TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2011

John Osborne's Jimmy Porter is a Modern Hamlet- A Comparative Analysis

John Osborne (1929-1994), British playwright and motion picture screenwriter, is known for his sharp criticism of modern British life. His play Look Back in Anger (1956), about rebellion against traditional mores, is regarded as a landmark in post-World War II British drama and made its author famous as the first of the angry young men. Jimmy Porter, the protagonist in Look Back in Anger is called the 'angry young men, the disillusioned protagonist for his anti-establishment philosophies. The plot involves Jimmy Porter, who works at a candy shop despite his university education. He torments his wife so badly that on the advice of her best friend Helena, she eventually leaves him. Jimmy takes up with Helena, whom he previously despised, until his wife returns to tell him she had been pregnant but lost their child.

J. Akingbola (Jimmy) and L. d. Santos (Alison)

The character of Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger is an enigma, almost as much as the character of Shakespeares Hamlet who has been hailed as Mona Lisa of literature by T. S. Eliot. Like Hamlet, Jimmy is a rebel against the conventional traditions and present nature of civic society. In this he certainly the upper hand of the movement against the establishment launched by a group of authors and dramatists including John Arden, whose Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (1959) discussed class and war; Arnold Wesker, whose The Kitchen (1959) used a restaurant kitchen as a microcosm of British society; and Edward Bond, whose Saved(1965) presented so grim a picture of lowerclass British life that it was banned for a time. But the question that has often been raised is whether Jimmy has only the superficial characteristics rather than the essentials of the Shakespeares sublime hero. A through study of the play would reveal that the Hamlet like features of Jimmy are not limited to only the external aspects, for Jimmy has all the more profound qualities of Hamlet.

Sir John Gielgud performing the title character in Hamlet

Anger from the very outset is what distinguishes the Shakespearean Hamlet from the heroes of other tragedies. Jimmy too is famous for the unceasing outbursts of anger. Jimmys anger finds its targets in almost everyone, be it his intimate friend Cliff, his wife Alison or all other acquaintances of his. While Hamlet subjects almost everyone to his scathing tongue, including his mother Gertrude, his beloved Ophelia and his uncle Claudius, Jimmy goes on similar spree. Hamlet is famous for his inaction. His inaction is the result of his native procrastination or his intellectual uncertainty about the real guilty party in the murder of his father, the truth remains that he is not able to force the action. Similarly, Osbornes hero Jimmy can only rave and rant, fret and fume, curse and abuse, but can not take any concrete measure for any specific action. Consequently, just as the Shakespearean play is full of to be not to be monologues, Look Back in Anger is a mosaic of Jimmys soliloquies. He keeps narrating his disturbing experiences like the death of his father and death of the charwoman Mrs. Tanner, but he has neither been able to reduce their sufferings nor educate others about any form of idealism. Hamlet and Jimmy are both remarkable for being men who are above the average, both in terms of social status and in terms of native ability. Hamlet himself produces a play and on another occasion displays a striking poetic quality. On the other hand, Jimmy does not fare any worse as far as creative talent is concerned. He is remarkably successful in writing a poem called cesspool parodying T. S. Eliots waste land. He also writes a play and tries to stage it at home itself. Socially, both Hamlet and Jimmy are above their compeers. While Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, Jimmy can not of course claim any such regal distinction in the modern age of democracy. But he is distinguished in his own way because he is the only man in Cliffs group who is in possession of university education. The external circumstances of their lives, too, are similar. While Hamlets misery has been caused partly by the suspicion that his mother Gertrude is one of the conspirators in the murder of his father, Jimmy suspects no less. His father might not have been murdered in the literal sense, but his death has certainly been caused by lack of care. His mother, angered by the fact that Jimmys father spends his energy in fighting for the idealist cause in Spain rather than earning money for the family, took little care of him in death bed. Hamlets hostile relation with his possible in laws like Polonius and Laureates finds its reflection in Jimmy, too. Jimmy cannot tolerate his in laws, particularly Alisons mother and Alisons brother Nigel who almost a direct parallel to Laureates. If Hamlet in his anger asks Ophelia to go to a nunnery, Jimmy would want to stand in her tears and sings in her sorrow. As for the question regarding whether Jimmys anger is the result of his egoism in contrast to Hamlets anger which is the result of his genuine dissatisfaction with the corrupt world, the answer would be that Jimmys anger is caused by almost as genuine dissatisfaction with the lack of idealism of the post war British society. While Hamlet finds the time to be out of joint after the passing away of his father, Jimmy finds that in present society there are no beliefs, no conviction and no enthusiasm. While Hamlet found something to be rotten in the state of Denmark, Jimmy finds that even

the clergy and the aristocracy of the British society are corrupt. Therefore, Jimmys entire tirades in the play, in spite of its seeming irrelevance, are caused by as profound a concern for his society as Hamlets. The mysterious character of Jimmy and his apparently irrelevant accusations only optimize a profound character. He remains, in many ways, a modern Hamlet--- a Wolverstone Hamlet. Ardhendu De

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2012

Analysis of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger: Jimmys Newspaper Reading, Animal and the Game in the Play, Feminism, Jimmy a Romantic Hero
Look Back in Anger (1956): Rebellion Against Traditional Mores by John Osborne (1929-1994)

Symbolic Importune of Jimmys Newspaper Reading: All three acts open by showing Jimmy reading newspaper and repeatedly surfaces in the conversation. The newspaper helps to create a domestic atmosphere with a ritual, as well as providing the starting point for most of the discussions or speeches about religion and politics. It brings the outside or public world into the private, familiar setting of the play, and its constant presence makes it, in effect, impossible to clearly separate the two worlds ----- one invades and informs the other through the newspaper. Importance of Animal and the Game in the Play: Through the symbol of animals and the game Jimmy and Alison impersonate them. They have toy bear and squirrel kept upon a chest of drawers, and Alison points them out to Helena who thinks this is proof of Jimmys being fey or mad. An extension of the game is the comparison of the couples home to a zoo or a menagerie. This animal symbol works in two ways ---- first, as discussed above, it offers a refuge from the misery of the couples daily married life, and provides the only way for then to communicate with each other. Second, it implies that the only way for then to satisfy marital love in their case, seems to be based on not munch more than the physical attraction between the sexes, which functions at a level below the rational. Though, it is true that bear and squirrel game is more complex a pattern to highlight the various relationships and solitude. We would better quote where the play unnaturally closes with a repetition of the game: Jimmy: .. There are cruel traps lying about everywhere, just waiting for rather mad , slightly fanatics very timid little animals. Right? (Allison nods) (Pathetically) poor squirrels ! Alison : Poor bears (she laughs and tenderly says) Oh, poor poor bears !

Feminism : Have you ever noticed how noisy women are? Have you? The way they kick the floor about, simply walking over it? Or have you watched them sitting at their dressing tables, dropping their weapons and banging down their bits of boxes and brushes and lipsticks? Mr. James Porter, age 25

Looking at how women are presented in the play , and at the way in the male characters speak of and react to the female characters are the formation of feminism. Jimmy has often expressed misogyny , of which he finds himself a sufferer. Jimmy does see personal relationships as offering the only alternative to the lack of causes in public life, but views such relationships as given women a chance to devour and to destroy his (and by implication , all mans) self-hood and autonomy . This goes hand in hand with his being completely tied to women in the shape of being unable to break away from them sexually or emotionally. Jimmy sees himself as suffering under the system of class which privileges Alison and her family, but does not see Alisons suffering under the system of patriarchal marriage that privileges him over her . Societys attitude to women are shown up in the play and both Alison and Helena share a similar pattern of behavior fascination alternating with resentment and antipathy with regard to Jimmy . They share a common feminine nature similar backgrounds and upbringing.
Jimmy a Romantic Hero despite of being the angry young men : One of the defining traits of romanticism is its interest in the individual and its tendency to exalt individual experience and expression over the collective or the social. The romantic hero / protagonist , however inexplicably cruel or wrong his behavior is always presented as driver or compelled by a nature too extreme and forceful for those around him to understand , as consequently is seen as always isolated from his world . Very much of this is true of Jimmy, as least in his own eyes Was I really wrong to believe that theres a a kind of burning virility of mind and spirit that look for something as power full as it self? The heaviest, strongest creatures in this world seen to be the lowliest. (LBA ,Act III , 11) Futher Helenas words about him , I fill hes still in the middle of the French Revolution confirms the sense of Jimmys perception of himself as a Romantic hero.