Look Back In Anger By Osborne Essays - British Films,

Look Back In Anger By Osborne The play, A Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne brings the notion of the "angry man gone mad" to the surface. But what does this play teach us? Or, does this play teach us anything? At the end of this paper it will be evident that this play does teach us something, and that is how some people, as individuals, have their own ways of thinking, and reacting, which are considerably different from the social norms. Of course the character we will be analyzing is Jimmy. There are 3 stimuli that correspond to radical reactions by Jimmy. The first stimulus is love; Jimmy has ways of expressing his love to the women of his life that are different than the rest of society's. The second stimulus is the natural aggression towards threats, and most of these threats are small, that Jimmy expresses with Cliff, and also in Allison's mother, in particular. The final trigger to Jimmy's radical way of reacting is that of death. It seems to be an image that haunts him throughout the play and he only brings it to the surface after the halfway point. This, last, stimuli can be regarded as an explanation to his radical ways, that give him the image of the "angry man". However, there is one over-ruling thesis that covers all three stimuli that is the basis of Jimmy's radical behavior, and that is of women in general; Jimmy, as will be demonstrated in each section, is very insecure with the opposite sex, whether it is will girlfriends, wives, or landlords. On the topic of love, Jimmy has demonstrated his difficulty to conform to the social norms, in terms of being a gentleman towards women, especially his own wife, Allison. The first major indication of this problem was when Allison and him were showing their first mutual signs of affection, but they were required to result to role playing to fulfill their show of love. "Jimmy: You're very beautiful. A beautiful, great-eyed squirrel...How I envy you. Allison: Well, you're a jolly super bear, too. A really soooooooooooper, marvelous bear. Jimmy: Bears and Squirrels are marvelous" Jimmy and Allison have proven that they must put on disguises to show their affection. Allison as a Squirrels, and Jimmy as a bear also demonstrates the way their perceive each other. A squirrel is small, weak, and helpless, as is contrary to a bear, that has the image of a vicious and barbaric animal. In this point of view, Osborne is showing us an analogy of how he perceives their relationship. Bears and squirrels don't really get along, mainly because they compete for the same food. In the play we see how Allison and Jimmy are incompatible, and when they speak of how "bears and squirrels are marvelous", it just proves to show that they are blind to the fact that they don't belong together. However, it must be made clear that this is not due to Allison that they lock horns often, but it at Jimmy's fault; he is seen as the instigator to every conflict in this play. Not only in terms of love, but also in regarding women altogether, Jimmy sees women as the enemy. Jimmy has attacked every woman in this play, physically or verbally, except for one, and that was Hugh's mother who has dying. (this issue will be addressed in the last portion of this essay). First, we will look at the situation with Helena; as first it is evident that they hate each other, but then they kiss and become lovers. This is not only unusual, but shows the instability and unpredictability of Jimmy's actions. The issue is that he sees Helena as an enemy that is trying to convince Allison to leave him; and Jimmy seems correct, because in fact, that is what happens in the end, but it's quite unpredictable. Jimmy shows his disgust towards Helena when he says to her: "What are you plotting?" This is implying that Helena is out to mess his life up, this then leads to a confrontation that almost gets violent. "Helena: If you come nearer, I will slap your face. Jimmy: I hope you won't make the mistake of thinking for one moment that I am a gentleman. Helena: I'm not very likely to do that. Jimmy: I've no public school scruples about hitting girls. If you slap my face-by God, I'll lay you out!" This scene describes many things, which are going through the head of Jimmy; he's a