Look Back in Anger

“Look Back in Anger” is a play about alienation and identity in 1950s England. The play was considered modern for its time, and upended the theater world with its bleak portrayal of Jimmy Porter as an everyman with nothing going for him but his ideals, ideals packaged in rage and anger. Audiences were devastated by the play, but this devastation and an intimate glimpse of real struggle in the face of a changing world, a world where one had no agency, garnered praise from critics and viewers alike. The role of Jimmy Porter has been noted as the archetype for many modern-day characters. These male characters often operate with dubious methods despite having supposed hearts of gold, or at least intentionally bury their feelings. Marlon Brando’s Stanley in “A Streetcar Named Desire” is one example of this troubled character type making inroads into theater and literature.

“Look Back in Anger” is divided into three acts and, in its structure, mirrors earlier works by playwrights like Ibsen. The beginning of the first and third act mirror each other, indicating to the reader or viewer that things might seem to stay the same but ultimately change. The play’s characters include Jimmy Parsons, a washed-up jazz trumpet player who hates the middle class and the idea of conformity in “modern” England; Alison Porter, Jimmy’s wife, who comes from the middle class and is despised by Jimmy for her timidity and passiveness; Cliff Lewis, Jimmy’s friend and roommate, who is uneducated and works with Jimmy in a sweet stall; Colonel Redfern, Alison’s old-guard father who yearns for the Edwardian days, and for his heyday in India from 1913 to 1947; and Helena Charles, an actress friend of Alison’s who despises Jimmy yet ends up having an affair with him.

The bulk of the play involves Jimmy verbally abusing Alison, Cliff, and Helena for their complacency in an England without beliefs or convictions. Jimmy yearns for someone to believe in him, and for someone to understand why living without conviction is like not being human. Jimmy likens the apathy in England to the disgust he sees in 1950s America, and jokes that the English will all become American because of their lack of morals and conviction. This lack of morals, or lack of beliefs, underscores the theme of alienation and identity found throughout the play. The play takes place after WWII, and England is still reeling from the effects of that war, in addition to changing social beliefs. The social microcosm of the Porter’s attic flat in the Midlands is symbolic of a larger English struggle at the time in the face of helplessness, loneliness, general apathy, and death.

Jimmy wants Alison to “wake up” to how the world really works. He wishes this at any cost, even going so far as to wish that Alison might have a child and lose it. Alison is in fact pregnant, but too afraid to tell Jimmy, lest he think she planned it just to make him love her more. This mention of loss and the revelation that Alison is pregnant early in the play set up a tragic loss at the end, one that makes the characters question who they are in the face of a seemingly uncaring world. Before the dramatic end, Alison struggles with identity as she hits back at Jimmy in whatever way she can, then ultimately leaves with her father to find peace and quiet. In a shocking turn of events, Helena has an affair with Jimmy. By Act III, she has replaced Alison. The parallels between the women and their roles seems disheartening. The ending leaves each woman exploring who she is and who she wants to be in relation to Jimmy and the larger world.

“Look Back in Anger” will challenge readers to explore preconceived notions of heroes, heroines, good, and evil. The play’s class struggles and personal struggles allow readers or viewers to ponder who really wins and who loses by the end of the play. The play is set in the present, yet the undeniable past informs each character. The past highlights each character’s dreams and desires, yet hides any readily available notions of what the future might hold for them.