Midlans. This place can perfectly adapt to any “midland town” in any European country because they all had similar characteristics and the playwright doesn’t use a real town name.

Time:

In the play we are told that it happens in the “present”, and it can really fits in any “present” because now we continue having a higher-class in every country of the world, those who control everything.

The First act of the play begins in an early evening of April and the story develops during several months.

Literary and stylistic sources:

The language used sometimes is pretty hard, but it never turns into vulgar because they are educated persons. Even Jimmy studied, so he doesn’t speak as an uneducated person; and we must remember that Alison used to belong to the higher class so she stills being refined. There are some register changes like when they talk to each other in an affected and lovely way.

In the written play we find several indications apart from the dialogues, in that way it is simpler to visualise what happens. 

Personal point of view:

Look Back in Anger shows the idea that what really moves love feelings is the need of not being alone, the angry against others, or other several different causes; and we can find that when we read that Jimmy takes Helena in replacement of his wife Alison, forgetting how much he used to hate her; or when Alison marries Jimmy as an act of rebelliousness.

John Osborne also shows in this play his criticism to both sides society; to the higher class which is always trying to control everything because they have the power to do it. And also to the lower class because they want everything to chance but they don’t do anything useful about it. “Helena: that’s why he is so futile…I feel he things he is in the middle of the French Revolution…He doesn’t know where he is, or where he’s going. He’ll never do anything, and he’ll never amount to anything.”

Academic year 2005/2006
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ivonne Pamela Landázuri
ilanbe@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press