Subtitle: a play in three acts
Editorial: faber and faber
Date of publication: 1957
Place of publication: London, England
Dramatis personae:
Jimmy Porter: is a high and thin boy of 25 years. He is the
husband of Alison. He has a strong character.
Alison Porter: is a girl of the same age as Jimmy. She is a high,
dark, thin girl ... besides it is
said that the bones of her face are long and delicate and she has deep eyes.
She is a shy person.
Cliff Lewis: he is a young boy who lives in the same attic as
Jimmy and Alison. Cliff is a boy of approximately 25 years also, he is short
and a dark man. Besides he gets on well with Alison. And he is very loving with
her.
Helena: an old
friend of Alison, who doesn’t get on with Jimmy, although when Alison leaves
the house, she begins a relation with him.
Coronel Redfern: father of Alison, he is approximately 60 years of
age. And he appears in the play to carry his daughter to return to his house.
Plot:
A young
couple and his friend, live in a small apartment of a city. Jimmy is a very
angry person, especially with his wife, Alison. Cliff (great friend of Jimmy
and of Alison), tries to calm the situation especially during the fights that
Jimmy has with Alison. The girl tries to avoid disputes with her husband and
she conceals him that she is pregnanty. The days pass in the apartment, and the
monotony goes on in their lives. One day the friend of Alison, Helena, visits them.
She convinces her friend to leave her husband and to return to her house.
Alison agrees to it and her father the Coronel Redfurn goes for her. While
Helena begins a relation with Jimmy. Nevertheless, Alison loses the baby she
was expecting, and she returns to the house. Helena leaves Jimmy and he returns
with Alison.
Space, time and other aspects:
The
play is represented in three acts, although the only space, is the apartment of
the characters. Every act pass in a different moment, from a Sunday of April
until a few months later. The language is characterized by a colloquial,
familiar…Although there are presence of some vulgarisms. About literary
resource I will name the metaphor that John Osborne makes between the bear and
the squirrel, that they personify to Jimmy and Alison respectively.
Personal opinion:
In my opinion, Look Back in Anger it is an entertaining and
easy play. This play reflects the lifes of a group of young people who suffer
the boredom, and the monotony everyday. I think that this play tell us an
interesting history which surprises us with it final.