Peter’s eye patch could also be symbolic. He can only see with one eye, I think this shows his one-sided view of Jo and Helen. Helen he only sees as a wonderful, beautiful woman who he wants to marry, he can’t see what she’s really like until he’s been living with her for a while. Jo however he sees as an annoying child, and doesn’t even try to give her a chance.
The sound of children laughing, singing and playing is continuous throughout the play. At seemingly random intervals you can hear the sound of children playing. The children represent hope and innocence. They reveal something in Jo that perhaps has always been pushed down inside her because of her life and mother. Jo was innocent until she met Jimmie. I think that the character would prefer to go back to her innocent days where she hadn’t been hurt by Jimmie, and didn’t carry the physical and emotional memories of him.
At the start of the play Jo is naive, but sometimes she is quite sophisticated. In act 1, scene 2, she tells Jimmie (known only as boy at this point) that she is 18, although we do not know if this is true or not. She is still at school, but is leaving soon. She is still living with her mother, Helen, and is constantly being moved around the country. In Act 2, Scene 1, Jo acts more immature than in act 1, but I think this is just how she interacts with Geoff. She has finished school and is working. However, she is still living in the same flat where she was living with Helen. I think that Jo seeks attention and affection, but doesn’t anybody to know that. A good example of this is in Act, Scene 1 where she pretends that she doesn’t want Geoff to stay, “I’ll let you stay here if you tell me.” Then she tries her hardest to get him to stay, “look I’ve got a nice comfortable couch, and, “please stay here Geoff.” This shows that she does need people around her, even if she doesn’t admit it to herself or anyone around her.
In act 1 Jo complains a lot and is very negative about the flat. She acts very mature when she is investigating it, and acts independent, although she truly isn’t. ‘Why should I run around after you?’ she depends on her mother for financial support and for a home, although not for things most people take for granted such as advice and emotional support.
Jo doesn’t drink. She pretends to her mother that she doesn’t like it, but she has never actually tried it before, as shown by this dialogue between Jo and Helen, ‘You know I don’t like it’ ‘Have you ever tried it?’ ‘No’ This maybe shows a sensible side to Jo, or it could show a fear of drinking it because of the affect it has on her mother. Jo might associate the drink with bad things, such as the things her mother does for a living, which she has a lot to drink beforehand. Jo also like bathing, she likes to keep clean, as shown in this scene by the conversation where Helen says, “You’re always bathing.” Jo also is afraid of the dark at this point, ‘are you scared of the dark?’ ‘You know I am’ although she does say that ‘it’s not the darkness outside, it’s the darkness inside houses I don’t like.’ This shows that on the inside Jo is just a frightened little girl, scared of something as normal and everyday as the dark. This also shows that Jo is just a normal person, and can be scared like everyone can. This is important for a main character as it gives an audience something they can relate to. This makes the play more realistic, so more people are likely to go to watch it, in preference to the plays that portrayed life as an upper-class ‘paradise’.
Jo’s relationship with Helen is not the usual mother-daughter relationship. It is more like a landlady-tenant relationship crossed with two relatives that don’t really know or like each other but are thrown together by fate.
However, in Act 1, Scene 1 (page 15) Helen gives Jo a little advice about her future, or rather she tells her, You’re wasting yourself,’ when Jo tells her she won’t go to art school. This is the first piece of real advice Jo is given in the play. Helen acts rather motherly here, and even offers to pay for Jo to go to art school. She compliments Jo, then slips back into her old self.
In the same scene, on page 16, Helen tells Peter Jo is her daughter, when you would expect her to tell him, simply, ‘This is Jo.’ Helen bosses Jo about, trying to get rid of her, and says, ‘Turn yourself into a termite and crawl into the wall or something,’ which shows Helen’s affections and responsibility for Jo are easily over-ruled by her client’s presence.
The way Jo and Helen communicate is not like a normal mother and daughter, most noticeably Jo calling Helen by her name instead of ‘mum’. Jo doesn’t respect her mother, in fact she constantly criticises her for being a bad mother, ‘quote,’ this shows that Jo thinks she could be a better mother than Helen. They never communicate physically. Helen never hugs or touches her daughter.
Jo criticises Helen rather a lot in the play, ‘You always have to rush off into things. You never think.’ This is when Jo and Helen have just moved into the flat and are discussing the damp and leaks. On page thirteen Jo argues with Helen that she’s ‘ruined her life,’ telling Helen that she wasn’t, and still isn’t a good mother. Then Jo tells her mother that she had a dream where Helen was buried under a bush dead. She seems to enjoy saying this, when a normal child might be quite distressed at it. With scenes like these Jo and Helen never seem to respond well to each other. They always argue and fight, even when Jo is heavily pregnant. When Peter turns up at the flat Jo’s first reaction is to ask her mother, ‘What’s this one called then?’ revealing a little more about her mother, implying she has a lot of men around, so Jo is used to it. Jo starts to react differently, acting like an awkward teenager, arguing, and stating things like, ‘I don’t know where the bathroom is,’ and, ‘The kettle’s not boiling,’ just to give an excuse to be in the room when she knows Helen and Peter want to be alone together. She instantly dislikes Peter. When she engages in a conversation with him she acts awkwardly and torments him a little, as shown in this conversation between the two, ‘Don’t run away’ ‘I’m not running’ and sits down. Peter instantly hates Jo, and tries his hardest to get rid of her, because Jo is in the way of what he wants to do. I think Jo senses this and so is nasty back to him, although Helen puts it down to, ‘She’s jealous. Can’t bear to see me being affectionate with anybody.’ Showing that Helen doesn’t understand Jo, and doesn’t think too deeply about Jo’s feelings, and also trying to pretend to Peter that she’s such a good mother to Jo that they can’t bear to be apart.
She says here (pg. 21) that she is afraid of the dark, although, ‘I’m not frightened of the darkness outside, it’s the darkness inside houses I don’t like.’ I don’t think that at this point she’d lie to her mother about that, as nothing would be gained from lying to her mother about it. If she was lying however, it may be to try and get emotional support, sympathy, and comfort from her mother, although this seems highly unlikely. Helen, true to her character, doesn’t seem bothered by her daughter’s revelation. She tells Jo to, ‘try harder not to be afraid,’ then Jo changes the subject. Helen seems to forget that Jo is afraid of the dark because she says, ‘Everything is seen at its best in the dark.’ This could either be that she forgot, which is not very good since she’s only just been told this, or she could be rubbing it in that Jo is afraid of something so simple.
I think that Jo is moderately independent for her age. In some ways she’s independent; she knows what she wants to do with her life, and is eager to move away, although she does still love with her mother. Jo would have to be independent to some extent as when Helen’s clients come over, Jo is forced to leave, as proved when she says, ‘It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been thrown out of my bed to make room for one of your…’ this shows that Helen considers her clients to be more important than her daughter.
When Jo meets the sailor boy he offers her comfort in that she can have fun with him, and they kiss and hold each other giving Jo something her mother never did. She tells him that she loves him, even enough to marry him. She doesn’t care that he’s coloured, even though their society would condemn their relationship. Jo has never been in love before, so I don’t think she is really in love. She thinks she is because she has never felt affection from anyone before. She has always been a social outcast, because of her mother and because she’s never stayed for very long in one place.
Jo knows that she won’t see him very often, but in pages 22-26 she doesn’t care because she thinks she loves him, and she’s only having a bit of fun with him. When he comes back into the play in pages 36-39, they talk more about him going away. Jo says that when he goes away, ‘My heart’s broke’. Jimmie stays with Jo for a while, and they sleep together. By the time Geof enters the play Jo has given up on Jimmie returning, but still hopes he will deep down.
Geof and Jo have a very complicated relationship. They are already friends when Geof enters the play in Act 2, and have just been to the funfair. Geof starts living with Jo, although as Geof is obviously homosexual they are just friends. Geof does try to kiss Jo however, but she doesn’t want this kind of relationship with him. She does need him there though, to look after her and he wants to do that. He even offers to marry her to get her more socially accepted when she has her baby. At the end Helen forces Geof to leave, even though he doesn’t want to go, and Jo definitely doesn’t want him to.
Geof and Jimmie are completely different. Jimmie was an independent sailor, possibly a ladies’ man, whereas Geof is an art student who is homosexual. Jo looked to Jimmie for love and comfort, while Geof gives her care and security without the possibility of him making a pass at her. Jimmie left Jo, but Geof stayed with her for a long time until Helen kicked him out. Jo looks to Geof as more of a parent role than anything else.
Jo behaves towards Geof as a friend at the start, joking with him but getting on really well. As she gets to know him better she realises how nice he is and useful to have around. She even lets him live with her. Jo starts to mature, and she values Geof and his help more. She begins to face the reality that her baby is due, and tells Geof she wishes Helen was there. She remembers the time she spent with Jimmie. She says to Geof, ‘I always want to have you with me because I know you’ll never ask anything from me.’ This may indicate that Jo doesn’t fully appreciate all that Geof has done for her, or that she cannot be completely serious about how she feels about Geof.
I don’t think Jo is ready for motherhood, as she has never really experienced any motherly actions herself, and has never grown up around children. Now though, Jo has her own flat, and says she is perfectly capable of working and looking after the baby.
I think that Jo has matured to the extent that she accepts that she is having a baby, and she accepts that she needs people to help her. It is because of this that Jo will never be fully independent, although she has become more independent by living on her own and being without her mother. Jo has never been fully dependent, except maybe when she was a tiny baby. Although I think she is more independent than dependent, Jo will never be completely independent either, especially as now she is having the baby, and will need people around her to help her through it.