A Taste Of Honey
Comparing Delaney’s Presentation of Jo & Helen’s Relationship in
Act 1, scene 1 & Act 2, scene 2
‘A Taste of Honey’ is a kitchen sink drama, set in the late 1950s. It follows the volatile relationship of a mother and daughter, and the problems that they have to overcome. ‘A Taste of Honey’ presents the harsh reality of what life was like for the working classes.
The play explores a variety of controversial issues, which especially in the 1950s, only happened behind closed doors, and would have raised serious questions in society.
In ‘A Taste of Honey’ Helen is portrayed as a bad mother, she cares more about drink and men than her own child and there are several preferences to Helen’s alcoholism throughout the play. In a strict and traditional society, it would have been almost unforgivable for a teenage girl to have a child and raise it on her own as Jo ends up doing and Helen did before her. Racism also plays a factor in the play as the father of Jo’s unborn child was black and people felt very strongly about this sort of thing at this time, including Jo’s mother. ‘A Taste of Honey’ shows an insight to the problems and strains that can be brought on by the above issues and those that the working class suffered.
In the opening scene of ‘A Taste of Honey’ you are introduced to Jo and Helen’s new flat. It is a run down, dingy, old place and is all that Helen can afford. The optimism that Helen carries is shown right away as when Helen first walks in she is optimistic about the situation by saying, ‘Well! This is the place’. Which shows she has quite an easy-going approach to life as long as she has the necessities in life. Jo then replies with, ‘I don’t like it’, which straight away shows the conflict between the pair and how different their personalities are from one another. You can clearly see form the dialogue between the pair that Helen has never taken care of Jo properly, Jo: ‘I don’t owe you a thing’, and Helen: ‘Do you want me to carry you about?’ which is basically saying look after yourself. At this point Helen is already drinking and Jo says, ‘You make me sick’, in reference to her drinking, which shows that, she disapproves and that it sickens her. It also makes you ask the question, why does Helen drink? Jo also addresses her mum as Helen, this shows us that there is nothing maternal between the two and Jo obviously doesn’t see her as a motherly figure. They also both talk to the audience in third person about one another saying things such as, Helen: ‘Wouldn’t she get on your nerves’ and Jo: ‘She’d lose her head if it was loose’, you cannot see an inch of respect between them and although some people don’t always have a very good mother and daughter relationship there isn’t a trace of any bonding or caring between them. However you do see Helen show a genuine interest in Jo when she sees how good her art work is, although as she stumbles upon it by mistake it shows the distance they have from one another as Jo has never shown her the work before and Jo is quite taken aback by the interest from her mother and says, ’Why are you so suddenly interested in me anyway?’ which reflects the lack of support that Jo has received. Though language, humor and sarcasm used between them you can see the lack of respect and their clear differences such as Helen being a lot more optimistic and wild to Jo’s more realistic and practical approach to life. You can see Helen’s wild side through her drinking problem, references to men, ‘ Handsome, long-legged creature – just the way I like ‘em’, her outbursts of singing and the basic fact that she was obviously out doing her own thing when she should have been taking care of her daughter and not kicking her out of bed when she had male company! Also when Helen finds out that her daughter stole the bulbs she is happy and approves, this shows Helens true colours and how she goes about life; she doesn’t mind taking things that aren’t hers as long as she gets what she wants. Helen’s life runs along the same lines as you only live once, as she lets nothing set her back and she also makes regular comments about death and doesn’t look upon it as a big thing really. This contrasts to Jo’s comment in Act 2, scene 2 where she says, ‘We don’t ask for life, we have it thrust upon us’. I think that Jo’s out look on life is that it is hard and unfair; she has always had to fight for her self as Helen has never been there for her, and so she doesn’t expect the good things to happen in her life.
