Look Back in Anger Play Analysis

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Look Back in Anger is a play about the effects of British society on the citizens of England. Its plot is created around the main character, Jimmy, a tragic person but at the same time, an educated man, who realizes the situation of the country he’s living in and can’t do anything about it. His frustration is built around the tragedy of living in a country that is based on oppression and confidence. He is looking back to the old Empire, hence the title “Look back in anger”.

I am going to discuss the concept of Schkolvsky, Defamiliarization, applied on this play written by John Osborne. Defamiliarization is a technique, found in art, which presents familiar things and actions as we have just discovered them. It has been the main criteria for modern writers in creating literature. In this play, defamiliarization is found almost everywhere, family life, characters, and relationships. It offers a fresh perspective on the family life of a married couple, Jimmy and Alison, who live together with their friend, Cliff.

The play begins with the image of a normal Sunday morning in the life of a married couple, Jimmy and Alison. She is ironing the clothes, and he’s reading the newspaper. The defamiliarization is introduced through the third character, Jimmy’s friend, Cliff, who lives with the couple. When we think of a married couple, we immediately imagine 2 people living together, in most cases, happily. But here, we find the “best friend” living with them. As I was saying, you picture them, in most cases, happily married. In this case, not only that they don’t get along anymore, but they treat each other very bad. It is well known that the husband has to respect his wife, well, Jimmy isn’t even polite to his wife. He feel...

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...doesn’t belong there. In the end, Jimmy and Alison are left alone, playing their game of bear and squirrel.

The ambiguity is shown throughout the play. Its potential stands up through metaphors and symbols such as the bear and squirrel game which appears as an escape from their failed marriage, the church bell, a symbol of wedding but also for religion, which Jimmy despises “Oh, hell! Now the bloody bells have started” , or the trumpet that has the role to make Jimmy escape from the routine and the reality. Repetition is also a symbol for defamiliarization, it is very common for modern writers. In this play we find repetition between the acts I and II, the same Sunday morning as a routine, the trumpet playing, the church bells, the bear and squirrel game.

Works Cited

http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.ro/2010/11/what-symbolic-devices-does-osborne-use.html

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