Modernity and identity: a generational dilemma

Look Back in Anger is not only one of the greatest English plays ever written, but it is also an iconic and influential piece of arts that changed British theatre culture. Since the country developed in various political shades, the attitude towards post-war political changes -liberalism and classicism- evolved, and people started being more conscious about class differences, that were bigger before the fifties, and gained a new concept of a working class increasing its power and social status.

Context: censorship and post-war problems

During the fifties, people lost interest for British literature, since the topics treated were no longer appealing to the population; mostly because of the break up of the British Empire and its economical results, thus it was needed to focus into this new economical and social position to heal and move forward to a new beginning . The “Angry Young Men” -a group of middle-class English writers who belonged to a movement upon this new need of showing the reality to the world and to express the general feeling of the population of a dissatisfaction because of hypocrisy- deliberated the concern of everyday problems that society was having, and the necessity of defeat laws, rather than focusing on economical matters, trying to be more open-minded and leaving behind the Victorian hints. (Suleiman, 2012)

Unfortunately, British society was not prepared for bigger changes, and when the play was opened at the Royal Court Theatre, the Lord Chamberlain Office (which were the official censors of the London stage at that time) censored Osborne’s work due to the new social and political base that they were trying to avoid to not disregard the old traditional background -and if we think of the characters; Jimmy has a strong political viewpoint and a social and intellectual sense of superiority; Cliff who is quite fond upon Alison (a married woman); Alison, Jimmy’s wife, deals with being constantly teased by her husband who makes fun of her and her family because her socio economical background and has to face with a dead baby situation, and Helena, who convinces Alison to leave Jimmy; they would not represent an image of values and traditions of what they would like to publish- therefore, since that would not encourage people to well-behave, from the Lord Chamberlain’s point of view, it was performed anyway, but the play’s director had to change some parts from the original script. (Aldgate, 2005)

Jane Asher (Alison Porter), Victor Henry (Jimmy Porter - white shirt),
Martin Shaw (Cliff Lewis) at Royal Court Theatre London - Great Britain,
October 1968. The interesting thing about this revival in 1968 was that it
was the first since the Lord Chamberlain’s office had been abolished.

Drama as a way to express your thoughts

The main topic of Look Back in Anger is a social revolution. Since the plot is about a married couple and a friend sharing an apartment -and also, sharing insults and unrespectful scenes- we understand that these personal relationships do not only scream to be fixed, but also to be heard.

As Kaufmann (2010) states: “It can simply show what is going on in the society in turmoil at the same time that it allows more than one emotional response to these intellectually unprocessed human facts. It is by nature ironic. Drama is thus ideally the medium of social as opposed to individual negative capability, it can resist irritable reachings [sic.] after fact and theory; and thus carry forward the uneconomical dialogue of self-interpretation that is, the cultural role of art which is not merely upholding and disciplining received attitudes.” Therefore, we can conclude that the genre used by the author is totally working, as drama aims to represent, both political and social poles.

Finally, understanding the importance of angry as an emotion -”a feeling, experienced when a desired goal is blocked. According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis when a negative affect is stimulated it elicits an experience of anger.”- and as an expression -”the expression of anger is commonly defined as aggression. According to the frustration- aggression hypothesis, people aggress instinctually in order to reduce the angry feelings mainly aroused by frustration.”(Berkowitz, 1962)* cited by Tecimer (2005), do you think that the expression of a context and a social dilemma can be well-represented with emotions?

References

Aldgate, James (2005). Censorship in Theatre and Cinema. Edinburgh University Press.

Berkowitz, Leonard (1962). Aggression: A Social Psychological Analysis. New York, Toronto, London, San Francisco: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Kaufmann, R.J. (2010) On the Newness of the New Drama. University of Rochester.

Suleiman, Waad (2012). The Political and Social Reality of Post World War II in Britain as Reflected in the Novel Room at the Top by John Braine. Middle East University. Ankara, Turkey.

Tecimer, Emine (2005). The Analysis of the Theme of Anger in John Osborne's Plays: Look Back in Anger, Inadmissible Evidence, Watch it Come Down. Middle East Technical University. Ankara, Turkey.