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.

Relationship between Blanche and Mitch

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, the characters Blanche and Mitch seem to be completely different from each other. Blanche has a lustful life, whereas Mitch has devoted himself to his sick mother. Nevertheless, they are greatly attracted to each other because of their similar desires. Unfortunately, Blanche and Mitch's love ended up in tragedy because they were not able to escape from the society's expectations: one can have a healthy relationship only if they are pure.

Character analysis of Stanley Kowalski

Blanche and Mitch are extremely different in their characters. Blanche means blank, or white, which has great relations with the qualities of the character Blanche. She is eager to cover herself up from her intolerable history—her being a prostitute after her lover died. She attempts to shroud herself look clean and pure through the maneuvers and her superficial outlooks, by dressing white clothes. Such desperate attempts show her eagerness to follow the society’s expectations. Despite her efforts, her past could not be erased. On the other hand, Mitch is actually pure and naïve. Although he has a masculine body on the outside, he cannot hide his pure characters. Mitch deeply cares for his sick mother. He tells his mother everything that he knows; this can be implied from the part of the story in which he told Blanche that he told his mother about Blanche. Such depictions show that their characters are completely opposite. Nevertheless, although their characters are very different, they fall in love with each other because of their similarities in their lustful desires.

Is Blanche responsible for her own tragic fate?

Blanche admitted in the story, “I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! Yes—I want Mitch…very badly!” (page 95). After periods of regret and sorrow—after the death of her young husband—and shame—after a short period of her life as a prostitute— her mentality had been completely destructed. The destruction of her mind had led her to lies and maneuvers, as an escape from the reality. Another escape from the reality was Mitch because he had the masculinity on which she could rely. However, it was not only Blanche who needed a shelter. Mitch proposed to Blanche, “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be—you and me, Blanche?” (page 116) Mitch had been through similar emotions of that of Blanche after the death of his lover. After hearing Blanche's story about her lover, he had felt a kinship. With his sick mother, he also needed somewhere he could shelter on. The kinship had given him a reason he could rely on Blanche as an escape from the unfortunate reality, protect her, and fall in love with her. Unfortunately, their desires for each other could not be fulfilled. Nevertheless, such a portrayal of their desires for each other make the ending of the story seems even more tragic.

Character analysis of Blanche Dubois

    Their love ended in tragedy despite their desires to have each other, because of their inability to fulfill the social expectations. Blanche's attempt to shroud herself with superficial image and lies failed when Stanley revealed her history-about her prostitute life. When Mitch had found out that Blanche had been lying to her, his idealistic plans for the future foundered. Blanche was now unqualified for a wife for a pure man like him because of the social bias. When Mitch found out, he was angry not only at Blanche but also the society that was halting him from having affections toward such a poor woman, only because of her unacceptable history. Blanche’s mentality completely fell apart because a man she had felt love for suddenly faced her just as any other men she had encountered in the past. As a result, Blanche was sent to a mental hospital, and Mitch cried, finally realizing his biased attitudes and regretting his actions. The author Tennessee Williams portrayed such a tragic ending in order to criticize the reality that desires for love cannot overcome the social bias during this era.

To know more about A streetcar named desire

Blanche and Mitch’s tragic ending reflects the bias that had been in existence. Although they had great differences in their lives and qualities, they had similarities in their desires to have each other. Nevertheless, they were unable to overcome their differences because of the social expectations, demanding them to fall apart. Thus, their love story ends in tragedy, not a “happily ever after”.

Role of Stella in 'a streetcar named desire' by Tennessee Williams

Introduction: The glaring contrast and fierce struggle between the two worlds of Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois are the main themes of Williams' play. These two worlds are so diametrically opposed that they can never meet. Thus, in order to bring these two together, Williams has created Stella. By simply having her married to Stanley and by having her be Blanche's sister, Williams then creates the perfect opportunity of bringing these two opposing worlds together under one roof.

Stella in dilemma: Stella DuBois Kowalski is, then, a vital part in the struggle between these two worlds, and she is also the bridge between these two worlds. Both Blanche and Stanley are guilty of trying to involve Stella in their quarrel. Both attempt to win Stella over as an ally. Stella is the battlefield for those two warring factions, and both try to use her to accomplish their own ends. But Stella also seems to be the only answer to peace, for she is the only bridge between these two apparent opposites. She comes from Blanche's refined, educated, and sensitive world. She has, therefore, attained a mixture either consciously or unconsciously.

Blanche’s objection against Stanley: It is apparent that Stella is a battleground for the DuBois-Kowalski feud. Blanche continually tries to turn Stella away from Stanley, by belittling him every chance she has. She tries to prevent her sister from returning to her husband after Stella had been beaten by Stanley during the card game. Blanche does not try to hide her opinion of Stanley when she decides to tell Stella of her true feelings for her brother-in-law. She calls Stanley "common," "bestial," and "sub-human." Stella seems to become the tangible symbol of victory between the two warring parties. Blanche does her best in trying to grasp this symbol for herself. Blanche's influence is definitely weighty. she says,

 "Mr. Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself to think of anything else!" These are words that most likely would come from Blanche's own mouth and Stella would never have uttered them before Blanche's arrival. Thus, Blanche has had some influence on Stella.

Stanley’s trying to scold Blanche: 

But Blanche is not alone in her hopes to win over Stella, for Stanley is also guilty of trying to mold his wife's mind. He is continually trying to convince Stella that they had a better life together before her sister's arrival. He wants Stella to ask her sister to leave, and he continues his efforts in doing this. He does not need Stella's consent to throw Blanche out of his house but he strives to get his wife's approval. Stella is reminded of the "colored lights" of their sex life together and of the happiness they once shared. He delights in telling Stella of her sister's immorality, hoping that this too will turn his wife against Blanche. Stanley tells her that it will be all right once again between them as soon as Blanche leaves.

But Stella's function is not just to be an object in this struggle, to be merely swayed from one side to the other. She also seems to be the only hope of a compromise between these two different backgrounds. As Blanche and Stanley represent two diametrically opposed worlds, so Stella represents a bridge between the two poles.

Stella’s condition: But one should not consider Stella as a strong character. She is far from this. Blanche appears to be the weaker of the two sisters but this is a false impression. If Stella were a strong character, a three-way conflict would appear in the play. Stella would have a definite standard of action and would pursue this throughout the course of the play. But her definite vacillation between the two opposite poles of Blanche and Stanley is only possible because of her weakness. This quality in her character enables her to become a pawn in the death struggle between the two major characters. This weakness alone makes her a battleground. Stella does not attain the blend of the two worlds because she wills it; they simply come together to form this blend without her assistance. She remains passive throughout the play.

Thus, the character of Stella fulfills two basic functions. She is deeply involved in the battle between her sister and her husband. She is torn between the two factions unmercifully. But she is also the only one who can attempt to bridge the gap between these two arch enemies and all that they represent. She certainly does have some thoughts independent of the dynamic forces in her home; however, on the whole, she maintains a passive role.

Blanche is responsible for her tragedy

Blanche was living in a southern plantation and was educated in a traditional way. When she was little, her character was kind and innocent. She was in the expectation of a beautiful future. But with the declination of her whole family, Blanche began to feel the hardships and could not confront the reality and the injustice of her life. The first thing stroke her was that her husband Allen, who was once a kind and pure man, was discovered to be a gay. When she discovered that, she got extremely astonished because of her innocent attitude toward sex and the puritan morality. When her husband turned to her for an excuse, she scolded him by saying his behavior “disgusted” her. Her words finally resulted in Allen’s suicide. So Blanche had been punishing herself from her deep mind from that time. At the same time, Blanche’s whole family suffered a sequence of incidents. She was tortured by all these misfortunes that made her gloomy and she could not face with the sharp drop in her life. Blanche expected that she could do away with these bounds and has a new life that is carefree. These factors made her be detained in an unbalanced state.

In her struggle, Blanche had chosen a wrong way, unfortunately. She began to have intimate relationships with strange men due to the simple idea. Blanche wanted to fill her emptiness as well as punish herself. She fought against the tradition via her sexual relations with men. The innocent personality of her leads her to easily believe in men and rely on men to resolve all the problems of her life. Contrary to her hopes, she could not make up the hurt she had suffered although she had gained temporary happiness. Moreover, she gradually lost her fame and possession owing to her behavior and was treated as a dissolute woman. Then she was expelled out of her hometown and was going to live with her sister’s house. Despite the fact that she was located in a bad circumstance, she still hungers for a bright future.

A Streetcar Named Desire

Nevertheless, Blanche could not evaluate the current situation correctly in a different circumstance. She often went extremely which indicates her contradictory instinct. One the one hand, she had a rational attitude toward the current situation. For her tomorrow and her sister’s benefit, Blanche tried to do what she could. She tried carefully to explain the loss of Belle Reve to Stanley, preventing the conflicts between Stanley and her; she had gained an insight into Stanley and suggested her sister leave him. She also shared mutual tastes with Mitch and loved him courageously. On the other hand, she established an illusion to escape her from the actual world. If she met something dedicate, she always sang herself into the illusion to alleviate her pains and search for comfort. Besides, she still wanted to retain her past image in the expectation of enhancing her confidence. Nonetheless, the miserable past life often turned up in her mind and made her hysterical.

The split of her personality made her incapable of making the right options when facing the reality. She clung to her southern cultural character and behaved her picky styles. While in a brand-new circumstance, her style is no longer a rational way of life. After she came to her sister’s home, she implied her sister that her life is of a low standard. She rejected Eunice’s kind suggestions and was not patient with other’s kindness. Actually, she was fearful that she would be deceived and hurt for another time. Blanche cares too much about the other’s views of her since she was looking forward to obtaining other’s acceptance and concealing her past. When her sister required her to “volunteer the information if you want to tell me”, Blanche replies: “you thought I’d be fired? ...I was too exhausted by all. . . suggested I take a leave of absence” (A Streetcar Named Desire, p.1826). Thus we can conclude that Blanche’s heart was hurt for another time by her sister’s question. Blanche asked whether there was any liquor and said that it can release her from stress. Blanche rambled in her statement in order to keep her little confidence and prevent her from being hurt again. She had concealed her miserable past and anxiety, so her sister could not know it and offer her help timely, and her sister didn’t even speak to her at the end of the play.

Williams had successfully characterized Blanche’s brittle, sensitive and innocent personality which caused the tragic fate of her. She is sentenced to be rejected by the society since she could not be accepted by the society. Regardless of the fact that she had attempted to demonstrate a new image, her contradictory personality made her incapable of confronting the actual world and establishing a new perspective on life. She strived positively for other’s respect, but she was not confident with herself. Therefore, the tragic fate of Blanche rests with the complex experiences under her complex personality.

Brief summary of A Streetcar Named Desire

After the loss of her family home, Belle Reve, to creditors, Blanche DuBois travels from the small town of laurel   to the New Orleans French quarter  to live with her younger, married sister, Stella , and brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski , Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, has nowhere else to go.

Blanche DuBois  tells Stella that she has taken a leave of absence from her English-teaching position because of her nerves (which is later revealed to be a lie). Blanche laments the shabbiness of her sister’s two-room flat. She finds Stanley loud and rough, eventually referring to him as "common". Stanley, in return, does not care for Blanche's manners and dislikes her presence.

Stanley later questions,, Blanche DuBois  about her earlier marriage. Blanche had married when she was very young, but her husband died, leaving her widowed and alone. The memory of her dead husband causes Blanche some obvious distress. Stanley, worried that he has been cheated out of an inheritance, demands to know what happened to Belle Reve, once a large plantation and the DuBois family home. Blanche hands over all the documents pertaining to Belle Reve. While looking at the papers, Stanley notices a bundle of letters that Blanche emotionally proclaims is personal love letters from her dead husband. For a moment, Stanley seems caught off guard over her proclaimed feelings. Afterward, he informs Blanche that Stella is going to have a baby. This can be seen as the start of Blanche's mental upheaval.

The night after, Blanche DuBois ‘s arrival, during one of Stanley Kowalski ‘s poker parties, Blanche meets Mitch, one of Stanley’s poker player buddies. His courteous manner sets him apart from the other men. Their chat becomes flirtatious and friendly, and Blanche easily charms him; they like each other. Suddenly becoming upset over multiple interruptions, Stanley explodes in a drunken rage and strikes Stella. Blanche and Stella take refuge with the upstairs neighbor, Eunice. When Stanley recovers, he cries out from the courtyard below for Stella to come back by repeatedly calling her name until she comes down and allows herself to be carried off to bed. After Stella returns to Stanley Kowalski , Blanche and Mitch sit at the bottom of the steps in the courtyard, where Mitch apologizes for Stanley's coarse behavior.

 Blanche DuBois  is bewildered that Stella would go back to her abusive husband after such violence. The next morning, Blanche rushes to Stella and describes Stanley as a subhuman animal, though Stella assures Blanche that she and Stanley are fine. Stanley overhears the conversation but keeps silent. When Stanley comes in, Stella hugs and kisses him, letting Blanche know that her low opinion of Stanley does not matter.

As the weeks pass, Blanche and Stanley continue to not get along. Blanche has hope in Mitch and tells Stella that she wants to go away with him and not be anyone’s problem. During a meeting between the two, Blanche confesses to Mitch that once she was married to a young man, Allan Grey, whom she later discovered in a sexual encounter with an older man. Grey later committed suicide when Blanche told him she was disgusted with him. The story touches Mitch, who tells Blanche that they need each other. It seems certain that they will get married.

Later on, Stanley repeats gossip to Stella that he has gathered on Blanche, telling her that Blanche was fired from her teaching job for having sex with a student and that she lived at a hotel known for prostitution (the Flamingo). Stella erupts in anger over Stanley’s cruelty after he states that he has also told Mitch about the rumors, but the fight is cut short as she goes into labor and is sent to the hospital.


                      A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

As Blanche DuBois  waits at home alone, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche with the stories that Stanley has told him. At first, she denies everything, but eventually confesses that the stories are true. She pleads for forgiveness, but an angry and humiliated Mitch refuses her the chance at an honorable relationship and attempts to sexually assault her instead. In response, Blanche screams "fire", and he runs away in fright.

Hours before Stella has the baby, Stanley and Blanche are left alone in the apartment. Blanche has descended into a fantasy that an old suitor of hers is coming to provide financial support and take her away from New Orleans. Stanley goes along with the act before angrily scorning Blanche's lies and behavior, and advances toward her; in response, she threatens to glass him but is overpowered. Stanley rapes Blanche, imminently resulting in her psychotic crisis.

Weeks later, at another poker game at the Kowalski apartment, Stella and her neighbor, Eunice, are packing Blanche's belongings. Blanche has suffered a complete mental breakdown and is to be committed to a mental hospital. Although Blanche has told Stella about Stanley's assault, Stella cannot bring herself to believe her sister's story. When a doctor and a matron arrive to take Blanche to the hospital, she initially resists them and collapses on the floor in confusion. Mitch, present at the poker game, breaks down in tears. When the doctor helps Blanche up, she goes willingly with him, saying: "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." The play ends with Stanley continuing to comfort Stella, but also fondling with her blouse, while the poker game continues uninterrupted, as Steve says: "This game is a seven-card stud."

character analysis of Stanley Kowalski

Audience members may well see Stanley as an egalitarian hero at the play’s start. He is loyal to his friends and passionate to his wife. Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that is evident in his love of work, of fighting, and of sex. His family is from Poland, and several times he expresses his outrage at being called “Polack” and other derogatory names. When Blanche calls him a “Polack,” he makes her look old-fashioned and ignorant by asserting that he was born in America, is an American, and can only be called “Polish.” Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America to which Blanche doesn’t belong because she is a relic from a defunct social hierarchy. He sees himself as a social leveler, as he tells Stella in Scene Eight.

Stanley’s intense hatred of Blanche is motivated in part by the aristocratic past Blanche represents. He also (rightly) sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him and his friends into thinking she is better than they are. Stanley’s animosity toward Blanche manifests itself in all of his actions toward her—his investigations of her past, his birthday gift to her, his sabotage of her relationship with Mitch.

In the end, Stanley’s down-to-earth character proves harmfully crude and brutish. His chief amusements are gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideas and imagination. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. Stanley shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The play ends with an image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. The wrongfulness of this representation, given what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into question society’s decision to ostracize Blanche.