How might an audience react to Act One Scene Two in A Taste of Honey? What social comments are being made here?

Katherine Allen

10D

Back in the late 1950s, audiences who would go to see plays such as A Taste of Honey would see things a lot differently and react in a different way to audiences seeing the play today. In general, people were shocked much more easily at the time when Shelagh Delaney wrote the play. Back then, people of different races would not have been accepted into the white community, homosexual acts were illegal, and hardly anybody lived in poor conditions, as did Helen and Jo. Some members of the audience may even have been offended that the area in which they lived was being portrayed as having people such as Helen and Jo living in it. Issues raised in the play would have been seen as much larger problems in the late 1950s, than they would now.

Compared with the first scene of the play, Act One Scene Two is very different. In Act One Scene One, there is mainly dialogue between Helen and Jo. The conversation is sharp and fast, as both women are equally exasperated with each other. Moving into Scene Two the pace slows considerably, due to the tension and uncertainty between Jo and her boyfriend. After the first scene, Act One Scene Two moves the play along quickly, introducing a new character, Jimmie, who is heavily involved in the occurrences of the rest of the play. The scene falls into four main parts, two of which are based around Jo and her boyfriend and two involve Jo’s confrontations with Helen. Alternating the parts in this way allows the audience to see how one area of Jo’s life affects her actions and emotions in the other.

Jimmie is a coloured nurse who is a member of the navy. He is seeing Jo, although he is a few years older than her and, together, they make a mixed race couple. When Jimmie is first introduced in Act One Scene Two, the audience would probably have many mixed feelings about the situation. In the first instance, they would probably judge him by the colour of his skin. When the play was written, during the late 1950s, there was much racial tension between whites and blacks. For the majority of the audience, a boy like Jimmie would not have been accepted into their community. Mixed couples were thought shocking, so this, as well as the age difference, would have caused many people to disapprove of Jo and Jimmie seeing each other.

When the scene begins however, Jimmie appears to be looking after Jo well. He has collected her from school and is carrying her books for her. A sense of relief that Jo is being cared for, may affect the audiences feelings towards Jimmie. They may warm to him.

It is quite obvious that Jo and Jimmie are very fond of each other,

“Glad I came?”

“You know I am.”

They kiss, but it is clear that Jimmie is very aware of the racial attitudes of Jo and others who may pass by. He asks Jo,

“Afraid someone’ll see us?”

This ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

It is quite obvious that Jo and Jimmie are very fond of each other,

“Glad I came?”

“You know I am.”

They kiss, but it is clear that Jimmie is very aware of the racial attitudes of Jo and others who may pass by. He asks Jo,

“Afraid someone’ll see us?”

This again refers back to the racial situation. Jo’s love for him is proved when she simply replies,

“I don’t care.”

Jimmie appears quite surprised at this, so the audience can conclude that he has often been judged or hurt because of his race.

Jimmie asks Jo to marry him and presents her with a ring. Jo accepts his proposal and, after this, Jimmie’s more jokey and sarcastic side begins to show. He jokes about marrying Jo,

“I’m trapped into a barbaric cult…”

and tells her she has to stop eating so they can afford to marry. He is not being cruel to her, however, just teasing her and showing his more light-hearted side. Also, he talks of taking Jo to a “deserted football pitch,” and we learn that he is going out drinking with “the lads” instead of seeing Jo. This gives the impression of Jimmie being more of a “typical man” and some members of the audience may begin to wonder whether the ring he presented to Jo had been used on other girls before her. Some people would think Jo stupid to rush into marriage at such a young age, with her being so vulnerable. They may worry about her ability to cope in the future.

We meet Jimmie again later on in the scene. Again, he is looking after Jo well. He gives her milk as a “cold cure” and is concerned about her health. This is, however, the last time Jimmie appears in the play, for he is going away with the navy. He promises Jo,

“I will come back, I love you.”

The audience may still be in two minds about Jimmie. Those who have come to trust him throughout the scene may believe the he really will return to Jo one day. Those who still have bad feelings towards him, despite his caring attitude, may believe that Jimmie will not keep to his promise, and that it will be the last Jo hears of him.

Alternating with these two parts of the scene are Jo’s confrontations with her mother. After Jimmie has given the ring to Jo, she ties it around her neck. She makes excuses for doing so,

“…it’s too big, look, it slides about…And I couldn’t wear it for school

anyway. I might lose it.”

It may be thought by the audience, however, that Jo’s real reasons for doing this are to stop Helen seeing the ring. When she goes back to the flat, Jo tells Helen about Jimmie except for two things; that they are engaged and that Jimmie is black. This indicates that Jo may not have been being entirely honest when she tells Jimmie,

“No, whatever else she might be, she isn’t prejudiced against colour.”

Despite Helen’s reputation with men, Jo makes her fear of Helen’s opinions of her engagement clear to the audience.

Later into their conversation, Helen, without warning, announces that she is getting married. By this point, members of the audience would feel quite exasperated with Helen, wondering if she will ever learn how to be a proper mother to Jo and almost willing her to see how much Jo needs her. The fact that Jo has the need to ask,

“Is it that Peter Smith?”

shows that Helen had probably been seeing a fair number of men before hand, and it could have been any one of them to whom Helen had become engaged. The conversation between the two afterwards is quite sarcastic,

“What use can a woman of that age be to anybody?”

This would possibly cause the audience to wish that they would take such a situation more seriously.

This new revelation may affect the audience’s opinion of Jo once again. From thinking how stupid she was to have accepted Jimmie’s proposal of marriage, they may go back to feeling the sympathy that they felt for her during the first scene of the play. Reminded of Helen’s indifference, the audience would perhaps see Jo’s plan to marry as more of a cry for help and happiness, than as a childish act. Almost immediately after Helen’s announcement, Peter enters and a complex pattern of conversation evolves between the three of them. Jo begins to verbally attack both Helen and Peter, with Helen trying to attack and defend both her daughter and future husband at the same time. Peter, meanwhile, confirms to the audience their doubts about him, by either ignoring or criticising Jo,

“What the hell are you playing at…sit down and behave you little snip.”

Following this comment, Jo’s childish possessiveness and dependence upon her mother, are dramatically demonstrated when she suddenly reveals her true emotions. She attacks Peter, crying,

“You leave me alone. And leave my mother alone too.”

The whole conversation could increase both the audience’s sympathy for Jo, and their distrust and dislike for Helen and Peter.

The final section of the scene takes place on Helen’s wedding day. The audience may be quite shocked to realize the lack of communication between mother and daughter, as it is only at this point that Jo asks,

“You’re not getting married in a church are you?”

Jo is not attending the wedding due to a bad cold. Again, this demonstrates the distance between the two, as a situation would generally have to be a lot worse for a daughter to be absent on her mother’s wedding day. Some members of the audience would possibly see past Jo’s “cold,” believing it to be a mere excuse for her not wanting to be there. This would increase the sense of Jo’s dislike for Peter.

Before she leaves for her wedding, Helen spots the ring hanging around Jo’s neck. Jo has no option but to tell Helen about her engagement. Violently, she scolds her daughter,

“Well, you silly little bitch.”

This goes to confirm to the audience Jo’s reasons for not telling Helen in the first place. Helen’s reaction would also make her seem quite hypocritical, seeing as she herself has been married before, and is marrying again now. Throughout their argument, however, bursts of Helen’s concern for Jo do come out,

“Oh Jo, you’re only a kid. Why don’t you learn from my mistakes?”

From these bouts of real feeling, the audience would possibly conclude that Helen is not wholly uncaring.

As Helen calms down after discovering Jo’s secret, Jo, out of the blue, asks about her father. Helen tells her that he wasn’t very bright, and, under further pressure from Jo, continues to say that,

“He wasn’t an idiot, just a bit – retarded.”

This comment upsets Jo, and she worries that her father’s genes are hereditary. Helen assures Jo that she is definitely not “daft,” again showing her more sensitive side. She then hurries off to her wedding, and the scene closes.

Many problems are introduced during the scene, hardly any of which are resolved. This is also the same for the whole play, as there appears to be no closure for Jo. There are many aspects of Act One Scene Two, which are included purely in an attempt to shock the audience of that time, for example Jimmie’s race, and Jo and Helen’s living conditions. Alternatively, Shelagh Delaney may have written about such scenarios to try to alert members of the audience as to what really does go on around them.