Look Back in Anger- by John Osbourne- An Analysis

Osbournes main theme in ‘Look back in Anger’( 1957) seems to be disillusionment at the state of society. The press release for the play called the twenty-six-year-old Osborne "an angry young man"; when the play became a hit, the phrase stuck as a label for an under-thirty, post-war generation which felt cynical and disenfranchised.

The play takes place over a stretch of time encompassing several month, we therefore follow the life of Jimmy Porter as it develops. As the play starts we are given detailed stage directions,

‘Down R. below the bed is a heavy chest of drawers, covered with books,neckties and odds and ends, including a large, tattered toy teddy bear and soft woolly squirrel’

This attention to detail is important as we can see that this is a naturalistic play, where the fourth wall is removed for the audience to be let into the action. The play starts with tension between two characters, Cliff and Jimmy,

Jimmy: You’re too ignorant

Cliff: Yes, and uneducated. Now shut up, will you?...(Kicking out at him from behind his paper)Leave her alone, I said

Jimmy: Do that again, you Welsh ruffian, and I’ll pull your ears off. ( He bangs Cliff’s paper out of his hands)

Jimmy is described in the stage directions as, ‘alienating love’ and he has strong opinions and speaks fervently,

‘Besides he’s a patriot and an Englishman and he doesn’t like the idea that he may have been selling out his countryman all these years, so what does he do? The only thing he can do-seek sanctuary in his own stupidity’

We see that even Alison, his wife is scared of him, scared to tell him she is pregnant,

‘ He’d feel hoaxed, as if I were trying to kill him in the worst way of all. He’d watch me growing bigger every day, and I wouldn’t dare to look at him’

Act two is set two weeks later, and as Alison is talking to Helena, we see another theme in the play of love slipping away, seen in the analogy of the games the couple used to play when they were in love with toy bears and squirrels,

‘ And now, even they are dead, poor little silly animals. They were all love and no brains.’

Another issue highlighed in the play is the difference in class and the problems caused by it, Jimmy was thought of as lower class with his dinner suit covered in oil and unsuitable for Alison by her parents. This tension and feeling of inadequacy is clear in the play. It seems that the separation in class ultimately ended in the separation of the pair as Alison packs to leave to go back home

The presence of Helena creates drama for the audience as she is a source of hatred for both Jimmy and Cliff, yet she brings passion to the play, and also another source of conflict. After Jimmy appears to be complelty devoid of emotional and cruel, Helena responds,

‘ She slaps his face savagely. An expression of horror and disbelief floods his face. But it drains away, and all that is left is pain. His hand goes up to his head, and a muffled cry of despair escapes him. Helena tears his hand away, and kisses him passionately, drawing him down beside her.’

In Act three, it appears Helena has replaced Alison’s role,

‘Helena is standing down L leaning over the ironing board, a small pile of clothes beside her…she wears an old shirt of jimmy’s’

After Helena and Jimmy seem to be happy together, Helena professes her love, and temporarily the atmosphere seems happy and calm, and then when we are lulled into a false sense of security Alison arrives shattering this illusion. At her presence Helena seems to change, and feels she cannot be with Jimmy. It is almost as if happiness is not possible in this cynical world,

Helena: ‘When I saw you standing there tonight, I knew that it was all utterly wrong’.

As Jimmy says it seems like everyone,

‘ want(s) to escape from the pain of being alive. And, most of all, from love’

Yet Jimmy himself seems to be fighting everyone and not saving himself,

‘The injustice of it is almost perfect! The wrong people going hungry, the wrong people being loved, the wrong people dying!’

Yet the dénouement of the play is hopeful, with Alison and Jimmy together, and comforted in their own world of the fantastical, where one can be squirrels and bears and not worry about the world,

Jimmy: And you’ll keep those big eyes on my fur, and help me keep my claws in order, because I’m a bit of a soppy, scruffy sort of bear’

Alison: Oh poor, poor bears!