Topic > Life Disputes and Marital Struggles

John Osborne's technique in Look Back in Anger reveals his debt to Henrik Ibsen and his contemporary Samuel Beckett in nature comedies. Uses images and symbols, both verbal and nonverbal, for the sake of objectification. These symbols not only include the structure of the play and the location of the action, but also the stage objects, the acting postures, the sounds (both on stage and off), the dialogues, the movements of the characters and the human beings themselves . In fact, Osborne drew inspiration from his personal life and his failed marriage to Pamela Lane while writing Look Back in Anger. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Osborne's use of elaborate direction to place his plays is a special setting. The specific mention of the hero, Jimmy Porter “wearing a very warm tweed jacket and flannels” signifies his belonging to a very specific time period, namely the 1950s and to a certain social order, i.e. the middle class not wealthy. His wife, Alison wearing “Jimmy's cherry red shirt” and also Helena wearing Jimmy's old shirt, symbolize both as Jimmy's women, a sign of his personal possessions. The act of ironing a pile of “erased clothes” also suggests a series of problems haunting their lives that need to be resolved. Together with the background images of stagnation, washing and the cistern, the symbolic analogy of the dirt and squalor to be cleaned is very interesting. One is reminded of the rotten state of Denmark in Shakespeare's Hamlet which required the protagonist's intervention. Both Alison and Helena seem to be busy ironing clothes all Sunday evening. Mary McCarthy highlights the stagnant boredom of provisional Sundays, when even the newspapers and book reviews seem to be the same. The newspaper itself takes on the symbol of Jimmy's intellect and he complains all the time that no one in his family treats it with respect except him. Jimmy Porter's anger against the previous generation is one of the most important aspects of the play and it is notable that such exasperation and frustration was the most common characteristic of the post-war group. The social complacency of the Edwardian era that Jimmy holds responsible for his current situation is the "Edwardian twilight" that Jimmy refers to. It represents everything that is missing from his world. Colonel Redfern, Nigel, Alison's mother and Miss Drury are all privileged people over Jimmy and therefore the objects of his ire. He resents these people and fills an instinctive dislike for the upper class, including Alison and Helena. She similarly feels strong empathy for the poor and suffering like Hugh Tanner, his mother, Mrs. Tanner, and Jimmy's father, whose death is still poignant in her mind. He admires his former lover Madeline in whom he sees an example of the “enthusiasm” that Alison lacks; she is lively while the latter is almost drowsy. Alison is not only his class enemy but also his sexual antagonist. Her toilet is conceived by Osborne in symbolic terms as a weapon on the battlefield, almost like Belinda's toilet in The Rape of the Lock. The church exemplifies a cultural value that Jimmy detests. So, when the church bells begin to ring, he expresses his repugnance: “I don't want to hear them!”. The church bell is a reminder of his failure to transform the world and bring out harmony in his personal life. He associates a radical and orthodox aspect of society with churches, both of which irritate and annoy him to no end. Another auditory image, the sound of one's own trumpet"..