The Themes of 'Look Back in Anger'

The Themes of 'Look Back in Anger'

The Angry Young Man Movement

The Angry Young man movement was not recognised as an organised movement, instead it was what some individuals were referred to being part of. It describes post World War II artists, novelists and working class men. Jimmy is considered as an example of an 'angry young man', Jimmy has anger towards the political structure, he takes his anger out on his friends and his wife Alison. Look Back in Anger is one of the leading plays from the angry young man movement. This is important because it may explain some of the anger Jimmy has against some political views.

Kitchen Sink Drama

This is a term used to indicate plays that use realism that explore issues related to socialism. Realism was brought around in the late 19th century and the early 20th century by people like George Bernard Shaw. The idea of realism was to realistically mirror the upper class society in Britain. Many critics said that the idea of realism had became boring, this is when Osborne's play was released and changed that idea, Osborne's play tackled many social issues and most importantly the anger of post war working class citizens.

Loss of Childhood

This is one of the main themes in the play and it's the idea that the characters were forced to grow up too fast, the play uses specific examples of this for example, Jimmy was forced to watch his father suffering from quite an early age. For Alison's loss of childhood, it is best seen as the fact that she married Jimmy, her youth is wasted by the abuse Jimmy gives to her. Osborne incorporated this theme to mirror the fact that there was youth being wasted in Britain by things like the World War and the development of the atomic bomb.

Sloth in British Culture
This is shown clearly by Jimmy's character because he wants to search for a more vibrant lifestyle than his own which he blames the people around him for. He feels that the people around him are fundamentally and emotionally asleep, Jimmy's anger towards society is an attempt to rid people of the slothfulness he feels everyone has. This slothfulness is shown in Alison and Cliff's relationship  an example of this is when Alison says that their relationship is 'comfortable', Alison and Cliff are attached on a physical and emotional level nut neither of the two want to take it to any other level, this implies that their relationship is lazy and sloth-like. I believe Jimmy that Jimmy understands this which is why he is not jealous of the relationship.