John Osborne admits to there being commercials in the play Look Back in Anger. What are the moral, social and political implications of the play?

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Kate Iliff

     There are many different implications of the play, all debatably addressing the problems of post-war youth in Britain in 1956 that had not earlier been displayed, and therefore changed the course of British theatre thereafter. Many of the implications involve aspects and the attitudes of the lower-classes toward the social and political happenings surrounding them in which they have no control over, presenting arguably differentiating moral values from those in wider society. Jimmy Porter is the main character who presents the overall commercials or messages within the play, with his fiery attitude, dry humour and his distaste at the split between classes.

    The key implications lie within the main themes of the play mostly. One of the overlapping implications is that of class conflict and frustration. The concept of class is very much regarded and split within the play, based on Jimmy Porter who displays much frustration because of the class he is situated within. He is said to have spoke for a large percentage of the British population when he ranted about his alienation from wider society, which was not yet shown in British theatre. The main symbolism for this theme is the array of newspapers which Jimmy reads, even though they are directed at another class. This arguably shows that he does not feel he can fit in with society, as he is well-educated but situated within a lower class. Another is the iron; which has the capability of destruction and symbolises the frustration and potential danger of the educated, yet unemployed, a key example being Jimmy himself.

Jimmy tends to attack those from a higher class due to jealousy or hatred as he regards his own relatives as “pretty posh” and opposes them as much as he hates Alison’s upper-class family; “Alison’s mummy and I took one look at each other and from then on the age of chivalry was dead.” Her father, Colonel Redfern, is not shown heartlessly but Alison’s mother is portrayed as a class-conscious devil that used every tactic possible in the attempted prevention of the marriage between Alison and Jimmy. In opposition to this, Jimmy seems to adore Hugh’s mother purely for the fact that she has been poor all of her life and then perhaps feels injustice, which he then displays to Alison; “you never even sent flowers to the funeral.” He also seems to like Cliff and this is perhaps, as Cliff says himself, “I’m common.” Jimmy can then relate his rants and upsets to another so that he does not feel so alienated within society.

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Jimmy also displays a hatred for the built-in preferential treatment within the education system for those at the top and it is this treatment which makes Jimmy’s existence seem so meaningless. He describes himself as not even having attended a “white-tile” university, which was a reference to the newest and least prestigious universities. The real power however, was reserved for those who were born to privilege, had family connections and entree to the “right” schools, which he feels he did not, and could not, attain.  

Jimmy then discusses Nigel, the “straight-backed, chinless wonder” who went to Sandhurst and is ...

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