Analysis of Non-African Drama: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne – SS2 Literature-in-English Lesson Note (Third Term)

Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne, is a play set in an attic flat in a small English town in the mid-1950s. It follows Jimmy Porter, an angry young man, his upper-class wife Alison, and their friends Cliff Lewis and Helena Charles. Jimmy’s anger damages the people close to him. It softens only after Alison has suffered as he always wanted her to.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• describe the setting of Look Back in Anger;
• summarise the main events of the play from the first act to the ending;
• name the five main characters and state their relationships to one another;
• explain why Jimmy Porter can be seen as both a hero and a villain;
• explain the role of Helena Charles as the play’s moral compass.

What happens in Look Back in Anger?

Setting and opening situation

The play begins in the attic flat of Jimmy Porter and Alison Porter. The setting is the mid-1950s in a small town in England. Jimmy and Alison share the flat with Cliff Lewis, a young working-class man who is Jimmy’s best friend.

Cliff and Jimmy both come from a working-class background, though Jimmy has had more education than Cliff. They are in business together running a sweet stall. Alison comes from a more prominent family, and it is clear from the beginning that Jimmy resents this.

The first act

The first act opens on a Sunday in April. Jimmy and Cliff are reading the Sunday papers while Alison irons in a corner of the room. Jimmy is a hot-tempered young man and he tries to provoke both Cliff and Alison.

He is antagonistic towards Cliff’s working-class background and makes fun of his low intelligence. Cliff is good-natured and takes it. Jimmy also makes fun of Alison’s family and of her well-heeled life before she married him.

Jimmy seems to be nostalgic for England’s powerful past. He notes that the world has entered a “dreary” American age, a fact he begrudgingly accepts. Alison tires of Jimmy’s rants and begs for peace, but this makes Jimmy more fevered in his insults.

Cliff tries to keep the peace between the two, and this leads to a playful scuffle between Cliff and Jimmy. Their wrestling ends with them running into Alison, and she falls. Jimmy is sorry for the incident, but Alison makes him leave the room.

After Jimmy leaves, Alison tells Cliff that she is pregnant with Jimmy’s child, though she has not yet told Jimmy. Cliff advises her to tell him. When Cliff goes out and Jimmy comes back, the two fall into an intimate game instead: Jimmy impersonates a stuffed bear and Alison impersonates a toy squirrel.

Cliff returns to tell Alison that her old friend, Helena Charles, has called her on the phone. Alison takes the call and returns with the news that Helena is coming to stay for a visit. Jimmy does not like Helena and goes into a rage. He wishes that Alison would suffer to know what it means to be a real person, and he curses her with the wish that she could have a child only to watch it die.

Helena’s arrival and the quarrel over church

Two weeks later, Helena arrives and Alison talks about her relationship with Jimmy. She tells how they met and how, in their younger days, they used to crash parties with their friend Hugh Tanner. Jimmy still has an affection for Hugh’s mother. His relationship with Hugh became strained when Hugh left to travel the world and Jimmy stayed to be with Alison.

Jimmy seems to regret that he could not leave, but he is also angry at Hugh for abandoning his mother. Helena asks about Alison’s affectionate relationship with Cliff, and Alison tells her that they are strictly friends.

Cliff and Jimmy return to the flat, and Helena tells them that she and Alison are leaving for church. Jimmy goes into an anti-religious rant and insults Alison’s family once again. Helena becomes angry, and Jimmy dares her to slap him on the face, warning her that he will slap her back.

He tells her how he watched his father die when he was a young man. His father had been injured fighting in the Spanish Civil War and had returned to England only to die shortly after. As Alison and Helena begin to leave for church, Jimmy feels betrayed by his wife.

A phone call comes in for Jimmy and he leaves the room. Helena tells Alison that she has called Alison’s father to come and take her away from this abusive home. Alison gives in and says that she will go when her father picks her up the next day.

When Jimmy returns, he tells Alison that Mrs Tanner, Hugh’s mother, has become sick and is going to die. Jimmy decides to visit her and demands that Alison choose whether to go with Helena or with him. Alison picks up her things and leaves for church, and Jimmy collapses on the bed, heartbroken by his wife’s decision.

Colonel Redfern and Alison’s departure

The next evening Alison is packing and talking with her father, Colonel Redfern. The Colonel is a soft-spoken man who realises that he does not quite understand the love between Jimmy and Alison. He admits that his own actions and his wife’s are partly to blame for their split.

The Colonel was an officer in the British military and served in India, and he is nostalgic for his time there. He considers his service to be some of the best years of his life. Alison observes that her father is hurt because the present is not the past, and that Jimmy is hurt because he feels the present is only the past. Alison begins to pack her toy squirrel, but then decides not to.

Helena and Cliff soon enter. Alison leaves a letter for Jimmy explaining why she has left, and she gives it to Cliff. After Alison leaves, Cliff becomes angry and gives the letter to Helena, blaming her for the situation.

Jimmy returns, bewildered that he was almost hit by Colonel Redfern’s car and that Cliff pretended not to see him when he walked by on the street. He reads Alison’s letter and becomes very angry. Helena tells him that Alison is pregnant, but Jimmy says he does not care. He insults Helena and she slaps him, then kisses him passionately.

The third act and the ending

Several months pass, and the third act opens with Jimmy and Cliff once again reading the Sunday papers while Helena stands in the corner ironing. Jimmy and Cliff still engage in angry banter, and Helena’s religious tendencies have taken the brunt of Jimmy’s punishment. Jimmy and Cliff perform scenes from musicals and comedy shows. When Helena leaves, Cliff notes that things do not feel the same with her there.

Cliff then tells Jimmy that he wants to move out of the flat. Jimmy takes the news calmly and tells him that he has been a loyal friend and is worth more than any woman. When Helena returns, the three plan to go out. Alison suddenly enters.

Alison and Helena talk while Jimmy leaves the room and begins to play his trumpet loudly. Alison has lost her baby and looks sick. Helena tells Alison that she should be angry with her for what she has done, but Alison is only grieved by the loss of her baby.

Jimmy’s trumpet playing drives Helena to distraction, and she demands that he come into the room. When he comes back in, he laments that Alison has lost the baby but shrugs it off. Helena then tells Jimmy and Alison that her sense of morality (right and wrong) has not diminished and that she knows she must leave. Alison tries to persuade her to stay, telling her that Jimmy will be alone if she leaves.

When Helena leaves, Jimmy tries once again to become angry, but Alison tells him that she has now gone through the emotional and physical suffering that he always wanted her to feel. He realises that she has suffered greatly and has become like him, and he becomes softer and more tender towards her. The play ends with Jimmy and Alison embracing, once again playing their game of bear and squirrel.

Who are the main characters in Look Back in Anger?

1. Jimmy Porter: Jimmy is the play’s main character. He is the “Angry Young Man” who expresses his frustration at the lack of feeling in his placid domestic life. He can be seen as a hero for his unfiltered expression of emotion and frustration in a culture that encouraged unemotional resignation. He can also be seen as a villain, because his anger is destructive to those in his life.
2. Cliff Lewis: Cliff is a friend to both Jimmy and Alison and lives with them in their attic flat. He is a working-class Welshman, and Jimmy often points out that he is “common” and uneducated. Cliff believes this is the reason Jimmy keeps him as a friend. He is quite fond of Alison, and they have a strange, physically affectionate relationship throughout the play.
3. Alison Porter: Alison is Jimmy’s wife. She comes from Britain’s upper class but married into Jimmy’s working-class lifestyle. The audience learns in the first act that she is pregnant with Jimmy’s child. Jimmy’s destructive anger puts her under great strain and she eventually leaves him. She loses the child and comes back to Jimmy to show him that she has suffered greatly.
4. Helena Charles: Helena is Alison’s best friend. She stays with them in their flat while visiting for work, and she is from an upper-class family. She is responsible for getting Alison to leave Jimmy, and she and Jimmy then begin an affair. Her sense of morality leads her to leave, and she can be considered the play’s moral compass.
5. Colonel Redfern: Colonel Redfern is Alison’s father. He represents Britain’s great Edwardian past. He was a military leader in India for many years before returning with his family to England. He is critical of Jimmy and Alison’s relationship but accepts that he is to blame for many of their problems because he meddles in their affairs.

Evaluation

1. Describe the setting of the play and the people who share the flat at the start.
2. Why does Jimmy resent Alison’s family?
3. Why does Helena Charles leave at the end of the play?
4. Why can Jimmy Porter be seen as both a hero and a villain?
5. How does the play end, and what has Alison done to bring about this ending?

Assignment

Write a short account of the relationship between Jimmy and Alison Porter, from the first act to the end of the play. Use at least three events from the story to support your answer.