A Taste of Honey

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A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey is a play written by Shelagh Delaney. Shelagh Delaney was born on the 5th of November, 1939 in Salford, Lancashire. At eleven years old she failed to pass the examination that would allow her to enter a grammar school, and she went to a secondary school named Broughton. She was accepted into the grammar school at a later stage as she has proved herself to be intelligent. She was seen to be a ‘late developer but by this time she had lost interest in her academic progress and so therefore did not continue on to higher education. 

Her first play was A Taste of Honey, which she wrote when she was 18, was accepted by a Joan Littlewood for production by Theatre Workshop Company. The first opening of the play was on the 27th of May at the Theatre Royal in East London. A Taste of Honey was transferred to West London on the 10the of February. For this play she received the Foyle’s New Play Award and an Arts Council Bursary.

In the 1950’s England was felling the effects of World War II, so when Shelagh Delaney wrote the play she had experienced World War II. Also because of the World War only lower/ middle class groups would watch the play. Another factor that has caused the play, A Taste of Honey, to be a great success is that it contained issues that were never openly discussed and were consider to be illegal. For example: homosexuality- this was never discussed openly and was considered very bad, racism- Black people or people that were coloured were also considered lower class.

The mood, tension and suspense had been built up during the play. In Act 1 Scene 2 Jo meets with her boyfriend and during a conversation he asks her to marry him and she accepts his proposal even though he will be away on his ship for six months and so she will have to wait before he can marry him. She is given a ring by her fiancée which she wears around her neck instead of on her finger. This is because she doesn’t want her mother to see the ring. Back in the apartment Helen tells Jo that she is going to marry Peter. Peter enters and Jo starts to shout at both Helen and Peter, while Helen is defending and attacking both Peter and Jo. Peter, however, is ignoring or criticising Jo and flattering Helen. Helen and Peter leave and Jo’s boyfriend arrives and keeps her company. On Helen’s wedding day Jo is feeling sick and cannot attend her mothers wedding. Helen then see’s the ring around Jo’s neck and starts scolding Jo violently for think of marrying this young. Jo then asks about her father and Helen explains, and then runs off to her wedding.

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There is a lot that happens in this scene both Helen and Jo plan on getting married. And this has built up a lot of tension. But there moods with each other getting married are not positive. Helen is not happy with Jo considering marriage at such a young age. Jo is also not happy that Helen is marrying Peter but is unable to do anything about it. The timing of this happening is also coincidental as Helen and Jo both were planning to marry at the same time this cause the audience to build up suspense. The scene ...

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