Alison Porter is a wet character in
‘Look Back in Anger’ by John Osborne. This play reflects the
mood and temper of post-war England as well as rebelliousness and
disillusionment. Main characters in this play are: Jimmy porter, Alison, Cliff, Helena. Each character creates a deep
impression upon our minds and we can not dismiss any of them in a perfunctory
manner. Alison Porter – Jimmy Porter’s wife is about twenty five, tall,
slim, and dark. It is described by the author as ‘the most elusive personality’ who is difficult to understand. Frank
Kermade says
“Alison
is an embodiment of
the values
of the upper class
which her
husband defies, and
her
decision to marry him
creates a
conflict in her mind
and
between her old and new
loyalties.”
Alison’s disillusionment with marriage life:-
Just
in beginning of the play, we find Alison’s disillusionment with marriage life. His
marriage with Jimmy brings out an astounding change in her life. Before
marriage her life was without responsibilities and problems but after marriage,
she finds her in totally different world, as he becomes aware of Jimmy’s deep
rooted class prejudice and she finds it impossible to adopt herself to these
changed circumstances. She then realized that Jimmy’s marrying her was more a
kin to revenge than to love. We can see Jimmy had taunted her with her
virginity. In this connection she tell Cliff,
“He was
quite angry about
it, as if
I had deceived him in
some
strange way. He seemed
to think
an untouched woman
would
defile him.”
Her attitude of tolerance towards Jimmy
Alison
has been called ‘wet’ character
and her attitude of tolerance towards Jimmy is one of her most
remarkable and most admirable qualities. For instance, she feels very annoyed
when Jimmy plays on his trumpet. However, she remains silent and does not
generally give expression to her annoyance. Even when Jimmy tries to provoke
her by making sarcastic remarks about her and her family, she remains silent
even though she feels inwardly hurt.
She
even tells Cliff that she can not longer bear the way Jimmy keeps on behaving
towards her, but she does not outwardly react in any way and does not break
away Jimmy. She has shown a highly commendable flexibility during the last four
years, and has been adjusting herself to Jimmy’s mood and whims.
His liking for Cliff:
It
is interesting to note that the only thing in common between Alison and her
husband is that both of them are of Cliff. Cliff is almost as acceptable to Alison as he is to Jimmy. In fact,
Cliff is deeply attached Alison and Alison fully reciprocates his affection. Of
course as she tells Helena, nothing sexual is involved in her relationship: - “It’s just a relaxed, cheerful sort of
thing, like being warm in bed. You’re too comfortable to bother about moving
for the sake of some other pleasure.” Even Jimmy doesn’t mind that attachment.
The fantasy of the
bears-and-squirrels game.
There
is also one thing more which seems to be keeping the husband and the wife
together, and this is the sex-equation between them. There is a perfect sexual
harmony between them. The only moments when Alison has had any happiness with
Jimmy were those when she and he played the bears and squirrels game. It
is only time when they imagined themselves as animals and forgettable actual
reality. This is how she describes that game to Helena:
It was
the one way of escaping
from
everything- a sort of
unholy
priesthole of being
animals
to one another. We
could
become little furry
creatures
with little furry brains.
Alison
feels very comfortable in company of the friend Helena Charles. Under
Helena’s influence, Alison agrees to go to for prayer. After observing Jimmy’s
habitual ill treatment of Alison, Helena begins to work upon Alison’s mind. She
makes Alison more conscious than the latter was before of Jimmy’s brutal
treatment of her. She is directly responsible for Alison’s decision to leave
Jimmy. Without telling Alison, Helena sends a telegram to Alison’s father to
come and take away Alison because Alison is very unhappy. In all this, Helena
is apparently acting as Alison’s well-wisher.
Her extraordinary self-respect
The
character of Alison is marked with her extraordinary self-respect. She
can bear no more from Jimmy. It is not surprising that Alison had to refuge in
submissive escapism. She explains to Helena that she leaves Jimmy because she
has become desperate on account of Jimmy’s constantly finding fault in her. She
adds her escapism is to get peace “All I want is a little peace”
No woman can show a relaxation of spirit if
she is a perpetual of criticism by her husband and in any case. Alison has
shown a great relaxation of spirit during the past four years than Jimmy
himself, who has been fretting and fuming and raging against her and the words
most of the time.
Psychological basis
There
is a strong psychological basis for here coming back and falling at
Jimmy’s feet. Although Alison forsakes Jimmy because of his continuous
ill-treatment, yet she comes back to Jimmy. The fact is that she has gone
through the painful experience. The loss of her child is the greatest
misfortune can befall any woman. Having had a miscarriage, Alison can no longer
endure her loneliness. Now she is completely overcome by her emotion. She says
to Jimmy,
“I was
wrong, I was wrong, I
don’t
want to be neutral, I
want to
be corrupt and futile.
Don’t you
see! I’m in the
mud at
last! I’m groveling!
I’m crawling!.”
Thus
she has greatly been chastened by her suffering and that accounts for her
object to surrender to Jimmy, who had at one time wished that she would undergo
sufferings.
Conclusion
To
summing up, Alison is an innocent girl who has been caught up of circumstances.
She is an impressive woman. Her patience is remarkable, and we really admire
her for her remaining calm in the face of Jimmy criticism. Her strength lies in
her power of endurance. Her self-respect is also distinguishing trait of her
character. Her miscarriage makes her
more tragic character. She is passive suffer like Nora in ‘A Doll’ House’ but
not completely spineless. K.J. Worth
give reason for her tragedy, “Alison’s
failure in communication’
No comments:
Post a Comment