Jimmy Porter is his author's mouthpiece in the play, a
young university graduate whose anger is a characteristic response to his world around.
Jimmy suffers from a deep sense of alienation from his society where he finds no more
causes to live with, no maningful role to play. His university degree has just landed
him up with the sweet-stall that he runs with his friend, Cliff. Real power and all
opportunities are reserved for the upper classes or the Establishment. His wife Alison,
the daughter of a retired Colonel and the sister of a Sandhurst alumnus-turned- Member
of Parliament, is cool and unenthusiastic, aloof and engaged in cleaning, ironing,
making tea. Jimmy is angry with her for he fails to break through her unwillingness to
feel deeply even during sexual intercourse with her husband. Alison keeps "sitting on
the fence'' unwilling to make a full commitment to her real
emotions.
Jimmy is angry towards those he loves, for
example,Alison and his parntner-cum-friend Cliff, because they refuse to have strong
feelings, and with those who smugly assume their places in the power structure without
caring for others. He lashes out in anger because of his helplessness, his hopelessness
that "nothing has changed". When he was a ten year old boy he saw his father dying from
wounds received while fighting for democracy in the Spanish Civil War. We hear Jimmy
say, "You see, I learnt at an early age what it was to be angry—angry and helpless. And
I can never forget it.''
Jimmy pours out his
strong invectives and abuses against Alison's mother who most crudely opposed her
daughter's marriage to Jimmy. He abusively refers to Alison's brother Nigel. Jimmy also
attacks institutions like the Church and the Press; shows class hatred to Alison's
actress friend Helena. His anger is profuse and multi-directional, born of a serious
identity crisis, a pathological/sexual anguish, a sense of being betrayed and subdued
by the society.
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