Teachers Training College

English History and Literature of the 20th Century

Final Paper

Author:

Anger on the Stage

Since 8 May 1956, a different form of drama showed a reversal in the established theatrical tradition.
Look Back in Anger became the most influential expression of postwar youth that began to transform
the British theatre with its peculiar characters. The anger of its protagonist Jimmy Porter outlines the
state of the British lower middle class and his rancour caught the audience’s eye. Alongside other
writers, its author John Osborne was considered an ‘angry young man’ who voiced the disillusion of
the working people and who rejected “official” attitudes. The marital conflicts between Jimmy Porter
and his wife Alison, which arise from Jimmy’s sense of their social difference and which parallels the
life of Osborne, bring about some incidents (Drabble and Stringer, 2007).

Much of Europe was in ruins when the Second War ended. Particularly London was pitted and
scarred. Fire bombs and high explosives damaged whole districts. Glasgow, Coventry, Canterbury,
Bristol, Portsmouth and Exeter bore signs of blasted buildings. The ruin of Great Britain itself mirrored
the broken lives and spirits. Besides, the granting of independence to the colonies in the Pacific, the
West Indies, Africa and Asia possibly left the nation resented, deprived and drained by the effort that
had been needed for fighting the war. Everyone shared the victory as well as the misery (Sanders,
1993). The lower class was probably the most affected, especially the young. Social and individual
opposition were voiced on the stage turning theatre on a weapon. Look Back in Anger reveals the
turmoil of society and evokes emotional responses to human facts that have not been processed
(Kaufman in Goethals, 2011).

There emerged in Britain in the 1950s the literary movement voicing the generation of
discontented young men who reacted against the establishment. John Osborne is a major exponent of
the anti-theatre which disobeys the rules of dramaturgy and his work bears a highlighted disagreement.
George Fearon, the press officer where the play was first performed, called Osborne an ‘angry young
man’ (Little, McLaughin in Goethals, 2011). The English Stage Company launched performances with
similar spirit and the critics referred to their authors as the ‘Angry Young Men’, borrowing Fearon’s
term. The movement was not restricted to drama though, the novels of Kingley Amis, John Waine and
John Braine bear the same tone. The common ground was that those authors lived in a decadent age
of economic weakness and poverty. The Labour Party failed in meeting the Nation’s housing and also
split in a left and a right wing (Skovman in Goethals). To make matters worse, the Suez crisis of 1956
added strong disappointment. It turned into a conflict between Israel, Britain and France against Egypt
which was forced to end as Britain and France could not control the canal. This meant ‘the loss of
Britain’s prestige’ (Goethals). It was an age of no public commitment and of absence of sociopolitical
enthusiasm. Among the working classes, frustration prevailed. The ‘Angry Young Men’ were usually
of the left wing. Most of the heroes in their works are displaced persons in English society who don’t
belong to anyone and show dissatisfaction with the past, economic uncertainty and money problems.
Osborne became the writer mainly responsible for the popularity of the term (Cuddon, 1999).

The troubled relationship between the characters replicates postwar England and exposes the
theme of social protest. Jimmy is the hero of the lower class who brings the upper class woman Alison
to his animal level. Alison’s best friend Helena begins a relationship with Jimmy after he broke up
with Alison. The play ends with Helena’s departure motivated by her being ashamed of the interference
with her friend’s marriage. Jimmy and Alison reconcile the moment he finds out that her attitude has
altered after she had a miscarriage. Not less important is the character of Jimmy’s confidant Cliff. He
shares the shabby flat with the couple and is “a personification of the working classes” (Skovman in
Goethals, 21). The fifth character is Colonel Redfern, Alison’s father. He served in India in the foreign
front and when he comes back to Britain feels he has not acted in accord with the changed society.
Outrage at the discovery that the idealized Britain was unreal although many had sacrificed themselves
is plain and Jimmy Porter gets sick of that.

The great intensive role of the leading protagonist has been influenced by Osborne’s own life.
The author’s childhood had been unsteady and conflictive. His sister died of tuberculosis when he was
two and he often suffered from health affections. His father Thomas Godfrey Osborne passed away
when John was ten. At school he was frequently bullied but despite the violent environment he grew
up in, started to write poetry and short stories. He was self-educated and adapted his cockney accent
to be part of the middle class. His interest in drama was aroused since childhood as his parents usually
took him to theatre. Osborne was an excellent student and a rebel as well, being expelled from school
at the age of fourteen after hitting his headmaster Mr Heffer who disapproved of John’s falling in love
with his niece. He became an actor in 1948 but only got minor roles. He compensated his failure by
writing great incisive roles for leading male parts with monologues of blistering contempt (Goethals,
2011) Jimmy Porter is the vocal protester and anti-hero of the play who expresses the mood of the
‘angry young man’. His character portrays a type of incompetent, tactless kind of person, “he is a
disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty; restless,
importunate, full of pride …” (Look Back in Anger, Act I, p. 1).

The character of Alison, the well-bred colonel’s daughter who ends up as the wife of resented
Jimmy, is inspired on Pamela Lane, Osborne’s first wife. In 1951 they acted together, fell in love and
married that same year. Subsequently, Pamela got pregnant but went through spontaneous abortion.
Alison and Pamela were pretty and both evaded their husbands; despite their parents’ disapproval, they
both married. Pamela’s parents hired a detective to track Osborne. They tried to convince Pamela that
John was having an affair with a homosexual actor but this only made the couple’s bond stronger. In
a letter to his friend, the actor Anthony Creighton, Osborne mentions Pamela’s mother considering his
long hair, face, affectedness and oddity as hints of effeminacy. Jimmy refers to a similar incident:

Mummy may look over-fed and a bit flabby on the outside, but don’t let that well-bred guzzler fool you (…). Let
me give you an example of this lady’s tactics. You may have noticed that I happen to wear my hair rather long.
Now, if wife is honest, or concerned enough to explain, she could tell you that this is not due to any dark, unnatural
instincts I possess, because (a) I can usually think of better things than a haircut to spend two bob on, and (b) I
 prefer long hair. But that obvious, innocent explanation didn’t appeal to Mummy at all. So she hires detectives to
watch me… (Look Back in Anger, p. 53)

The author’s confidant Creighton provided lodging in his own flat as the couple could not
afford a place to live. Osborne gave Creighton the nickname of “mouse”, Cliff is as well compared
with it:

Jimmy (pointing at Cliff) He gets more like a little mouse everyday, doesn’t he? (…) He really does look like
one. Look at those ears, and that face, and the little short legs. (pp. 28-29)

The Second War and decolonization left the sour tastes of nonfulfillment and discontent.
Contemporary England was put on stage and theatre became a weapon for the alienated lower classes
and youth. Look Back in Anger altered the traditional theatre displaying a different setting than the
usual kind. The image of the neat society portrayed in ‘the well-made play’ was displaced. Audiences
were struck by the use of the alarming language and representations of antagonistic personalities
quarrelling in a bed-sitter. The author’s instinctive leftishness combined with autobiographical
elements presents postwar younger generation as it really is.

Bibliography

Cuddon, John Anthony. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London and New York:
Penguin, 1999.

Drabble, Margaret and Jenny Stringer. Oxford Concise Companion to English Literature. Oxford:
OUP, 2007.

Goethals, Thijs. Comparative Study of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger and Mark Ravenhill’s
Shopping and F*cking. Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
“Master in the Taal-en Letterkunde: Enge” 2011.

Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger. London: Faber and Faber, 1960.

Sanders, Andrew. “Post-War and Post-Modern Literature”, in The Short Oxford History of English
Literature. Oxford: Calendon Press – Oxford, 1993.