Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger points to the social anxieties of the post-war period. Explain. / Describe the character of Jimmy Porter.

Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger points to the social anxieties of the post-war period. Explain. / Describe the character of Jimmy Porter.

 Look Back in Anger has generally been regarded as an expression of the mood of disillusionment, frustration, and rebelliousness of Post-War youth and Jimmy Porter has been regarded as the spokesman of that Post-War generation. The play is a protest against contemporary society. Jimmy seems to be a rebel against the society which had betrayed the young people and against an older generation which had left the younger people down. Jimmy feels that society has not treated him according to his desires. He is a university graduate but he is running a sweet- stall. Of course, nobody has compelled him to run a sweet stall, but he is already tried his hand at various other occupation as well and has not been able to achieve much success in any. He therefore, finds himself adrift, and is leading a purposeless existence. He finds his Sundays to be depressing because they offer him the same routine- reading the newspapers, drinking tea, ironing the clothes. Even his playing upon the trumpet is just a kind of escape from his boredom. He finds both his wife and his friend to be utterly devoid of any life, animation, or enthusiasm.

Jimmy as a true representative of Post-War generation youth is also a rebel against the class- distinctions of which he found himself to be a victim. Alison’s parents had fiercely opposed Alison’s marriage to him, and that opposition has left bitter memories of them in his mind. Alison, though now his wife, still reminds him of the middle class from which she has come. Her continuing to correspond with her mother means that she is to that extent on the side of his enemy, namely, the middle class. He therefore, keeps talking not only in a sarcastic and condemnatory manner about Alison’s parents and Alison herself, but in a most offensive and insulting manner. Helena too in the beginning is a red rag to him because she is another representative of the arrogant middle class.

 Like Post- War generation youth Jimmy finds nothing in politics to attract him. Nigel, Alison’s brother, is a politician and Jimmy thinks that man to be devoid of any worth. Nigel, in his opinion, is vague and hazy in his knowledge of things, and yet he is aspiring to become a cabinet minister, and Nigel is sure to attain his ambition, too! He describes both Nigel and Alison as being sycophantic, phlegmatic and pusillanimous. One of the reasons why he condemns Helena is that she is an expert in the new economics - “the economics of the Supernatural”. He calls her one of those share- pushers who are spreading all those rumours about a transfer of power. She belongs to the category of romantic people who spend their time mostly “looking forward to the past” and who see the light only in the Dark Ages...............................................................................

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