John Osborne’s monumental play Look Back in Anger features a complicated script full of complicated characters. There’s Jimmy, a musician in his mid-twenties mired by his relationship with his wife, Alison, who has recently become pregnant. The couple resides with Cliff, a self-taught man of the same age who is “a soothing, natural counterpoint to Jimmy” (10). Conflict heightens when Alison’s friend Helena, a righteous woman of what would be considered the ‘middle class’ in England, arrives and later replaces Alison as Jimmy’s lover. Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger with a keen sense of binaries that interrelate the lead character, Jimmy, with the others throughout the play-he illustrates the struggle of nature vs. culture; past vs. present; and solidarity vs. companionship through this angry young man.
Conflict is simmering as soon as the curtain rises-Jimmy and Cliff read there papers in awkward silence while Alison keeps to herself, ironing clothes. Jimmy and Cliff argue over the day’s news, with most of the arguments consisting of Jimmy remarking on the absurdity of the present state of society. Although Jimmy is the more educated of the two, Cliff consistently strives for a reassuring sense of satisfaction regarding English culture. Jimmy comes off as rather primitive; he prefers to rely on his instinctive nature to alienate those close to him through his anger. Still, there’s a good reason for his anger: although he is naturally talented musically, he is forced to work a candy stand to make ends meet. After Jimmy and Cliff bicker some more, Jimmy eventually resorts to attacking Cliff physically. He overpowers Cliff in this manner and hurts Alison in the process, allowing her to lament, “Oh, it’s more like a zoo everyday!” (26). It is clear that Jimmy, with such animalistic tendencies, just should not be forced to live with others.
Yet Jimmy can explain his reluctance to make due with the status quo and live peacefully: “If you’ve no world of your own, it’s rather pleasant to regret the passing of someone else’s.” (17). Jimmy chooses to escape into his own fantasies when feeling crowded; aside from mourning the impending death of his musical career, he recalls memories of former lovers. Instead of being grouped with Alison and Cliff he’d prefer the company of old schoolmates – all whom reside in his in his past-including the mother of one of them, Mrs. Tanner, who Jimmy will later be alone with her at her own moment of passing. Surely this is how he’ll remember her, just as he remembers his father in his dying days. Everyone knows he was ‘born out of his time.’ Jimmy cannot deal with the natural passage of time as well as Cliff, the last of his schoolmates, despite his intelligence.
Yet there is much more that Jimmy spites. He spites Alison’s relatives, including her father-a retired colonel-primarily for his role in the military. To Jimmy, not only has the colonel played a major part in shaping what the status quo but he has remained an oppressive force toward his romance with Alison. Jimmy’s rebellion towards society has proved to be dissatisfactory for Alison’s parents and he has never allowed his wife to write them. Jimmy chooses to hoard Alison’s existence like a beast; years of brainwashing have found them to be on a common ground, alluding to each other that they are animals. They do agree, however, that they are different species.
Yet “the heaviest, strongest creatures in this world seem to be the loneliest,” says Jimmy (94). So when Alison finds out she is pregnant she is reluctant to tell him; the baby would trap Jimmy and force him to live with a family for the rest of his life. In a moment of revelation, Alison turns to her non-savage friends for comfort and advice. She first tells Cliff, whose gentility adores her docile attributes-he might provide for a better father figure. Later she tells Helena, who can handle Jimmy’s rage and possibly rescue her. In a climactic scene, Helena is caught between Jimmy and Alison’s argument over the two women attending church; Jimmy despises religion. Finally, Alison abandons a crying Jimmy and rushes out into the outside world with her friend-a turning point for Alison in terms of her conversion from Jimmy’s pet into an enlightened woman ready for potential cosmopolitanism.
Ironically, Helena cannot rescue herself from Jimmy. After she gives Jimmy the ‘Dear John’ letter from Alison, he provokes her to do something she’s never done before-hit him. Enthralled by a newfound primal vigor, Helena kisses him soon thereafter and eventually fills Alison’s vacancy. Yet instead of the same old arguing that took place they actually enjoy each other-except for Cliff, who considers moving away. Helena is intoxicated by Jimmy’s rambunctious nature, for the moment, and is providing for exactly what he wants: “a cross between a mother and a Greek courtesan” (91). Yet she considers leaving; her final exit from Jimmy’s life comes when Alison, who cannot leave her past behind, returns to be with Jimmy forevermore.
Throughout the play there is a well-thought out lack of dynamics among the characters. When one could or should change, he or she does not; just as Jimmy remains in the past, so do the women he affects. In fact, Alison and Helena never actually change-they simply play off of one another like Cliff and Jimmy. Osborne has attributed a counterpart, or doppelganger, for each character. Whereas Jimmy and Cliff come from a similar background, they are polarized in terms of the aforementioned dualities; the same is revealed, in the end, regarding the relationship between Alison and Helena. Yet no matter the combination of characters or how the love triangle is drawn, there can be no lasting goodness amongst the characters and, most importantly, Jimmy’s anger cannot be quelled.
Or can it? As the curtain closes with Jimmy and Alison reunited and, for the first time, in loving embrace there is a great deal of ambiguity. The baby is gone and Jimmy will not feel trapped-nor will Alison. The two may have found a new sense of belonging with one another after their time apart… but that love will have to survive their time together.
Works Cited
Osborne, John. Look Back in Anger. 5th ed. New York: Penguin, 1957.
