When it first appeared on the London state in 1956, Look Back in Anger completely revolutionized British theatre. For the first time, a harsh, brutal realism came to the fore. The characters felt and spoke like "real" people.
The pre-war period had been dominated by upper class comedies and farces. Don't Look Back in Anger featured a working class man as the protagonist, and it discussed working-class issues. The play examines the social distinctions at play at the time of its genesis, and spawned a number of playwrights all of whom became known as "angry young men," a phrase that was first applied to Osborne.
Look Back in Anger: Overview
The play opens with two men reading the Sunday papers, Jimmy Porter and his welsh lodger, Cliff, and Jimmy's wife, Alison, doing the ironing whilst wearing one of Jimmy's shirts. It emerges that Alison and Jimmy come from two sides of the class divide--Alison is the daughter of a colonel in the British army and upper middle class, Jimmy is the first generation of his family to be educated and still feels strongly tied to his working class roots.
Jimmy is angry not just because of Alison's family background, but because of her personally. In a strong verbal attack, he demeans her in front of Cliff. In the second act, Alison's friend (Helena) comes to stay and tells her that living with Jimmy is a big mistake. She gets in touch with her family, and asks that they take her away. However, Helena may have mixed motives. Despite the fact that Jimmy is enormously dismissive of her, they argue bitterly when Alison leaves. And, they end up in each other's arms.
Look Back in Anger: Overview
The play opens with two men reading the Sunday papers, Jimmy Porter and his welsh lodger, Cliff, and Jimmy's wife, Alison, doing the ironing whilst wearing one of Jimmy's shirts. It emerges that Alison and Jimmy come from two sides of the class divide--Alison is the daughter of a colonel in the British army and upper middle class, Jimmy is the first generation of his family to be educated and still feels strongly tied to his working class roots.
Jimmy is angry not just because of Alison's family background, but because of her personally. In a strong verbal attack, he demeans her in front of Cliff. In the second act, Alison's friend (Helena) comes to stay and tells her that living with Jimmy is a big mistake. She gets in touch with her family, and asks that they take her away. However, Helena may have mixed motives. Despite the fact that Jimmy is enormously dismissive of her, they argue bitterly when Alison leaves. And, they end up in each other's arms.
With the third act, we see that Helena replaced Alison, and she irons Jimmy's shirt. Their relationship seems to be better than the one between Jimmy and Alison, but the relative peace is broken by Alison returning. She tells Helena that she lost the baby that Jimmy fathered (and whose existence she hid from him earlier in the play). Then, Alison and Helena become friends once more.
The revelation makes Helena realize her own guilt in coming between them, and she determines to leave. Jimmy, as is his way, dismisses Helena sarcastically. However, the play does seem to end on a note of hope, with the possibility of a reconciliation between Alison and Jimmy, as they play a silly game that they once used to play.
Look Back in Anger: Biographical?
As in much of John Osborne's later work, the playwright used much of himself in his creation of Jimmy Porter, and large parts of Look Back in Anger are biographical. As such, it is probably to Osborne's credit that Jimmy can be seen both as a noble rebel against an awful society that is bearing down on him, as well as a cruel and misguided emotional idiot. His sarcastic and sometimes merciless taunts are directed at the two women and the class from which they emerged. While his taunts are horrible, his words are also somehow understandable.
Osborne does not give any easy answers to why Jimmy is angry. Like Marlon Brando in the film The Wild One (who, when asked what he is rebelling against, replies "What'ya got?"), Jimmy's disaffection is a general feeling about how the world is wrong to its core.
The revelation makes Helena realize her own guilt in coming between them, and she determines to leave. Jimmy, as is his way, dismisses Helena sarcastically. However, the play does seem to end on a note of hope, with the possibility of a reconciliation between Alison and Jimmy, as they play a silly game that they once used to play.
Look Back in Anger: Biographical?
As in much of John Osborne's later work, the playwright used much of himself in his creation of Jimmy Porter, and large parts of Look Back in Anger are biographical. As such, it is probably to Osborne's credit that Jimmy can be seen both as a noble rebel against an awful society that is bearing down on him, as well as a cruel and misguided emotional idiot. His sarcastic and sometimes merciless taunts are directed at the two women and the class from which they emerged. While his taunts are horrible, his words are also somehow understandable.
Osborne does not give any easy answers to why Jimmy is angry. Like Marlon Brando in the film The Wild One (who, when asked what he is rebelling against, replies "What'ya got?"), Jimmy's disaffection is a general feeling about how the world is wrong to its core.
In a striking contrast, Jimmy is compared to Alison's father. He is an old man who, in his own way, is a little lost. But his problem is that the world has changed too much, whereas Jimmy's problem is that the world has not changed enough. Jimmy--like Osborne himself, and many men of his class--is a revolutionary spirit who wants to put an end to unfairness and poverty, but are frustrated by their inability to find the means to do so.
Love it; Hate it?
Famously, the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan wrote that he could never love anyone who didn't want to see Look Back in Anger. This is the kind of overt, emotional response that the play created in a certain segment of the audience who saw it. Many hated Look Back in Anger when it was first performed. Like the man who wrote it, the play does have a number of flaws.
However, what it does capture is a certain essence of the time in which it was written and of the kind of people it was written for. Look Back in Anger became a banner for a whole generation of young men, who were leftist in their politics and idealistic in their mindsets. We can debate whether those men changed the world, but it is certainly true that Look Back in Anger changed modern theatre. Never again was ostentation lauded over psychological realism, and the real world was firmly put at the heart of what the theatre was about.
Love it; Hate it?
Famously, the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan wrote that he could never love anyone who didn't want to see Look Back in Anger. This is the kind of overt, emotional response that the play created in a certain segment of the audience who saw it. Many hated Look Back in Anger when it was first performed. Like the man who wrote it, the play does have a number of flaws.
However, what it does capture is a certain essence of the time in which it was written and of the kind of people it was written for. Look Back in Anger became a banner for a whole generation of young men, who were leftist in their politics and idealistic in their mindsets. We can debate whether those men changed the world, but it is certainly true that Look Back in Anger changed modern theatre. Never again was ostentation lauded over psychological realism, and the real world was firmly put at the heart of what the theatre was about.
