Osborne's play Look Back in Anger
explores the theme of alienation in the post-war England of 1950s. Jimmy Porter, the
angry protagonist, is his author's mouthpiece in the play. He is a young university
graduate who suffers from a deep sense of alienation from his society where he finds no
more causes to live with, no meaningful role to
play.
Despite having received his degree from a
"white-tile" university, Jimmy has failed to obtain any suitable employment. He runs a
sweet-stall, funded by the mother of his friend, Hugh, with his friend, Cliff, as his
partner. Jimmy is a volatile youth full of the contradictions and dwindlings
characteristic of his time. He is terribly anguished to find that real power and
opportunities lie monopolized with the
Establishment.
Jimmy's alienation from his wife Alison is
essentially due to her lack of enthusiasm, her unwillingness to feel deeply, her
submissive adherence to the run of the mill domestic obligations like cleaning and
ironing clothes, and making tea. Jimmy cannot break through her "cool," cannot dislodge
her "sitting on the fence'', cannot force her to a full commitment to her real emotions,
to force her to feel and to have vital life.
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