What are the characteristics of Postmodernism?

When listing the characteristics of postmodernism, it is important to remember that postmodernists do not place their philosophy in a defined box or category. Their beliefs and practices are personal rather than being identifiable with a particular establishment or special interest group. The following principles appear elemental to postmodernists:

There is no absolute truth - Postmodernists believe that the notion of truth is a contrived illusion, misused by people and special interest groups to gain power over others.

Truth and error are synonymous - Facts, postmodernists claim, are too limiting to determine anything. Changing erratically, what is fact today can be false tomorrow.

Self-conceptualization and rationalization - Traditional logic and objectivity are spurned by postmodernists. Preferring to rely on opinions rather than embrace facts, postmodernist spurn the scientific method.

Traditional authority is false and corrupt - Postmodernists speak out against the constraints of religious morals and secular authority. They wage an intellectual revolution to voice their concerns about the traditional establishment.

Ownership - They claim that collective ownership would most fairly administrate goods and services.

Disillusionment with modernism - Postmodernists rue the unfulfilled promises of science, technology, government, and religion.

Morality is personal - Believing ethics to be relative, postmodernists subject morality to personal opinion. They define morality as each person’s private code of ethics without the need to follow traditional values and rules.

Globalization – Many postmodernists claim that national boundaries are a hindrance to human communication. Nationalism, they believe, causes wars. Therefore, postmodernists often propose internationalism and uniting separate countries.

All religions are valid - Valuing inclusive faiths, postmodernists gravitate towards New Age religion. They denounce the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ as being the only way to God.

Liberal ethics - Postmodernists defend the cause of feminists and homosexuals.

Pro-environmentalism - Defending “Mother Earth,” postmodernists blame Western society for its destruction.

Difference Between Modernism and Postmodernism

Each person has his own belief and philosophy in life, and each has a mindset of his own. When he meets other individuals with the same views as his own, they can create a school of thought and share a common philosophy, belief, opinion, and discipline. Throughout mankind’s history, several schools of thought existed with modernism and postmodernism being more relevant and influential to the people of today.

Modernism is a school of thought or a movement that took place in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries. It involved a reform movement in art, music, literature, and the applied arts. It was based on rational thinking, logic, and the scientific process. It aimed at creating a clear and rational view of the world; believing that through scientific and reason mankind can advance and grow. It advocated the belief that there is much to learn from the past that could be beneficial to the present.

Modernism supported the belief that there is a purpose for life and that it should be viewed objectively. Modernist had an optimistic view of the world and believed that there are values and ethics that need to be followed. They were not very concerned about politics and gave more thought to significant things. The era of modernism was a time of artistic and literary advancement. Great works of art and literature were abundant as well as of music, architecture, poetry, and science. Modernist works were admired for their simplicity and elegance.

Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a school of thought or a movement that took place after the Second World War, but it gained popularity in the 1960s. It was a chaotic era hard to comprehend and appraise. It advocated the belief that there is no universal truth. It used an unscientific approach to life and believed that all things are irrational. Postmodernists believed in chance and transience. They questioned the rationality of modernism, its principles, and thinking. They believed that there is no connection between the past and the present and that past event are irrelevant in the present.

The postmodernist era was characterized by the advancement of technology and its use in music, art, and literature. Very few original works of artists can be found during this time, and previous works were copied. Postmodernist artists get their inspiration and basis from the original works of modernist artists.

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Summary:

1)       Modernism is a school of thought that took place in the late 1800s and early 1900s while postmodernism is a school of thought that took place after World War II.

2)   Modernism advocated rational thinking and the use of science and reason for the advancement of man while postmodernism believed in the irrationality of things.

3)     The modernist era was characterized by the simple and elegant original works of gifted artists while the postmodernist era was characterized by the advancement in technology and its use in different media.

4)     Modernists believed in universal truth while postmodernists did not.

5)     Postmodernists were very political while modernists were not.

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Marxism- A Short Discussion

Marxism is a method of socio-economic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

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Marxism uses a methodology, now known as historical materialism, to analyze and critique the development of capitalism and the role of class struggles in systemic economic change.

According to Marxian theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the material interests of the oppressed proletariat—a class of wage laborers employed by the bourgeoisie to produce goods and services—and the bourgeoisie—the ruling class that owns the means of production and extract their wealth through appropriation of the surplus product (profit) produced by the proletariat.

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Marxism has developed into many different branches and schools of thought, though now there is no single definitive Marxist theory. Different Marxian schools place a greater emphasis on certain aspects of classical Marxism while rejecting or modifying other aspects. Many schools of thought have sought to combine Marxian concepts and non-Marxian concepts, which has then led to contradictory conclusions. However, lately, there is a movement toward the recognition that historical materialism and dialectical materialism remains the fundamental aspect of all Marxist schools of thought, which should result in more agreement between different schools.

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New Historicism- A Brief Discussion

New Historicism is a literary theory based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted within the context of both the history of the author and the history of the critic. Based on the literary criticism of Stephen Greenbelt and influenced by the philosophy of Michel Foucault, New Historicism acknowledges not only that a work of literature is influenced by its author's times and circumstances, but that the critic's response to that work is also influenced by his environment, beliefs, and prejudices.

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A New Historicist looks at literature in a wider historical context, examining both how the writer's times affected the work and how the work reflects the writer's times, in turn recognizing that current cultural contexts color that critic's conclusions.

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For example, when studying Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, one always comes to the question of whether the play shows Shakespeare to be anti-Semitic. The New Historicist recognizes that this isn't a simple yes-or-no answer that can be teased out by studying the text. This work must be judged in the context in which it was written; in turn, cultural history can be revealed by studying the work — especially, say New Historicists, by studying the use and dispersion of power and the marginalization of social classes within the work. Studying the history reveals more about the text; studying the text reveals more about the history.

The New Historicist also acknowledges that his examination of literature is "tainted" by his own culture and environment. The very fact that we ask whether Shakespeare was anti-Semitic — a question that wouldn't have been considered important a century ago — reveals how our study of Shakespeare is affected by our civilization.

New Historicism, then, underscores the impermanence of literary criticism. Current literary criticism is affected by and reveals the beliefs of our times in the same way that literature reflects and is reflected in its own historical contexts. New Historicism acknowledges and embraces the idea that, as times change, so will our understanding of great literature.

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Cultural materialism- A Short Discussion

Cultural materialism is an anthropological research orientation first introduced by Marvin Harris in his 1968 book The Rise of Anthropological Theory, as a theoretical paradigm and research strategy. It is said to be the most enduring achievement of that work. Harris subsequently developed a full elaboration and defense of the paradigm in his 1979 book Cultural Materialism. To Harris social change is dependent on three factors: a society's infrastructure, structure, and superstructure.

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Harris's concept of cultural materialism was influenced by the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as their theories as modified by Karl August Wittfogel and his 1957 book, Oriental Despotism Yet this materialism is distinct from Marxist dialectical materialism, as well as from philosophical materialism Thomas Malthus's work encouraged Harris to consider reproduction of equal importance to production. The research strategy was also influenced by the work of earlier anthropologists including Herbert Spencer, Edward Taylor and Lewis Henry Morgan who, in the 19th century, first proposed that cultures evolved from the less complex to the more complex over time. Leslie White and Julian Steward and their theories of cultural evolution and cultural ecology were instrumental in the reemergence of evolutionist theories of culture in the 20th century and Harris took inspiration from them in formulating cultural materialism.

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Feminist criticism- A brief discussion

Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to analyze and describe the ways in which literature portrays the narrative of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature. This way of thinking and criticizing works can be said to have changed the way literary texts are viewed and studied, as well as changing and expanding the canon of what is commonly taught.

                                                                                                          

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Traditionally, feminist literary criticism has sought to examine old texts within literary canon through a new lens. Specific goals of feminist criticism include both the development and discovery female tradition of writing, and rediscovering of old texts, while also interpreting the symbolism of women's writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view and resisting sexism inherent in the majority of mainstream literature. These goals along with the intent to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective, and increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style were developed by Lisa Tuttle in the 1980s, and have since been adopted by a majority of feminist critics.

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The history of feminist literary criticism is extensive, from classic works of nineteenth-century women authors such as George Eliot and Margaret Fuller to cutting-edge theoretical work in women's studies and gender studies by "third-wave" authors. Before the 1970s—in the first and second waves of feminism— feminist literary criticism was concerned with women's authorship and the representation of women's condition within literature; in particular the depiction of fictional female characters. In addition, feminist literary criticism is concerned with the exclusion of women from the literary canon, with theorists such as Lois Tyson suggesting that this is because the views of women authors are often not considered to be universal ones.

Additionally, feminist criticism has been closely associated with the birth and growth of queer studies. The modern feminist literary theory seeks to understand both the literary portrayals and representation of both women and people in the queer community, expanding the role of a variety of identities and analysis within feminist literary criticism.

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Marxist criticism- A short discussion

Marxist literary criticism is a loose term describing literary criticism based on socialist and dialectic theories. Marxist criticism views literary works as reflections of the social institutions from which they originate. (Clarification: In fact, most Marxist critics who were writing in what could chronologically be specified as the early period of Marxist literary criticism subscribed to what has come to be called "Vulgar Marxism." In this thinking of the structure of societies, literary texts are one register of the Superstructure, which is determined by the economic Base of any given society. Therefore, literary texts are a reflection of the economic Base rather than "the social institutions from which they originate" for all social institutions, or, more precisely human social relationships, are in the final analysis determined by the economic Base). According to Marxists, even literature itself is a social institution and has a specific ideological function, based on the background and ideology of the author.

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What is 'The wretched of the earth'

The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre) is a 1961 book by Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychiatric and psychological analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications inherent to establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people. The French-language title derives from the opening lyrics of "The International".

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Gist of The play Look Back In Anger

A Realistic Subject Matter: Look Back In Anger received an overwhelming response from the audience when it was first produced. It appealed to the audience because of the realistic subject-matter. Through the character of the protagonist, Osborne revealed his feeling for the contemporary scene and the frustration and the temperament of post-war Britain found expression through the speeches of Jimmy. The use of contemporary idiom the sharp comments on matters ranging from “posh” Sunday newspaper and “whiletile” universities to the bishop and the hydrogen bomb.

Symbols in look Back on Anger

An “unpleasant” Social Play: Unlike another realistic playwright, Osborne presents the social problems apprehended by the characters. The stinking rhetorical speeches go beyond realistic prose drama. Many of his impressive tirades are concerned with the debased values of modern life but the action of the play is very little influenced by such social questions as a class system. Alison describes Jimmy’s invasion of her upper-class world as a part of the class war he was waging with Alison as a hostage.

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Jimmy’s Anger: Jimmy’s anger seems to be deep-rooted. For him “the misery of the world is misery and will not then rest”. He suffers for others and likes other people’s lives. As a young boy, he watched his dying father and learned more about love-death and betrayal that people like Helena would know all their lives. He recalls the experience with bitterness and says that every time he had sat near his father’s bed and listen to his father’s talk he had to fight back his tears. He says he had become a ”veteran after his experience of remaining by his father’s bedside for twelve months. He also suffers for Mrs. Tanner, Augh’s mother who ac­cording to him went “through the sordid process of dying.”

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Incompatibility between Jimmy and His Wife: the Social disparity between his working-class origin and the upper middle class to which his wife belongs is also a reason for Jimmy’s anger. He wages an unending battle against the upper middle class whom he holds in contempt and treats Alison as a “hostage”. He constantly bullies his wife and provokes her to retaliate Alison’s silence, her withdrawal into detached indifference makes communication between him and herself impossible. “That girl there can twist your arm off with’ her silence,” he comments on her infuriated by her silent disposition.

Jimmy’s Deep-Seated Need of Allegiance: Jimmy is over demanding in his relationship. He seeks from women much more than he could ever hope to get. When disappointed he turns his wrath on them with savage resentment. He expects everyone to be loyal not only to him but to all the things he believes in, not only to his present and future but to his past as well. Alison’s failure to live up to his expectation irritates him.

Sexual Passion No Remedy for Jimmy’s Trouble: Sexual passion occasionally helps Jimmy to overcome his frustration, and assists him to escape his troubling mind now and then. But it does not provide a permanent solution to his problems. In the first act the ever critically Jimmy takes a brief break and is shown to share a tender moment of togetherness with his wife. But immediately after some time on learning about Helena’s impending visit he returns to his farmer self-cursing and condemning people. He alternates between sexual teaming and sexual passion. In the Act III & Sc. II he asks contemptuously why women bled men to death. He says that men have no alternative but to it themselves be butchered as there is no brave cause to die for.

                                                                                                        

Relationship between Alison and jimmy

John Osborne's play Look’ Back in Anger’ mainly describes a failed marriage between Jimmy and Alison who live with Jimmy‟s uneducated friend Cliff Lewis. Through it, Osborne presented „a new type of angry young hero‟ whose sense of working-class position prejudices his judgment about those of upper social status and this brings him into conflict with Alison who becomes a victim of his cruelty. For this, there is no healthy atmosphere in their house and she is always in great miseries. Therefore, she withdraws herself into a detached indifference to him and a rift is created between them. After more than three years of their marriage, when the pregnant Alison is unable to take her bullying husband any more, she retreats from the Porterhouse hoping to get rid of her sufferings as she realizes that her upper--class background angers Jimmy. Unfortunately, she loses her unborn baby, suffers terrible isolation and agony and returns to Jimmy and embraces further pain. Thus, Look Back in Anger is a play in which Alison’s mental distress is prolonged and unrelieved

Symbols in look Back on Anger

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Alison is Jimmy‟s age and is tall, slim and dark. Moreover, she has a sorrowful look which indicates her unhappy state. There are also hints in the opening scene that crisis has been brewing in their house without sufficient money and peace and she is getting burnt slowly. Her parental house was just like an Eden compared to her new one. Actually, Jimmy‟s house is unable to provide everything an upper-class daughter could possibly want as he cannot realize that he has a wife and it is his obligation to support her financially as well as mentally.

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As in every aspect of life, Jimmy and Alison are different from each other, their huge social gap matters a great deal to Jimmy who sees her family as part of the traditional British ruling class. But Alison hardly loses temper in spite of Jimmy‟s nonstop offensive criticism towards her. Her silence also angers him greatly which is the result of his incessant talking and he is unaware of its cause. Hence, he sarcastically calls her “monument to non-attachment” and tells Cliff: “Nothing I could do would provoke her”(14). Jimmy cannot understand that her silence is unnatural and rather forced by him as she shares a warm bond with Cliff who also belongs to Jimmy‟s class. In her words: “If things have worked out with Cliff, it‟s because he‟s kind and lovable ...” (41)

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Actually, the differences between Alison and Jimmy‟s families dramatize a basic conflict in their marital life from the beginning of the play. It is true that he faced strong opposition prior to his marriage from her parents. But it does not mean that he has the right to offend her in front of Cliff, and her friend, Helena Charles. Critic Mander suggests: “Jimmy is presented as a fighter, and one would expect him to relish a fight with someone of his own caliber” (Mander, 5). On the other hand, Alison is cultured, well-bred, and possesses the grace and bearing of a mild woman unworthy of his fighting and he never takes her pleas for a little peace seriously; rather curses her: “ I wish you could have a child, and it would die”(36). It seems her serenity is at the mercy of him. Even Cliff consoles her seeing her dilemma: “He‟s being offensive. And it‟s so easy for him” (7). Whereas Jimmy is unmoved and finds pleasure in torturing her with invectives. So she recalls the strong opposition from her parents as they predicted Jimmy and Alison mismatch as a couple and she regrets her marriage: “If only I knew what was going” (25). Thus, she admits that her marriage has brought never-ending miseries for her.

Significance of the tittle - Look Back in anger

Look back in anger is a suitable title for the play. It has two part-look back and- in anger. certainly, there is enough anger in the play. Its hero Jimmy Porter, is an angry young man. As one critic puts it he is furious with life. The title of the play is apt and appropriate. I t is significant and suggestive. It hints the theme of the play. The story of the play moves around the play. In the play, Osborne has depicted the mood of despair, anger, and frustration of the postwar generation. It is a study of class conflict and frustration caused by it. The title of the play indicates it. Seeing the title reader comes to know what the play is about.

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The title of John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger" is very much suitable with the flow of the theme of the play. The entire play experiences the tremors of Jimmy's violently angry tirades directed at his fellow inhabitants in the play. Jimmy's anger is one of the predominant themes of the play affecting all those characters related to him. Another recurrent motif is Looking Back as most of the characters including Alison, Helena, and Colonel Redfern reassess the past as they remember it. Unlike Jimmy who isn’t able to transcend bygone sufferings, the others acknowledge their previous mistakes and express regret or repentance.

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"Anger" is the right word to describe his character as he hated a lot of people, including Helena and his wife, Alison, Alison's mother, brother and a whole lot bunch of friends and always vent his anger and ire on them, sometimes hurling nasty and disturbing insults towards them. He hated them due to their social ranking in the power hierarchy, her social standing and is well brought-up "upbringing".

"Looking back" is what makes Jimmy so furious and frustrated when he looks back to the past during the Spanish Civil War at World War Two, which he witnessed the horrors and psychological scarring of war. When he was ten years old, he watched his idealist father died due to complications of his wounds for a year during his fight for democracy, so he lashes out his anger on everyone due to his helplessness and his vulnerability.

Symbols in Look Back In Anger

He also hates the class system in the country, where the built-in preferential for those of the rich and the famous and the top of the world, the higher-ranking people to those people at the lower end which were excluded from all power and privileges and have no say in anything, that makes Jimmy's existence on earth seems not worthwhile and meaningless.

He also hates his loved ones as they didn't want to fully commit to loving and refuses to have strong feelings with him, preferring to have it "low-key" relationship, and also at the society which doesn't fulfill promises of windows of opportunity and good fortunes, all the white-lies bastards that Jimmy hate for deceiving the gullible and innocent victims of outrage brainwashing and deception. He also deplored the higher social ranking people in the social and power structure who sits smugly in their sits and who do not leave a helping hand or a guiding light to the less fortunate and those below them and prefers to be self-centered, caring for their own welfare and not of others.

Symbolic elements in Look back in anger by John Osborne

The Bears-and-Squirrels Game: The bear and squirrel game in a look back in anger is a symbolic device that serves an important dramatic purpose. The conjugal life of Jimmy and Alison is marked by tension.The game, in fact, makes them forget the bitterness of their married life and give them momentary happiness.Alison and jimmy's bear and squirrel game give them a way to access a simple affection for each other that they can not achieve in normal life. Their relationship is a site of class and social conflict as Alison comes from middle-class family and Jimmy from a working-class.W hen they act like an animal they only concern about food and shelter and sex, they forget the conflict and feel a simple version of love for each other.

A Statement of the Nature of Human Love: According to another critic, the game of bears-and-squirrels seems at first a trivial evasion of the complexities found in any marriage. But at the end of the play the game, according to this critic, becomes a statement of the nature of human love—the willingness to immerse oneself completely in creativeness, to share the pain and the pleasure of the limited animal. Jimmy thus ultimately reconciles himself to an animal relationship with Alison. In her squirrel's nest, Alison is precisely a warm, generous animal who will lie by Jimmy's side every night. Thus, according to this critic also, the symbolic device of the bears-and-squirrels game serves to illustrate the theme of marriage and the sexual relationship between Jimmy and Alison.

A Refuge From the World: According to yet another critic, Alison comes back to Jimmy at the end after having really suffered, and she can, therefore, be presumed to have realized her own defects and to have returned with the intention of a deeper commitment to Jimmy's love. Jimmy and Alison then revert to the bears-and-squirrels game as a refuge from the world which sets "cruel steel traps" for its animals. It seems likely that this basis of warm, animal love might, on the other side of suffering, lead to a happy and continuing relationship. Some critics, however, feel otherwise and see in the ending merely a temporary escape from realities which will have to be faced later.

Alison's Explanation of the Bears-and-Squirrels Game: Let us see how this symbolic device of the bears-and-squirrels game develops in the play and how the dramatist expects us to be affected by it. The first hint of this game is given to us in the stage-directions at the very beginning of the play, when we are told that, among miscellaneous articles on the chest of drawers, there is a large toy teddy bear and a soft, woolly squirrel. At this time we hardly pay any attention to the toy bear and the toy squirrel. These two toy animals seem to be just a part of the random collection of things on the chest of drawers. However, we become aware of the supreme importance of these two toys in Act II when Alison is talking to Helena about the failure of her marriage to Jimmy. Alison explains that she had married Jimmy in the teeth of the fierce opposition of her parents and that she had subsequently found herself leading a very unsatisfactory life on account of Jimmy's poverty and his lack of an occupation. For quite some time, Alison and her husband had to live under the roof of Hugh who was a friend of Jimmy's. Hugh was a detestable man, says Alison, and she had hardly been able to tolerate him. Jimmy and Hugh used to invade, the homes of her relatives and friends as uninvited guests and they used to take her also along with them. They were gate-crashers who went to people's homes for free food and drinks. Alison further tells Helena that her relations with Jimmy now are such that she is reluctant even to tell Jimmy about her pregnancy. In short, the marriage, according to Alison's account, has come to nothing. Alison then shows Helena the toy bear and the toy squirrel lying on the chest of drawers and says that the bear represents Jimmy and the squirrel represents herself. When Helena does not understand Alison's meaning, Alison explains that it is a game which she and Jimmy have played on certain occasions but that now even that game seems to have lost its purpose. She goes on to say that this game was the only way in which she and Jimmy could escape from everything. This game was a kind of "unholy priest-hole" of being animals to one another. Jimmy and she could imagine themselves as "little furry creatures with little furry brains". In the roles of animals, a bear, and a squirrel, they could feel "dumb, uncomplicated affection" for each other. And they could spend a happy time like "playful, careless creatures in their own cozy zoo for two." Alison further describes the game as "a silly symphony for people who couldn't bear the pain of being human beings." But now, says Alison, even those poor little silly animals are dead, These animals were "all love and no brains," says Alison in conclusion.

The Game, a Way of Forgetting the Actual Reality: The bears-and-squirrels game, then, was a kind of escape for Alison and Jimmy from the harsh realities of life and from the failure to have adjusted themselves to each other in a harmonious relationship. When a man and his wife fail to come to terms, and they find themselves at loggerheads with each other, they yet try to find some common basis for mutual harmony, instead of separating or resorting to a divorce. This would especially be the case where the marriage was one of love and had taken place against the declared wishes of the parents of one of them or the parents of both of them. Alison, having married Jimmy against the wishes of her parents, could not easily break up the marriage, although the breaking point does ultimately come partly because of the role played by Helena. In the case of Alison and Jimmy, the basis for some sort of mutual understanding was found in the bears-and-squirrel game. Animals feel only a dumb, natural affection for each other, without this affection being complicated by intellectual disparities. Nor are there any class-distinctions among animals. The main reason for Jimmy's bitterness against Alison was, after all, his opposition to the middle class which she represented while he himself comes from the working class. The only way that the two could, therefore, discover, in order to forget their respective social positions and the intellectual gulf between them was to imagine themselves as animals, the bear representing masculine strength and the squirrel representing feminine softness and gentleness.

The Fleeting Happiness Provided by this

Game on Occasions: In short, on certain occasions, especially when they made love to each other, Jimmy and Alison used to imagine themselves as a bear and a squirrel respectively, and thus become oblivious of their human character, their rationality, and their social prejudices. One such occasion occurs in Act I when Cliff has gone out of the room for a little while and when, in a moment of mutual tenderness, Jimmy and Alison play this game. Jimmy calls Alison a "beautiful, great-eyed squirrel", "Hoarding, nut-manching squirrel", "With highly polished, gleaming fur, and an ostrich feather of a tail". This almost poetic description affords great joy to Alison and relieves the tension from which she has been suffering as a result of Jimmy's verbal assaults on her. She then begins to produce the sound which a squirrel produces, and she calls him a "jolly super bear, too", "A really marvelous bear", 'Marvellous and beautiful". She jumps up and down in a state of excitement, making little "paw gestures". They are both very happy at this time and they lovingly embrace each other. Alison says that everything just seems to be all right suddenly. Then, in her state of extreme bliss, she is about to tell Jimmy about her pregnancy when Cliff suddenly enters, and the illusion is shattered. The escape into the fantasy-world of animals had made both Jimmy and Alison forget the stern reality and had made them very happy, though happiness proved fleeting as it must have been on similar previous occasions.

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Jimmy's Throwing the Teddy Bear on the Floor: When Jimmy gets ready to go to London to attend upon the dying Mrs. Tanner, and when Alison, whom he wants to take with him, refuses to go, Jimmy feels very distressed. Alison then leaves with Helena for the church while Jimmy picks up the teddy bear gently, looks at it, and then throws it on the floor. This action of Jimmy's shows how disappointed he is feeling with his wife, and what a shock it is to him that she should have proved so callous in the matter of Mrs. Tanner's approaching death. Jimmy at this time feels solitary and forsaken. He badly needed Alison's comradeship at this time, but she has let him down. The teddy bear which symbolizes Jimmy is now of no use to him, and so he discards it. His gesture in throwing the toy bear on the floor shows that the fantasy-world of animals can no longer provide any comfort to him.

Alison's Disillusionment with the Toy-Squirrel: On the following day, when Alison is packing up her things to go with her father to her parental home, she picks up the toy squirrel from the chest of drawers and is about to put it in her suitcase when she changes her mind and puts it back. This action of Alison's also has a symbolic significance. The toy-squirrel was very dear to her because of its past associations, and she would have liked to carry it with her. But she realizes that now, with a change in her relationship with Jimmy whom she has decided to leave, the squirrel can have no meaning. For her, too, the fantasy-world of animals has ceased to exist. Her action in picking up the toy squirrel shows her feeling of nostalgia and her action in putting it back shows her feeling of disillusionment and disappointment.

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The Game Helpful in Bringing About the Reconciliation: Towards the close of the play, when Jimmy bends and takes Alison's trembling body in his arms, Jimmy consolingly says to her that he and she will be together again in their bears cave and their squirrel's nest and will live on honey and on lots and lots of nuts. Both Jimmy and Alison are now in a chastened mood on account of the suffering that they have gone through. And in this mood of renewed tenderness, Jimmy's mind has at once gone back to the bears-and-squirrels game. So he goes on to say that, as animals, they will sing songs about themselves, about warm trees and cozy caves, and will bask in the sunshine. He adds that Alison, the squirrel, will keep her big eyes on his fur and help him to keep his claws in order because he is a rough and untidy kind of bear, while he will see to it that she keeps her sleek, bushy tail shining as it should, because she is a very beautiful squirrel. And at this point, Jimmy also speaks to Alison certain words of caution and warning. He reminds her that even for animals there are cruel steel traps lying everywhere, just waiting to catch mad animals as well as timid ones. And Alison nods in agreement. Finally, Jimmy says in a pathetic voice: ''Poor squirrels!", while Alison says: "Poor bears! Oh, poor, poor bears!". And thus the reconciliation to is helped by the fantasy-world of that game, though it is possible that they are playing this game for the last time because they have now become qualified to face the realities of life.

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Ironing as a Symbolic Device: A few other symbols have also been used in the play. There is Alison's endless ironing, for instance. Her ironing represents the kind of routine with which Jimmy is fed up. The ironing serves to add to Jimmy's boredom and it, therefore, becomes also a symbol of his boredom. In one of his early speeches in the play, Jimmy complains: "Always the same ritual. Reading the papers, drinking tea, ironing." Subsequently, also he shows his impatience with the ironing. It is ironical that, after Alison has gone away and has been replaced by Helena, we find Helena also ironing the clothes like Alison, so that from one point of view at least there is no change in Jimmy's life.

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The Church-Bells as a Symbol: Then there is the sound of the church-bells. Jimmy feels annoyed when he hears this sound. He is opposed to church-going; he is opposed to religious practices and rituals; and the church-bells, being symbolic of the church, annoy him. In Act I, when he has declaimed about the noise that women make, he hears the ringing of the church-bells and says: "Oh, hell! Now the bloody bells have started". The sound of the church-bells is an irritant to him, and he feels that this sound will drive him crazy. The church-bells irritate him also because they suggest in a vague manner the existence of a world other than the one with which Jimmy is familiar, and that other world is the spiritual world.

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The Trumpet: Finally, there is Jimmy's blowing on his trumpet. Although playing on the trumpet is only a hobby for him, it also serves a symbolic purpose in the play. In the first place, it offers Jimmy an escape from the irritating world of routine and is, therefore, a source of some comfort to him. He really thinks that the sound of the trumpet has a wholesome quality. That is why he says that those who cannot appreciate jazz can have no feeling either for music or for human beings. But the sound of the trumpet also suggests an atmosphere of breaking nerves. While Jimmy may resort to his trumpet as an escape, the sound of the trumpet annoys others. For instance, when Alison and Helena hear the sound of the trumpet, they feel very upset. Alison says: "God, I wish he'd lose that damned trumpet". She is afraid that the landlady will ask them to vacate the flat because of the noise Jimmy makes. Helena says that it seems to her that Jimmy wants to kill someone, herself in particular, with the sound of the trumpet. Afterward

, Cliff shouts to Jimmy, saying: "Hey, you horrible man! stop that bloody noise, and come and get your tea!" Thus the sound of the trumpet reinforces the tension of the play by drawing our attention to another point of difference between Jimmy and the other inmates of the house.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF HELENA CHARLES IN OSBORNE'S LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Physical Description: Helena is of the same age as Alison, of medium height, and carefully dressed. When she is first introduced to us, she is busy with preparing tea for the inmates of the house where she is staying as a guest. She is feeling perfectly at home and is assisting Alison in household work. She has a rather judicial expression of alertness on her face, but when this expression softens, she looks very attractive. She possesses a sense of matriarchal authority and she behaves as if she were a gracious representative of some visiting monarch. Actually, she belongs to the middle class which feels perfectly secure in its basic rights. Most men would be anxious to please and to impress a woman of this kind. Even from other young women, like Alison, she receives her due respect and admiration. Jimmy is, however, absolutely impervious to both her strength and dignity.

Helena’s Prolonged Stay at the Porters’ Flat: Helena had come to stay with the Porter’s only for a week or so, but she has been staying for a much longer time, to the great irritation and annoyance of Jimmy. In fact, Jimmy bluntly asks her why she has been staying on longer than originally proposed, and her reply is that she had been asked by Alison to stay on. This reply makes us a little suspicious about her intention in staying on, especially because she is conscious of Jimmy’s hostility to her.

Her Attitude to Jimmy: just as Jimmy is openly hostile to Helena, she too makes no secret of her dislike for him. When speaking privately to Alison, she is quite blunt in her criticism of Jimmy. On hearing Jimmy playing loudly on his trumpet, Helena says to Alison that it seems that Jimmy wants to kill someone with the noise of his trumpet. This is how she expresses her feelings on this point: “It’s almost as if he wanted to kill someone with it. And me in particular. I’ve never seen such hatred in someone's eyes before. It’s slightly horrifying”. A little later in the play, she describes Jimmy to Alison as a real savage.

Helena’s Influence over Alison: Helena seems to have a great hold upon Alison. Under Helena’s influence, Alison agrees to go to church for prayers, But Helena’s influence upon Alison is much greater than her merely succeeding in taking Alison to church. After observing Jimmy’s habitual ill-treatment of Alison, Helena begins to work upon Alison’s mind and urges her to settle once for all how the relationship between her and Jimmy is to be adjusted. Helena does not mince matters when discussing the situation with Alison. She points out that, now when Alison is going to have a baby, she cannot go on living in this way any longer. “Before, it was different—. But you can’t go on living in this way any longer”, says Helena. She goes on to say that either Jimmy should learn to behave properly and look after his wife or Alison must get out of this “mad-house”, this “menagerie.” According to Helena, Jimmy does not seem to know what love or anything else means. But Helena does not stop here. She further says to Alison: “Listen to me. You’ve got to fight him. Fight, or get out. Otherwise, he will kill you”.

Helena’s Verbal Skirmish with Jimmy: At the tea-table Helena asks Jimmy why he tries hard to be unpleasant and offensive and then says that in her opinion he is a very tiresome young man. Jimmy, of course, knows how to hit back. When Jimmy denounces Alison’s mother, Helena intervenes, saying: “Oh for heaven’s sake, don’t be such a bully! You’ve no right to talk about her mother like that”! When Jimmy still does not stop, Helena says: “I feel rather sick, that’s all. Sick with contempt and loathing”. A little later, Jimmy denounces Helena herself, and this time Helena threatens to slap him, saying: “It’s a pity you’ve been so far away all this time. I’d probably have slapped your face.” When Jimmy threatens to hit her back, Helena says: “You probably would. You’re the type.” When a few moments later Jimmy goes out, Helena expresses her reaction to him in the following words addressed to Alison:” You feel all right, don’t you? What’s he been raving about now? Oh, what does it matter? He makes me want to claw his hair out by the roots. When I think of what you will be going through in a few months’ time—and all for him! She then rebukes Cliff for keeping quiet and not doing anything to curb Jimmy’s habit of speaking offensively and insultingly to everybody.

Helena’s Responsibility for  Alison’s Decision to Leave Jimmy: It is Helena who is directly responsible for Alison’s decision to leave Jimmy. She makes Alison more conscious than she was before. Then, without telling Alison, Helena sends a telegram to Alison’s father to come and take away Alison because Alison is very unhappy. She then reveals to Alison her action in having sent the telegram to Alison’s father and obtains a promise from Alison that she will leave the letter to Jimmy and go away with her father. In all this, Helena is apparently acting as Alison’s well-wisher. We have no reason at this point to suspect Helena’s intentions or motives. We ourselves realize that it is dangerous for Alison to continue to stay with Jimmy in her pregnant condition when Jimmy is all the time scolding her and trying to hurt her. (Jimmy himself at this time is unaware of the fact that Alison is pregnant).

Helena’s Slapping, and then Kissing Jimmy: When Alison is leaving the flat with her father, Helena stays back, although it was understood that she too would go with Alison. Helena explains her action in staying behind by saying that she has an appointment in Birmingham on the following day about a job and that she would be staying here for only one more night. After Alison is gone, Jimmy returns from his visit to London and, on his speaking in his usual offensive way to Helena, she slaps him; but, to our great surprise, the very next moment she kisses him passionately and then draws him down beside her. Helena’s action in thus making love to Jimmy naturally gives rise to the suspicion in our minds that she had fallen in love with Jimmy in the very beginning, and that her having urged Alison to go to her parents’ home was a part of her planning to get an opportunity to acquire Jimmy as a lover for herself. However, this is only a conjecture on our part, because the author himself does not say anything to make the position clear.

As Jimmy’s Mistress:  Helena then lives with Jimmy as his mistress for several months, and she is obviously quite happy with him as is he with her. Helena has been able to adjust herself wonderfully to Jimmy’s habitual manner of talking critically and resentfully about things. Helena has fully replaced Alison and is ironing the clothes as Alison used to do. She is even wearing a shirt of Jimmy’s when ironing the clothes, as Alison had done. However, Helena does not seem to have stopped going to church in order to please Jimmy. For instance, Jimmy refers to Helena‘s busy chatting with the priest on the previous day, and Helena admits the fact. We see her fondling his ear and neck, and when he speaks appreciatively to her, she says: “I love you………Oh, my darling………I’ve always wanted you always!”  It seems that Helena has entered into a steady relationship with Jimmy.

The Awakening of Helena’s Conscience and her Desertion of Jimmy: However, there is another big surprise waiting for us. Just when we had reached the conclusion that Helena and Jimmy had found in each other permanent life-partners (though without getting married), Alison returns unexpectedly. Alison’s return brings about an abrupt and revolutionary change in Helena‘s attitude. In spite of discontent, Helena declares that her having lived with Jimmy as his mistress was all wrong when Alison comes back in her own house. This is what she says to Alison: “Alison—I knew that it was all utterly wrong………..I believe in good and evil, and I don’t have to apologize for that.” In other words, Helena’s conscience has now awakened and she cannot continue living sinfully with Jimmy any longer. In fact, she says that throughout the period of her stay with Jimmy, she had been experiencing a sense of the wrong that she had been committing. She even believes that Alison’s miscarriage was a divine judgment on them all.

Our Final Attitude to Helena: Whatever we may think of Helena in the earlier parts of the play, at the end (in Act III, Scene II) we are filled with admiration for her because she gives evidence of a strong will-power and a strong sense of right and wrong. She voluntarily gives him up because of a compulsive urge to undo the wrong she has been doing. Her action in leaving Jimmy is a true sacrifice which we generally see only on the Indian screen.