Painting an Image of Britain in the Fifties:

A Literary Analysis of the treatment of generational divisions in

Arnold Wesker’s Roots and in Errol John’s Moon on a Rainbow Shawl

A play’s power lies in its ability to digest the reality of its time. Many

playwrights in the fifties aimed at constructing works that presented the societal

issues of Britain at the time. As a time period, 1950s Britain was a country that

had not yet made a full infrastructural recovery from the devastation of World

War Two. Cities remained scarred and the military presence was ever prevalent

as men were conscripted for at least two years of service (Quinault, Roland).

Furthermore, the period saw a time where Britain’s imperialism though ever

present began to fade, as territories such as India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon

were granted independence. Post war Britain also saw increased developments

in the feminist movement. Also, In order for the economy to regrow after the

effects of war, the government encouraged immigrant labour forces from

overseas territories such as India, Pakistan and the Caribbean to be introduced in

Britain (Gov.uk). All these influences contributed to a society that saw rapid

differences in social and cultural relationships from generation to generation. It

was issues such as these that inspired the provocative and powerful writing of

Arnold Wesker in his play Roots(1958) and Errol John in his play Moon on a

Rainbow Shawl(1957)(Henceforth referred to as Moon). Wesker follows several

weeks in the life of Beatie Bryant, a girl from a working class Norfolk family in

1958, and the interactions with her family as she prepares them to meet her

middle class socialist fiancée, Ronnie (Seymour, Charlotte). As the play unfolds,

Beatie comes to see that she spends her days regurgitating the fresh and higher

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class ideas of her lover without truly understanding them, illuminating the

constraining effects ones upbringing can have on ones knowledge development.

Errol John in his play Moon delves into several days in the lives of the inhabitants

of two adjacent buildings separated by a small yard in the Port of Spain in

Trinidad, and the complex and claustrophobic lives of its residents as they

grapple with their own struggles in the new post war era. In both plays, through

each playwright’s diligent application of innocent youthful characters, revelatory

stage directions, and a worrying denouement, both express the generational

divisions and issues that pervaded British society during the 1950s.

In Roots, Beatie is characterised throughout as a young woman of the next

generation who engages with the world with curiosity, illuminating her

innocence compared to her parents. Upon her entrance in act 1, she is

immediately described as “an ample, blonde, healthy faced young woman of

twenty two years”(Wesker 9) in comparison to her “short” and “fat”(Wesker 7)

looking sister and brother in law Jenny and Jimmy. The contrast between the

“healthy looking” appearance of Beatie and the other characters in the scene

illuminates that she has been exposed to a better quality of life than Wesker’s

other characters, suggesting that she has better hopes for the future. Later in the

same scene, the audience sees how Beatie is a character heavily influenced by

others, suggesting she lacks a developed opinion and personality of her own.

When talking about Ronnie’s opinions of her own reading choices, Beatie

childishly resorts to imitating him, exclaiming, “Christ, woman what can they

give you that you can be so absorbed?’ So you know what I used to do? I used to

get a copy of the Manchester guardian and sit with that”(Wesker 11). Though

Ronnie is never physically seen onstage, he is heard through Beatie, who

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breathes life into his words through imitation. In this way, Wesker elucidates

how through her own innocence Ronnie exerts his own presence and power

through Beatie. Furthermore the fact that Beatie obediently adheres to Ronnie’s

demand of changing her reading habitats illuminates her own credulous

personality that is easily moulded by the influential personality of her fiancée.

Therefore, Beatie is regarded by Wesker as the young new generation that lives

in different ways to the previous one.

However, in the critical work of Susan Mandala, she argues that “the

extent to which Beatie quotes Ronnie has been greatly overstated”(Mandala,

Susan). Mandala goes on to explicate how 80.51% of Beatie’s dialogue are her

own, illuminating how as a character she does exert her own independence over

characters such as Ronnie (Mandala, Susan). However, despite this revelation,

she agrees that “the use of these devices[imitation] is not unimportant. They

allow Beatie to not only report Ronnie’s views, but to express her

doubts”(Mandala, Susan). Therefore while there are moments where Beatie

exerts blind compliance as seen earlier in the plays development, it is clear that

as the plot develops as does Beatie express her own individuality and growth as

a character, expressing her transition into the next generation of British women.

In a similar fashion, Errol John’s play Moon utilises the character of Esther

as a symbol of innocence and youth to bring into question how the new

generation’s lives will change during the course of the post-war era. As a young

girl, Esther grows up in a world where women are conditioned to be submissive

homemakers and black people are racially profiled. These two qualities are

issues that Esther is as yet not consciously aware of. Her mother, Sophia,

attempts to home school her by teaching needlework— a common skill expected

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of women at the time, exclaiming “yer finished yer needlework, Esther?” The girl

responds “No,Ma”, before Sophia commands her to “Haul yerself inside and finish

it”(John 36). While her mother attempts to school her in the expectations for

women of her time, Esther remains disinterested in learning how to be a

housewife, and remains curious of the world around her. The fact that she is not

taught any educational content illuminates her poverty and the expectations

placed on women at the time. Yet her initial resistance to these paradigms

conveys how Esther is a symbol for the next generation that aims to live

differently to the women before her. However, despite the initial indications of

her resilience to the current gender roles, in a similar fashion to Wesker’s play

John is quick to reveal Esther’s childish innocence. In the end of the scene, while

the plays action alludes to the key conflict between Charlie and Rosa where she

is aware that he stole money from the cash register, John underscores this tense

moment with Esther “Run[ning] out after Janette”(John 42) to play shouting “you

can’t catch me” and “yes I can!”(John 42). The playful diction illuminates the

infantilising atmosphere created by the children playing that juxtaposes the

dramatic action occurring on other areas of the stage. By creating these two

moments simultaneously, John polarises the two worlds of one generation and

the next, demonstrating that while Esther is potentially part of the new

generation of women, as of yet she remains but an innocent child unaware of the

internal conflicts around her.

In a review by writer Kate Kellaway, she compares Sophia and her

daughter, arguing that it is the mother’s expectations and the lack of opportunity

that leads to Sophia being a character “exhausted” and

“vulnerable”(Kellaway,Kate). Also, escape from her life at this point seems “but a

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pipe dream”(Kellaway,Kate). In contrast to the lack of opportunity in her

impoverished life, Kellaway goes on to state that Esther “embodies

hope”(Kellaway,Kate) of a better educated life. Such notions of a daughter having

the opportunity to better education than her mother is mirrored in Wesker’s

Roots between Beatie and her own mother, Mrs Bryant. Therefore, such a theme

conveys the feelings of hope in Britain, in particular for young women at the time

that opportunities are around the corner for the next generation.

In Roots, stage directions are applied to further the dramatic action of the

play and to create emphasis on Beatie’s views that contrast those of her parents,

revealing the divisions of generations. In act 2, Beatie attempts to teach her

mother some of the higher culture that Ronnie has introduced her to. Beatie

“puts on record Bizet’s L'Artésienne Suite”(Wesker 56) which plays out into the

audience. As the song plays, Beatie becomes more and more excited at the

prospect that she is opening her mother’s eyes to the higher arts. This is

illuminated in the stage directions that describe “the music becomes fast and

her[Beatie] spirits are young and high”(Wesker 56). In contrast to her mother,

Beatie feels lifted by the music and she dances along to it, elucidating how it is

through music that she has found a new perspective and meaning within her life.

However, Mrs. Bryant does not share her sentiment, limited by the constrains of

her own lack of education, referring to any form of music as “squit”(Wesker 56)

as she sees herself as only “country folk”(Wesker 56) that have no business

exploring higher culture. Thus, the musicality in the stage directions highlights to

the audience the opposing ideals of the protagonist and her mother,

foreshadowing how Britain’s next generation will become culturally superior to

the previous one.

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 While stage directions are also applied by Errol John in his play to unearth

the contrast between generations, in the context of the play they serve to expose

the lack of opportunity for Sophia at the time, and the desire for Esther to find

opportunities for a better life. The stage directions describing the set are

exemplary of the confining nature of the world within which John’s characters

reside. The playwright is specific in the requirements of the setting in his notes,

depicting “two dilapidated buildings” where “It should be possible to see clearly

through Ephraim's room into the alley beyond” and “this structure should

dominate, like some tall phantom, the two lowly dwellings in the yard”(John).

This setting is the home of Sophia and her family, one she has spent her life in.

The imposing images of crumbling structures winding into a courtyard creates a

sense of claustrophobia. By being so explicit in his directions John aims at

creating the prison with which Sophia must live out her days. However, while

Sophia remains trapped to make a life of that place, Esther hopes to escape it. In

one of the climactic moments of the play, when Charlie is arrested, Esther,

exerting her anger, “screams hysterically at her mother and runs off along the

street”(John 84) exiting the stage. The yard is symbolic for the world of low

culture and low education that Sophia comes from. By Esther—a symbol for the

next generation fleeing from the yard, this emphasizes her desire to move away

from the life of her family to find a better standard of living for herself in the

future. Hence, Both playwrights address changes in opportunities for the new

generation, illuminating that there is the potential for the young to fair better

than their elders.

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 A key point in every play is the denouement, the final moments of the play

that gives the audience a lasting impression. Both Playwrights utilize

denouements that finalize the polarity between the two generations, but also

convey that there remain obstacles for the young to overcome if they are to

succeed where the previous generation failed. In Roots, the play concludes with

Ronnie and Beatie’s relationship ending as he feels that she does not truly engage

with the higher art in the same way he does. However, in the final lines of the

play, Beatie realizes that despite Ronnie’s beliefs, she has been awoken to the

obliviousness of the working class as she exclaims “D'you hear that? D'you hear

it? Did you listen to me? I'm talking. Jenny, Frankie, Mother – I'm not quoting no

more”(Wesker 77). Yet despite her revelation, her entire family remains

oblivious to their own ignorance, as Wesker writes in the stage directions

“Whatever she will do they will continue to live as before. As Beatie stands alone,

articulate at last”(Wesker 77). Therefore, whilst there is some fulfillment in that

Beatie has proven that she can engage with higher-class ideologies and issues

and is therefore intellectually superior to her parents, she will not be recognized

for it. Therefore the denouement creates an air of isolation for Beatie, she “is

articulate at last” and yet there is no one around to hear her.

In the analysis of Jacqueline Latham, she assesses the end of the play,

stating: “When Beatie has received Ronnie's letter ending their relationship and

she admits that she has learnt as little from Ronnie as her mother has learnt from

her, Mrs. Bryant cries triumphantly, "The apple don't faIl far from the tree."

Beatie is the apple drawing her life from her roots, and when in the last minutes

of the play she becomes truly articulate, speaking in her own voice and not

Ronnie's, the audience must see that her roots are in her family”(Latham,

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Jacqueline). She later states that “The Bryants are part of the cycle of growth,

fruition, and death” (Latham, Jacqueline). Latham’s exploration of Wesker’s

allusion to nature is important, as it highlights a key aspect to the plays

conclusion that is not initially obvious. As Beatie is a product of her upbringing

ultimately, her triumph also belongs to her family, as it illuminates that the gap

between the working and middle class in Britain at the time can be bridged. It is

through her family that Beatie learns to be articulate both linguistically and

intellectually, meaning that the action of her gaining her individuality of mind is

a product of a step by step process that began with her roots— her own family.

Hence, though the play’s denouement is alarming to an audience, the ultimate

hope is that over time it is possible for collective knowledge to grow.

Similarly to Wesker’s work, John in Moon utilizes a tense and climactic

denouement to offer one glimmer of hope in a moment of despair, revealing the

hope for the next generation to escape the current constraints of Trinidadian

society. The end scenes tension builds as Ephraim leaves a pregnant Rosa for

Britain where he hopes to build a life for himself. However, despite the deep

sorrow present in the scene, hope returns as “Esther comes in along the

alley”(John 93) exclaiming “maah”(John 93) giving “the impression that the

future could still be hers”(John 93). After disappearing in act 2, the imminent

return of Esther to her mother demonstrates that while all other characters

remain suppressed by the world they live in, Esther remains to fight for a future

that will be better than the present life of her family. By giving Esther the last

line, John aims to demonstrate that what transpires after the closure of the

curtain belongs to Esther, and it is she that now holds the hope for her family.

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 However, while much like in Roots John offers shades of hope for the

youthful girl, the playwright also wishes for his audience to consider with

skepticism that so too is Esther’s failure possible. One of the plays most famous

songs, Brown Skin Gal, is a song played in Act 1 scene 2 that haunts the rest of the

plays action. The song sung by Felix Cross, creates an infantilizing and lyrical

atmosphere that juxtaposes the true meaning behind the lyrics. The key line is

“Brown skin girl, stay home and mind baby”(Lennon, Anthony Ekundayo) that

suggests that the only role for women is to be homemakers that have children

and are then deserted to raise them alone. The audience sees that this fate befalls

Rosa, and cannot help but fear that such is the malicious and reductive nature of

the current social climate that Esther may succumb to a similar fate.

Overall, through the innocent characters, revelatory stage directions and

tense denouements both Wesker and John succeed in highlighting the

opportunity and knowledge divisions between old and new generations seen in

British society during the 1950s. While both plays are set in separate

geographical contexts, what links them together is the nature by which British

society was changing in the 1950s. Ultimately what both plays illuminate is that

progression through the generations is a slow, grueling and arduous process. Yet

it is through the unheard voices such as those seen in both Roots and Moon being

heard that one can see the progression of social liberation and intellectual

development over the course of a single life span.

Word Count: 2736

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 Works Cited:
John, Errol. Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Faber and Faber London, 1975.

Kellaway, Kate. “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl; Can We Talk about This?;

Shivered – Review.” The Observer, Guardian News and Media, 17 Mar. 2012,
www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/mar/18/moon-rainbow-shawl-talk-about-shivered.

Latham, Jacqueline. “Roots: A Reassessment.” Modern Drama, University of

Toronto Press, 3 July 2013, muse.jhu.edu/article/498269.

Lennon, Anthony Ekundayo. “National Theatre Learning: Moon on a

Rainbow Shawl.” Cloudfront.net, Edited by Emma Gosden and Mark Londesborough.

Mandala, Susan. Twentieth-Century Drama Dialogue as Ordinary Talk:

Speaking between the Lines. Ashgate, 2007, books.google.co.uk/books?
id=uoSZQfGWHoIC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=innocence+in+wesker's+roots&sou
rce=bl&ots=8NesrJm9iR&sig=i4CtS5DWZUrQfNH8jBXIj3alf80&hl=en&sa=X&ve
d=0ahUKEwi77JCd_s_XAhVpLsAKHZT9BhEQ6AEIWTAK#v=onepage&q=beatie
&f=false.

Quinault, Roland. “Britain 1950.” Britain 1950 | History Today, History

Today, www.historytoday.com/roland-quinault/britain-1950.

“Race Relations Act.” Gov.uk, The National Archives, 1 Jan. 1968,

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/immigration.ht
m.
Seymour, Charlotte. “A Timeless Play About Self-Discovery: Roots at the
Donmar Warehouse.” Litro Magazine Stories Transport You, 7 Nov. 2013,
www.litro.co.uk/2013/11/a-timeless-play-about-self-discovery-roots-at-the-donmar-
warehose/.

Wesker, Arnold. Roots. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. Drama Online,

www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/roots-iid-161186/do-9781472525581-div-
00000013.

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