Subject: # 14227 Teatro Inglés Siglos XIX y XX Grupo A

Author: John Osborne

Play: Look back in anger

Subtitle: A play in three acts

Publisher: Faber and faber

This edition was first edited in 1960 in England.

Jimmy, an eccentric furious man, is the prototypical angry young man who wishes to change everything around him, to challenge everyone and who lives in a way which is opposite to his society, even if it can drive him to poverty. Not apparently caring about others’ feelings, or perhaps thinking the others have are much more long-suffering than what they really are so that they can stand all his ironic speeches, complaining about everything that happens and turning it into an attack from others against himself. There seems to be a point in saying that his behaviour is directly related to his father death when he was a 10 years-old boy. We can see that here:

“Jimmy: (...) All that that feverish failure of a man had to listen to him was a small, frightened boy. I spent hour upon hour in that tiny bedroom. He would talk to me for hours, pouring out all that was left of his life to one, lonely, bewildered little boy, who could barely understand half of what he said. All he could feel was the despair and the bitterness, the sweet, sickly smell of a dying man. (...)

You see, I learnt at an early age what it was to be angry.- angry and helpless. And I can never forget it.”(58)

Helena and Alison have many things in common but a big difference: Helena was secure enough to keep struck to her principles and be able to leave him behind. They both had to stand him, to hide their thoughts in order to keep the calm at home. Paying attention to what Alison said about what Jimmy needs, we will understand a part of their role:

“Alison: He wants something quite different from us. What it is exactly I don’t know – a kind of cross between a mother and a Greek courtesan, a henchwoman, a mixture of Cleopatra and Boswell. But give him a little longer –“(91)

On the other hand, Cliff is the peacemaker, the counterpart of Jimmy, sharing his being playful but helping Alison to stop and stand his raving attitude. Unfortunately, the fact that he does not start to live his life alone and that he is still in their lives in that sense may affect the couple is not facing fully the problems that are between them, because the presence of Cliff seems to soften Jimmy.

The story is about a couple who live with a friend of them, refusing many of the modern society facilities according to Jimmy beliefs. However, Alison, his girlfriend, seems not to be attuned with his ideas and eventually, she hardly can stand the situation and when the moment comes to leave, she does, but in turn, Jimmy starts a relation with Helena, who first seemed to be against him. Finally, Alison comes back, having lost the baby she had inside. In the end, Helena realises that world is not for her and leaves Jimmy, in the very last lines, we see Alison refusing all the way she had walked again when she left him and turning that time into wasted time when she decides to be back with Jimmy.