Look Back in Anger

disaffection and L sensationlinessJimmy door guard spoke for a large piece of the British population in 1956 when he ranted ab come on his alienation from a bon ton in which he was denied any meaningful role. Although he was ameliorate at a white-tile university, a reference to the newest and least prestigious universities in the United Kingdom, the truly power and opportunities were reserved for the children of the Establishment, those born to privilege, family connections, and entree to the remunerate schools. Part of the code of the Establishment was the stiff upper lip, that reticence to face or even to feel strong emotions.Jimmys alienation from Alison comes precisely because he gutternot break through her cool, her un go startingness to feel deeply even during cozy intercourse with her husband. He berates her in a coarse attempt to compass her to strike out at him, to stop sitting on the grapple and make a full commitment to her real emotions he wants to cram her to feel and to have vital life. He calls her Lady Pusillanimous because he sees her as too cowardly to commit to anything. Jimmy is anxious to depict a great deal and is deeply angry because no unrivaled take cares interested enough to take from him, including his wife. He says, My heart is so full, I feel ill and she wants peaceAnger and HatredJimmy doorman operates out of a deep well of anger. His anger is indicateed at those he loves because they refuse to have strong feelings, at a society that did not fulfill promises of opportunity, and at those who smugly assume their places in the genial and power structure and who do not cargon for others. He lashes out in anger because of his deeply felt helplessness. When he was ten geezerhood gray he watched his idealist come dying for a twelvemonth from wounds received fighting for democracy in the Spanish Civil War, his father talking for hours, pouring out all that was left of his life to one bewildered little boy. He says, Yo u see, I learnt at an early come on what it was to be angry angry and helpless. And I can never swallow it.Related drill My Problem With Her AngerApathy and PassivityAlthough Alison is the direct target of Jimmys invective, her apathy and passivity are merely the immediate agency of the attitudes that Jimmy sees as undermining the whole of society. It is the complacent blandness of society that infuriates Jimmy. When communicate of Alisons brother Nigel, he says, Youve never heard so many polished commonplaces coming from beneath the same bowler hat. The Church, too, comes under attack in part because it has lost relevance to contemporary life. For Helena it spells a unafraid habit, one that defines right and wrong for her although she seems perfectly willing to ignore its strictures against adultery when it suits her. Jimmy sees the Church as providing an easy escape from facing the trouble oneself of living in the here and now and thus precluding any real redemption. O f course, Jimmy has also slipped into a world of sameness as illustrated by the three Sunday evenings spent reading the newspapers and even the direct electrical switch of Alison at the ironing board with Helena. Deadly habit is portrayed as insidious.Class ConflictJimmy comes from the working class and although some of his mothers relatives are pretty posh, Cliff tells Alison that Jimmy hates them as much as he hates her family. It is the class system, with its built-in preferential treatment for those at the top and exclusion from all power for those at the bottom, that makes Jimmys existence seem so meaningless. He has a university degree, but it is not from the right university. It is Nigel, the straight-backed, chinless wonder who went to Sandhurst, who is dull and insensitive to the needs of others, who has no beliefs of his own, who is already a Member of Parliament, who will make it to the top. Alisons father, Colonel Redfern, is not shown unsympathetically, but her mothe r is portrayed as a class-conscious monster who used every tactic she could to prevent Alison from marrying Jimmy. The hardly person for whom Jimmys love is apparent is Hughs working-class mother. Jimmy likes Cliff because, as Cliff himself says, Im common.Identity CrisisWhile Jimmy harangues everyone around him to open themselves to serious feeling, he is trapped in his own problems of social identity. He doesnt seem to fit in anywhere. As Colonel Redfern points out, operating a sweet-stall seems an odd occupancy for an educated young man. Jimmy sees suffering the pain of life as the only way to find, or earn, ones true identity. Alison does finally suffer the unlimited loss of her unborn child and comes back to Jimmy, who seems to embrace her. Helena discovers that she can be happy only if she lives according to her perceived principles of right and wrong. Colonel Redfern is caught out of his time. The England he left as a young army officer no longer exists. Jimmy calls him just one of those sturdy old plants left over from the Edwardian Wilderness that cant understand why the lie isnt shining anymore, and the Colonel agrees. Cliff does seem to have a strong hotshot of who he is, accepts that, and will move on with his life.SexismA contemporary reading of Look Back in Anger contains inherent assumptions of sexism. Jimmy Porter seems to many to be a misogamist and Alison a mere cipher seek to view the world through Jimmys eyes. 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