John
Osborne is the best dramatists of 20th century and belongs to the category of great modern dramatists
such as G.B. Shaw, Sean O’Casey, John
Galsworthy, and J.B. Priestley. His early play ‘Look Back in Anger’ marked
the beginning of the revolution in British Drama. Ifor Evans remarks in his
book ‘Short History of English Literature’,
“To the
Royal court theatre in
1956 came
Osborn’s play ‘Look
Back in
Anger’ which caught
the
imagination of a generation.
He broke
into the theatre
with what
seemed an authentic
picture of post war society.”
When
play first appearance on the stage, the hero of “Look Back in Anger” became a kind of folk-hero for a young
generation puzzled by the Hungarian revolution, unhappy about Britain’s last imperialist
fling at Suez, and determined to protest about the hydrogen bomb and about all
kinds of political social question. Now we discuss the play as a protest drama against
the contemporary English society.
As Protest Drama
The
immediacy of the play’s subject-matter in relation to the times. “Look Back in
Anger” became the centre of a lot of serious theorizing about the angry young
man and his place in society. There are many events contributed to the climate
of opinion in which Look Back in Anger
first appeared. In 1956 Hungarian people rebelled against the Russian-imposed
Communist Government. But Russia crushed the revolt.
The
other event was that of Suez Canal, it was owned and run by Anglo-French
interests, but Egyptian Government declared that it was taking over it. All these
happenings created dissatisfactory atmosphere and anger in youths. The hero of
this play was ideally constituted to be all purposes hero dissatisfied young people.
The critics Stephen Williams says,
“Jimmy
spits venom against
everything
and everybody
and is
apparently convinced
that for the youth of today
the world
is an utterly purid place.”
An expression of the mood of the angry young man
‘Look
Back in Anger’ came to be regarded as an expression of the mood of the angry
young man. This play was first was produced in 1956 when the general mood
of the people in Britain was one of frustration, disillusionment, cynicism,
rebelliousness and even despair. Jimmy gives expression to this mood through
his rhetoric speeches. He becomes a kind of representative of the young people
of his time. We find all the characteristic of the post war youth in his
character as the drift towards anarchy, the automatic rejection of the
‘official’ attitude, instinctive leftishness, the surrealist of sense of humour
etc. Jimmy is in short, the very embodiment of disillusionment and
rebelliousness.
Protects against Politics and Bomb
Look
Back in Anger protects against Politics and Bomb. In the play, Jimmy
attacks the ruling conservative party through his criticism of his brother in
law Nigel. He feels that Nigel’s knowledge of life and ordinary human being is
so vague and hazy that he should be rewarded with a medal for it. Same way he
condemns the bomb repeatedly and he denounces the Bishop for supporting it. The
critics Dyson says,
“The play
is subtly aware the
psychological
impact of bomb
era upon
men like Jimmy as
anything
else in twentieth
century English literature. ”
Class war:-
The play ‘look
Back in Anger’ presents the class war existed in the post war
English society like the novels such writers
of John Wain kingsley Amis and John Brain. The rancorous hero of the
play Jimmy porter is a social rebel and is waging a war against
class-distinctions. He himself comes from a working-class family, while his
wife comes from the upper-middle class family.
Jimmy constantly criticizes her wife’s
family from which she comes. Jimmy porter ridicules Alison’s father for living
in the past. He described Alison brother Nigel as “that straight-baked,
chinless wonder from Sandhurst.” He continues his denunciation of Alison’s
mother by calling her an ‘old bitch’ and expressing the wish that she should be
dead. There is much of social criticism and condemnation of the British class
system in the play.
A realistic depiction of post-war English society
‘Look
Back in Anger’ presents a realistic
depiction of post-war English society and its effect on the younger generation.
The post-War atmosphere had created dissatisfaction in the youth life like Jimmy.
Jimmy expresses his dissatisfaction with routine kind of life especially on
Sundays as one has to follow the same routine every time - reading the papers,
drinking tea and ironing. He is discontented with his wife Alison and his
friend Cliff. He finds his wife and his friend lacking even in ordinary human
enthusiasm. This is how he state,
“Nobody
thinks, nobody cares.
No beliefs, no convictions, and
no
enthusiasm.”
Intellectual and spiritual deadness
“Look
Back in Anger” is concerned with intellectual and spiritual deadness. It
is concerned with the debased value of modern life of which spiritual deadness
is one of the parts. Jimmy’s uncertainly
and aimlessness is typical of the aimless youth of post-war England. He is
certainly thinking of leaving the sweet-stall, but he does not know what about
exactly he will do. Jimmy is opposed to religion and its practices and beliefs.
He speaks bitterly about the rituals of church and feeling unhappy when Alison
goes to church under Helena’s influence. Church-going offers no comfort to him,
and the sound of church-bells only annoys him.
The texture of ordinary despair’
The
other important thing of the play is about special kind of feeling, what
Osborne has described as ‘the
texture of ordinary despair’.
The Lament about missing causes in this passage is not meant to set us thinking
of the good brave causes that do exist. Jimmy is a suffering hero and the
action is designed to illuminate his suffering rather than to force a conflict.
In the despair caused by spiritual deadness of the age, the play reminds one of
Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’.
Conclusion
To
summing up, Look Back in Anger’ is a protest drama of 50’s and 60’s which reflects
the mood and temper of post-war England as well as Rebelliousness and
disillusionment in the character of Jimmy porter. Osborne he has displayed his
feeling for the contemporary and the temper of post-war youth. The play is
regarded as the central and most immediately influential expression of mood of
its time, the mood of the angry young man. Finally to conduce in the words of
Ifor Evans,
“‘Look
Back in Anger’ gave
the
strongest Fillip to the
concept
of the angry young
man.”
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