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.