How effective is the opening scene as an introduction to the whole of the play? The first scene of the play "A taste of Honey" which also can be written as A taste of Happiness is a very good introduction

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"A taste of honey"

How effective is the opening scene as an introduction to the whole of the play?

The first scene of the play "A taste of Honey" which also can be written as A taste of Happiness is a very good introduction 2 the play as it gives the reader an idea of what the main characters are seeking by describing Helen and Jo's flat as "comfortless" and Jo even says "I don't like it".

The first scene is very successful in introducing the main two characters and has set a tone that Jo is annoyed with the flat she has moved into with her mum "And I don't like it". Then Helen goes onto say that she can't afford a better house/flat because the one she is in now is all she can afford "It's all I can afford". The flat is "comfortless" and is in Manchester, life in those days for Helen and Jo was quite depressing, morbid and hard to make money as there was not a lot of jobs around especially for a "semi-whore". Helen and Jo are looking for a "Taste of Honey" by trying to find a better job for Helen and a job for Jo so they can make money and get somewhere better to live. The audiences that would of watched this play were used to seeing more elite sets on stage and would of probably been gob-smacked to of seen a set like this one. What Shelagh Delaney was trying to do with this play and the characters in it was to show the (posh) audience how life would have been in the past for lower-class people unlike themselves.
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Helen and Jo do not have a very close relationship at all, Jo slaves around for Helen all the time "pass me a glass, Jo", Jo will always do what Helen asks her to but will complain first. Both of the characters talk to each other disrespectfully but they talk about objects differently for example the flat is in very bad condition and Jo describes it as an £old ruin" but Helen tries to point out one of the good points about it by describing the view from the window "but there's a lovely view of the gasworks". ...

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