Social, Cultural, historical elements of A Taste of Honey

Social, Cultural, historical elements of A Taste of Honey

Introduction:

`A Taste of Honey’ highlights many issues which would have been easily

understood for audiences in the 1950s. Many issues are raised in

which the audience can relate to. Delaney’s intention was to make the

play realistic, as therefore it is highly influenced by

Stavislavski’s “kitchen sink” theatre (genre).

When the play was written, society was very different from today.

Issues such as homosexuality which people at this time weren’t really

aware of, therefore it was not accepted. Also status (financial) seems

to play a vital role in your future - i.e.you had to be well educated

to pass your 11+ to go to the grammar school, which provided the best

education. Society was repressive, especially for women who had the

domination of the opposite gender, which they had to abide to.

Therefore, women were very much the weaker sex in this era, and there

wasn’t even the acceptability for them to go to work due to seeing

their role as housewives, looking after their family and their homes,

which was how their success was measured. However, throughout `A

Taste of Honey’ Delaney portrays the realities of a working class

background, the prejudices people had to endure, (discrimination

against homosexuality and race) and how the characters in the play

portray how different they are from the rest of society. However, the

1950s sparked off many changes throughout society. For a start,

people started to become more cultured as, for example, musicals such

as `My Fair Lady’ was a huge success due to the fact that many people

could relate to the story of a working class lady’s struggle to

educate herself and be respected by the middle classes. In 1955,

James Dean shot to fame in `Rebel Without A Cause’ which highlighted

the problems of a teenage boy in a repressive society, and

effectively allows ‘teenagers’ to be recognised. Also television was

starting to increase in popularity as soaps such as `Coronation

Street’ and `The Groves’ were widely watched, due to their realistic

approach of working class people’s lives in the current society. Too

add to this, just prior to ‘A Taste of Honey’ was John Osbourne’s

‘Look Back In Anger’(1956), which was considered as groundbreaking and

controversial due it dealing with people who didn’t agree or fit in

with society. Theref...

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...how there is no seriousness involved.

The couples only have each other for entertainment and to amuse

themselves in some cases, i.e. Peter and Helen:

Helen: ‘’Listen, love, I’m old enough to be your mother.’’ (page 18)

Peter: ‘’Now you know I like this mother and son relationship.’’

Also their is boy and Jo, and Geof and Jo:

Jo: ‘’Go on, I’ve always wanted to know about people like you.’’

(page 48)

Geof: ‘’Go to Hell.’’

Jo: ‘’I won’t snigger, honest I won’t. Tell me some of it, go

on. I bet you’ve never told a woman before,’’

The comedy is mostly reflected from the language, with use of sexual

puns and innuendoes and jokes throughout the play. This is guaranteed

to ensure the play is more light-hearted and fits in with

Stanislavski’s idea of `soap operas.’ If it was too serious and

depressing the audience might switch off to important elements of the

plot. An example of this in highlighted mainly through Helen and

Peter’s dialogue:

Jo: ‘’She should be in bed.’’ (page 19, the pun is the

fact that Jo means that Helen’s illness is why

Peter: ‘’I know she should.’’ she should be in bed,

however Peter twist this to make have a sexual reference).