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Assignmnet on british drama

English Literature 3(ii) (University of Delhi)

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ASSIGNMENT ON BRITISH DRAMA

Answer any five questions:

1. Would you call the character of Dr. Faustus ‘heroic’? Give reasons for your answer.
Ans. The Heroic Character of Doctor Faustus
In his play ‘Dr. Faustus’ Christopher Marlowe presents his main character as a tragic ‘hero’ right
from the start – the full title of the play is ‘The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. So we have the
idea of ‘tragedy’ and of a history (story) at the beginning – his audiences knew what they were getting
– a tragedy or fall from grace or from some lofty status. Marlowe’s audiences would have been
familiar with this idea of tragedy from the old morality plays that were in performance round that
time. Marlowe reused an old legend called Faust to tell the story of a man, who like all of us at some
time in greater or lesser degree, lets himself down. He loses credibility, reputation, his standing in the
eyes of God and Malin and risks his immortal soul. It is in identifying with his human frailty and
weakness that we see him as a tragic figure. He sells his priceless soul to the devil for the sake of
intellectual superiority and finds it a shallow recompense.
The comic material in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus has long been a source of critical
controversy and consternation, and seen as a major “problem” within the traditionally conceived
“tragic” or “moral” structure of the play. We would like to suggest, however, that it is not the comic
elements but the attempt to impose a generically consistent tragic or moral reading of the play that is
the “problem.”
Accepting and indeed relishing the comical and farcical aspects of the play can lead to provocative
insights into the play’s effects and meanings as a whole. In focusing on the comic elements as integral
and important to the text overall, we have come to see the play as containing an unabashedly comic
sensibility and as essentially parodic rather than primarily tragic or moralistic in tone. By “parody” we
mean, not the traditionally conceived mocking of evil to be found in conventional morality plays, but
a subversion of that very convention, creating a turnabout in the ideology expected of a typical
morality play. This is particularly true of the ending. The final scenes, despite their “mighty” tragic
lines and hellish spectacle, insistently evoke comic imagery from the middle of the play, undermining
the tragic or moralistic potential of the ending, parodying the inherent didacticism of these genres in
general and playing with the orthodox and conventional codes of both religious and poetic doctrine.
Faustus is the protagonist and tragic hero of Marlowe’s play. He is a contradictory character, capable
of tremendous eloquence and possessing awesome ambition, yet prone to a strange, almost wilful
blindness and a willingness to waste powers that he has gained at great cost. When we first meet
Faustus, he is just preparing to embark on his career as a magician and while we already anticipate

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that things will turn out badly (the Chorus’s introduction, if nothing else, prepares us), there is
nonetheless a grandeur to Faustus as he contemplates all the marvels that his magical powers will
produce. He imagines piling up wealth from the four corners of the globe, reshaping the map of
Europe (both politically and physically) and gaining access to every scrap of knowledge about the
universe. He is an arrogant, self-aggrandizing man, but his ambitions are so grand that we cannot help
being impressed and we even feel sympathetic toward him. He represents the spirit of the
Renaissance, with its rejection of the medieval, God-centred universe and its embrace of human
possibility. Faustus, at least early on in his acquisition of magic, is the personification of possibility.
But Faustus also possesses an obtuseness that becomes apparent during his bargaining sessions with
Mephastophilis. Having decided that a pact with the devil is the only way to fulfil his ambitions,
Faustus then blinds himself happily to what such a pact actually means. Sometimes he tells himself
that hell is not so bad and that one needs only “fortitude”; at other times, even while conversing with
Mephastophilis, he remarks to the disbelieving demon that he does not actually believe hell exists.
Meanwhile, despite his lack of concern about the prospect of eternal damnation, Faustus is also beset
with doubts from the beginning, setting a pattern for the play in which he repeatedly approaches
repentance only to pull back at the last moment. Why he fails to repent is unclear: Sometimes it seems
a matter of pride and continuing ambition, sometimes a conviction that God will not hear his plea.
Other times, it seems that Mephastophilis simply bullies him away from repenting.
Bullying Faustus is less difficult than it might seem, because Marlowe, after setting his protagonist up
as a grandly tragic figure of sweeping visions and immense ambitions, spends the middle scenes
revealing Faustus’s true, petty nature. Once Faustus gains his long-desired powers, he does not know
what to do with them. Marlowe suggests that this uncertainty stems, in part, from the fact that desire
for knowledge leads inexorably toward God, whom Faustus has renounced. But, more generally,
absolute power corrupts Faustus: Once he can do everything, he no longer wants to do anything.
Instead, he traipses around Europe, playing tricks on yokels and performing conjuring acts to impress
Various heads of state. He uses his incredible gifts for what is essentially trifling entertainment. The
fields of possibility narrow gradually, as he visits ever more minor nobles and performs ever more
unimportant magic tricks, until the Faustus of the first few scenes is entirely swallowed up in
mediocrity. Only in the final scene is Faustus rescued from mediocrity, as the knowledge of his
impending doom restores his earlier gift of powerful rhetoric, and he regains his sweeping sense of
vision. Now, however, the vision that he sees is of hell looming up to swallow him. Marlowe uses
Much of his finest poetry to describe Faustus’s final hours, during which Faustus’s desire for
repentance finally wins out, although too late. Still, Faustus is restored to his earlier grandeur in his
closing speech, with its hurried rush from idea to idea and its despairing, Renaissance-renouncing last
line, “I’ll burn my books!” He becomes once again a tragic hero, a great man undone because his
ambitions have butted up against the law of God.
Q. 2. Discuss the play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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Ans. The Play-within-the Play: This play within a play is therefore used by Shakespeare to make a
subtle point about theatre, namely the fact that it is only acting. The Mechanicals like to perform a
play at Theseus’ wedding. Theseus is an enlightened ruler, notable for his wise judgement but there is
a limit to his abilities: The problem Egeus gives him seems incapable of solution, so he tries to buy
time and work on Egeus and Demetrius. But there seems little hope that the “harsh Athenian law” will
produce a solution acceptable to all parties.
In this play the apparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of the mechanicals-as-actors and
of Puck are restrained by the “sharp Athenian law” and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and
Oberon, and their respective consorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in its
construction: In performance it can at times seem riotous and out of control and yet the structure of
the play shows a clear interest in symmetry and patterning.
Confronted by the “sharp” law of Athens, and not wishing to obey it, Lysander thinks of escape. But
he has no idea that the wood, which he sees merely as a rendezvous before him and Hermia fly to his
aunt, has its own law and ruler. As Theseus is compromised by his own law, so is Oberon. Theseus
wishes to overrule Egeus, but knows that his own authority derives from the law, that this cannot be
set aside when it does not suit the ruler’s wishes. He does discover a merciful provision of the law
which Egeus has overlooked (for Hermia to choose “the livery of a nun”) but hopes to persuade
Demetrius to relinquish his claim, insisting that Hermia take time before choosing her fate. The
lovers’ difficulties are made clear by the law of Athens, but arise from their own passions: Thus, when
they enter the woods, they take their problems with them. Oberon is compromised because his quarrel
with Titania has caused him and her to neglect their duties: Oberon, who should rule firmly over the
entire fairy kingdom cannot rule in his own domestic arrangements. We see how each ruler, in turn,
resolves this problem, without further breaking of his law.
In the love relationships of Theseus and Hippolyta, of Oberon and Titania and of the two pairs of
young lovers, we see love which, in a manner appropriate to the status and character of the lovers, is
idealized eventually. The duke and his consort have had their quarrel before the action of the play
begins, but Shakespeare’s choice of mythical ruler means the audience well knows the “sword” and
“injuries” we see the resolution of the fairies’ quarrel and that of the lovers during the play and all is
happy at its end. But whereas the rulers resolve their own problems, as befits their maturity and status,
the young lovers are not able to do so, and this task is shared by Oberon and Theseus. Oberon orders
Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from harming each other and Theseus confirms their wishes as
he overbears Egeus’ will. He is not now breaking his own law, because Demetrius cannot be
compelled to marry against his will.
A ridiculous parallel case of young lovers so subject to passion that, after disobeying their parents’
law, they take their own lives, is provided by Pyramus and Thisbe. Lysander and Demetrius laugh at
the mechanicals’ exaggerated portrayal of these unfortunates, but the audience has seen the same
excessive passion in earnest from these two.

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If Lysander breaks – or evades – the Athenian law knowingly, then the mechanicals break the law of
the wood unwittingly. Puck’s conversation with the first fairy in 2.1, makes clear that the wood is
where Oberon and Titania keep their court, though they travel further afield. (Oberon, according to
Titania, has come “from the farthest steep of India” because of the marriage of his favourite to
Theseus, while the Fairy Queen has also been in India with the mother of her changeling.)
In the end we can conclude that the story of Pyramus and Thisbe offers a very subtle return to a
couple of the main elements of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Lovers caught up in misunderstanding
and sorrow enhanced by the darkness of night. Like the main story of the outer play, the inner play
consists of a tragic premise made comical by the actors. The craftsmen’s unintentionally goofy
portrayal of the woe of Pyramus and Thisbe makes the melodramatic romantic entanglements of the
young Athenian lovers seem even more comical.
However, it is important to recognize as well that the inherent structure of a play-within-a-play allows
Shakespeare to show off his talent by inserting a gem of pure comedy. The conflicts have been
resolved and a happy ending procured for all; the performance, thus, has no impact on the plot.
Rather, the craftsmen’s hilarious bungling of the heavy tragedy allows the audience, and the
melodramatic Athenian lovers, to laugh and take delight in the spectacle of the play.
Q. 3. What is the importance of Hamlet’s soliloquies in the play?
Ans. Shakespeare’s soliloquies in Hamlet differ radically from their common convention as in
essential speeches to augment audience understanding. On the contrary, they are just as important, if
not more so, as the segments where character interaction occurs. Without the soliloquies, the play
would be vacuous and sporadic. Highly dramatic, they give it momentum; propel it forward to new
and exciting levels by influencing plot, characterisation and mood, as well as expressing key themes.
This is primarily based on the fact that much of Hamlet involves a struggle with the self; there are
conflicts between characters, but there are also individual, existential, psychological conflicts.
Hamlet’s highly dramatic second and third soliloquies are two such arias. Hence, in Hamlet,
soliloquies should not be considered standalone speeches as they are integral to play action.
Hamlet’s soliloquies both influence are influenced by plot. It is through the soliloquies that the
intrinsic theme of Hamlet’s procrastination is extended and realised by the audience. If he did not
constantly remind us of his inaction through self-directed harangues, the audience would scarcely
notice his procrastination nor realise the extent to which he agonises over his inexplicable delay. The
first and second soliloquies function in bringing this to light. The former does this through Hamlet’s
violent criticism of himself– “I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall to make oppression bitter”–and at the
through revealing that doubt of the ghosts validity has weakened his purpose. In the second, Hamlet
contemplates how “enterprises of great pitch and moment” (as his resolution to avenge his father)
“lose their name of action” by thinking too much about them.
To examine the importance of soliloquies in terms of how they contribute to action, it is first
necessary to define the nature of this ‘action’. What must be understood is that Hamlet is largely a

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play about inaction. The plot centres on his persistent irresolution to fulfil his filial and moral duty. In
Hamlet’s second soliloquy, he begins “o, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” He compares his
dismal deficiency in passion to an actor, who had ‘tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect’ for a
work of fiction. More importantly, it is because of his soliloquies that action eludes him.
He is cursed with an excessive meditative faculty–by concentrating too much on whether or not he
should act, “the native hue of resolution is sickled over with the pale cast of thought”.
Action characteristically influences further action- It is a never-ending and overlapping sequence of
cause and effect. Hence, we should not consider soliloquies as isolated passages — but should
broaden the scope of analysis to judge how they act as a catalyst for future events. Hamlet makes a
profound decision to use a play to determine the validity of the ghost and “catch the conscience of the
king”. This decision leads to a vital turning point, and dictates the plots direction from there on. The
third soliloquy follows the second without any section in between where Hamlet interacts with other
characters. After indulging in this prolific amount of self-pity and arousing acute melancholy, his
abnormally violent reaction to Ophelia’s rejection is not so surprising- especially when he just
reflected on the ‘pangs of dipriz’d love.” Plot fluctuations hence are highly dependent on Hamlet’s
soliloquies and therefore play a significant role in the action of the play.
Hamlet’s character is filled out and further clarified through his soliloquies and hence the
interpretation of our hero very much depends on them. These intimate revelations permit the audience
to examine and discern Hamlet’s true emotions. On scrutiny by the entire kingdom, it is necessary to
constrain or disguise real feeling in the presence of others. One palpable impression that is portrayed
via his ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy is his fixation and yearning for death and conversely his disgust
at the banality of life. Melancholy has completely percolated his character, until existence seems
nothing but a ‘mortal coil’— something which ropes him down brutally to humanity in a useless
fleshy package.
While Hamlet reveals this repugnance earlier during his conversation with Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, his already pessimistic attitude has exacerbated since then, so that he teeters near the
brink of suicide. A release from the ‘whips’ ‘scorns’ ‘insolence’ and ‘pangs’ annexed to a ‘weary life’
has become something ‘devoutly to be wished’.
His sensitivity to the injustice in the world marks his idealistic desire for a moral world. Integrity is
especially important to him and he agonises over which is ‘nobler’; to endure life’s ills with patience,
or to ‘take arms’ against them in intrepid defiance. This value also links to his struggle to define
‘truth’. While some regard Hamlet as enigmatic and profound, others interpret Hamlet’s soliloquies as
little more than another example of extreme introversion.
Indeed, his mind lapses into disconsolate philosophizing whenever he is alone, complaining
unremittingly. We also realise how prone he is to making sweeping statements, using the pronouns
‘we’ and ‘us’, when his observations on human sociology appertain mainly to himself. This links to
the next passage, when he remarks to Ophelia that men are “arrant knaves, all of us”. Furthermore,

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Hamlet states death is “the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.” Depending
on how one interprets this line, it may reveal that Hamlet is prone to indulging in grandiose and
melodramatic axioms, without consulting memory first. For his father ‘returns’, at least in spirit, to
the mortal realm–he has witnessed the spectre himself. This tendency to give in to his dramatic side
links to his rash conflict with Laertes in the graveyard scene. Soliloquies are just as important to play
action as other sections because they illustrate crucial character features.
Hamlet’s soliloquies are vital in establishing the mood and themes of the play. Without the
soliloquies, Hamlet would remain an entertaining revenge drama. But that enigmatic and sordid
quality which suffuses the tragedy would be significantly diminished. The soliloquies, triggered by
self-doubt and distress at the corruption of Denmark, explore the dimensions of the human character
through Hamlet’s sordid contemplation. The play becomes a dense examination of how external
difficulties (the incestuous marriage between Hamlet’s mother and uncle, the ‘unweeded garden’ of
the Kingdom, the onus of forced revenge) affect man psychologically. We see the self-directed anger
and torment in his second soliloquy–
“I, a dull and muddy-metaled rascal, peak/ like a John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, and can say
nothing no, not for a king”.
A heart-wrenching hopelessness is also established. Hamlet knows that he has all the motive in the
world to kill
Claudius—the man murdered his father, married his mother and usurped his rightful position on the
throne. The spectre of his father’s spirit demanded revenge. And yet, he cannot act, and he doesn’t
know why. “Fie upon’it! Foh!” he explodes, when he realises that all his ranting on the “remorseless,
treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain” mean nothing in the end, because it achieves nothing.
Even through remarking on his procrastination, he is still procrastinating. The third soliloquy is
structured similarly to a scholar’s argument; but the subject of this contention is weighty - ‘to be, or
not to be’. To live, or to die. He desires the latter, but, a ‘coward’, fearful of ‘what dreams May come’
after death, he resigns himself to life. This theme of death hangs over the entire play; we see Hamlet’s
ideas develop on it later during the graveyard scene. Soliloquies affect the mood of the entire play and
are thus part of the action.
Hamlet’s soliloquies constitute a crucial and dramatic part of play dynamics. Often highly intimate,
they do not merely reflect on the plays general happenings, but are interwoven into the action. Acting
as portals into Hamlet’s psyche, they establish crucial elements of character. Furthermore, they are
infinitely important in the interpretation of plot, especially through exploring the theme of Hamlet’s
procrastination. The tumultuous state of his mind affects and explains some of his following actions.
Additionally, important decisions are made which steer the course of the play.
The fact that psychological action is part of the physical action means that the mood of the play
becomes more complex. If the audience weren’t privy to the hero’s agonising thoughts, no doubt the
play would have only half the reputation it holds today.

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Q. 4. What are the comic strategies used in The Playboy of the Western World?
Ans. Comic Strategies: Most of the characters in the play make us laugh because of their absurdities
or weakness. Drunkenness is most often amusing and we here have four heavy drunkards-Michael
James, Philly, Jimmy and Old Mahon. Michael and his friends make it a point to go to a wake in order
to drink the free liquor that is served there. Old Mahon once drank himself almost to a state of
paralysis when he was in the company of Limerick girls. Cowardice is another comic trait. Shawn
Keogh of Killakeen amuses us not only by his refusal to fight Christy but by refusing even to feel
jealous of “a man did slay his da.”
The dialogue in the play too is a source of rich comedy. Leaving aside a few speeches which may
momentarily depress us or put us in a serious mood, the rest of the dialogue amuses us greatly. The
verbal duel between Pegeen and Widow Quin is one of the comic highlights of the play. Widow Quin
slanders Pegeen by saying that the latter goes “helter-skeltering” after any man who winks at her on a
road and Pegeen accuses the widow of having reared a ram at her own breast. Then there are the
satirical remarks Pegeen makes to Shawn. She tells him that he is the kind of lover who would remind
a grit of a bullock’s liver rather than of the lily or the rose. And then she ironically advises him to find
for himself a wealthy wife who looks radiant with “the diamond jewelleries of Pharaoh’s ma.
The Playboy as an extravagant comedy and bildungsroman in drama
The Playboy of the Western World is a comedy with satiric and tragic elements. Synge wanted his
audience to laugh at his characters, but he also wanted the audience to notice their humanity—for they
have their faults and defects. The people who frequent Flaherty’s country tavern are stuck in a boring
corner of Ireland. But except for Christy Mahon, they do nothing to improve their lot. Even Pegeen
Flaherty—an attractive and intelligent young woman who is full of spirit—fails to extricate herself
from the humdrum life of rural Mayo County. The reader is led to believe at the end of the play that
she will end up with the spineless lout Shawn Keough for her husband. As stated in the section on
Title the play was originally meant to be a farce. The action of the play was to begin with the fight
between father and son in the potato garden in which the son was to hit the father with a try and run
away and to end with his exposure just as he is elected Country Councillor in Mayo. The central
situation was the growth of a monstrous lie and the exposure of the braggart.
A tragic-comedy is a play which claims a plot apt for tragedy but which ends happily like a comedy.
The action seems to end in a tragic catastrophe until an unexpected turn in events brings out the happy
ending. In such a play tragic and comic elements are mixed up together. The play Playboy of the
Western World ends in comedy though it might have well ended as a tragedy.
In one mood we may suggest that Playboy of the Western World is sheer extravagant comedy, with
elements of strong farce in the resurrection of Christy’s father and in the deflation of a boastful man.
As such, it embodies the classic elements of reversal and recognition. And yet it is a comedy which
ends unhappily for Pegeen who is unable to marry Christy, The Playboy. Another way of looking at
this play is to regard it as a satirical comedy. It is a satire on the proverbial willingness of the West to

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give shelter to the criminal and murderer. In that case Christy, The Playboy, becomes a comic
Oedipus, the man who killed his father.
A comedy is any dramatic presentation where “tragedy is avoided.” There are many subgenres: Farce,
romantic comedy, satire, social comedy, etc.
A “Dark” comedy refers to those stories that do not avoid serious subjects but that overcome them by
their denouement (Arsenic and Old Lace comes to mind). On the other hand, such comedies as
Shakespeare’s Midsummer
Night’s Dream are never “dark”—such complications as donkey heads, mistaken identities and the
like remove this play from “darkness.” Playboy is, on one level, a romantic comedy in which young
people flirt, etc. But what makes it a “dark” comedy is the dramatic suggestion that The Playboy
might really have killed his “da”; then, in the final complication, when his father “returns, alive,” that
darkness is lifted, and the “prodigal son” motif takes its place. The changes in the isolated Irish
society he temporarily invaded are of a melancholic, heavy-hearted kind, but tragedy was clearly
“avoided.”
Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World” is a dark comedy that explores what it is we value in our
heroes. Christy, a man who allegedly killed his father, saunters into town and tell his gory story in
mock humility. The women were the first to show him special attention. They adore Christy because
he represents danger and excitement, any girl’s dream, compared to the dull, pious men like Shawn.
Then the men begin to have respect for him, because he has done something they have all desired to
do in a moment of rage. Pegeen even admires Christy’s feet; when he take off his boots she is
“standing beside him, watching him with delight. What normally would cause a person to look away
in disgust is now a subject of appeal.
At first, we were baffled by the quick admiration of someone who had done something wrong. Instead
of fearing danger, these people began to go out of their way to please this man. Then we compared
Christy to our modern celebrities. Everyone loves a scandal, and it seems that if sometimes the crime
can be overlooked if the story is intriguing enough. Take for instance Roman Polanski. He left
America because of the charges of sex with a young girl, just like Christy left his town because he
feared the peelers were looking for him. However, in a new town, he found refuge just like Polanski
did in Europe. Widow Quin leaves vague answers and sets Christy’s father on the wrong path to
protect Christy, just as Switzerland is doing with Polanski. It is morbid that our culture can make a
hero out of a murderer or a rapist, but Synge accurately shows that we do. Another reason people
might adore Christy is because he resembles a Christ figure. First, he goes by the nickname Christy,
which is only one letter off from Christ. He is wandering the roads, relying on the hospitality of others
for a meal or shelter. Then, the brood of young women walked “four miles to be listening” to
Christy’s story the same way people would travel for miles to hear Jesus teach. The girls brought
gifts, which reflect the story of the woman who broke the alabaster jar of perfume at Jesus’ feet. At
one point, Christy says “I’m handy with ewes”.

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Jesus was often called the Good Sheppard and this is an allusion to that. The one example of Christy’s
Similarity to Christ that leaps of the page is when Shawn says “I’d near have courage to come behind
him and run a pike into his side”. This is an allusion to the crucifixion, when a pike is jabbed into
Christ’s side to make sure he dies. Christy also has the saviour quality, because he saved these people
from monotony and boredom, if only for a few days.
Q. 5. Comment on the title of Look Back in Anger.
Ans. The Title of the Play: The title refers to the characters’ attitudes towards their lives in general,
but Jimmy’s in particular. It tells us about a complex love triangle which involves an intelligent but
disaffected young man, Jimmy Porter, the main protagonist in the whole story, his upper class,
impassive wife, Alison and her best friend, Helena, which furthers complicate the entire story. Jimmy
Porter, the main character, shows a thought provoking character with immense psychological
complexity and interest, dominating the whole play completely with his fuelled power of his anger
and his language. “Anger” is the right word to describe his character as he hated a lot of people,
including Helena and his wife, Alison, Alison’s mother, brother and a whole lot bunch of friends and
always vent his anger and ire on them, sometimes hurling nasty and disturbing insults towards them.
He hated them due to their social ranking in the power hierarchy, her social standing and is well
brought-up “upbringing”. “Looking back” is what makes Jimmy so furious and frustrated when he
looks back to the past during the Spanish Civil War at World War Two, which he witnessed the
horrors and psychological scarring of War. When he was ten years old, he watched his idealist father
died due to complications of his wounds for a year during his fight for democracy, so he lashes out his
anger on everyone due to his helplessness and his vulnerability. He also hates the class system in the
country, where the built-in preferential for those of the rich and the famous and the top of the world,
the higher-ranking people to those people at the lower end which were excluded from all power and
privileges and have no say in anything, that makes Jimmy’s existence on earth seems not worthwhile
and meaningless.
He also hates his loved ones as they didn’t want to fully commit to love and refuses to have strong
feelings with him, preferring to have it “low-key” relationship, and also at the society which doesn’t
fulfil promises of windows of opportunity and good fortunes, all the white-lies bastards that Jimmy
hate for deceiving the gullible and innocent victims of outrage brainwashing and deception. He also
deplored the higher social ranking people in the social and power structure who sits smugly in their
sits and whom do not leave a helping hand or a guiding light to the less fortunate and those below
them and prefers to be self-centred, caring for their own welfare and not of others.
All the plays outlined above share certain common themes or concerns. The most important among
them is the repeated interrogation of the solitary individual and his or her relation (usually rebellious)
to various forms of authority,
The nature of authority, whether social, political, religious, familial or that of a particular morality,
invariably takes second place to the consideration of how it affects the individual. The idea of ‘the

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authority of a particular morality’ needs some elaboration here and opens up the concern with
morality that I think is the other major common one in
Osborne’s work.
The major theme of Look Back in Anger is social protest. Osborne probed into personal relationships
and bared their social determinants (Weiss 286). Actually, drama is an ideal genre to represent social
and individual oppositions:
It can simply show what is going on in the society in turmoil at the same time that it allows more than
one emotional response to these intellectually unprocessed human facts. It is by nature ironic. Drama
is thus ideally the medium of social as opposed to individual negative capability, it can resist irritable
teachings after fact and theory; and thus carry forward the uneconomical dialogue of self-
interpretation that is the cultural role of art which is not merely upholding and disciplining received
attitudes. Heilpern indicated what made Look Back in Anger so thrillingly new in the 1950s: “It was
the first British play that openly dramatized bruising emotion and it was the first to give the alienated
lower classes and youth of England a weapon.” Osborne saw his play as a weapon with which
ordinary people could breakdown the class barriers. Those social and individual issues were not
Osborne’s only new theme: He gave a sweeping nature to the angry attacks of his protagonist and he
also infringed a lot of social and sexual taboos.

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