A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney

2336 Words5 Pages

In writing A Taste of Honey, what impact did Shelagh Delaney hope to

have upon her audience? What techniques did she use to achieve these

aims?

Shelagh Delaney wrote "A Taste of Honey" in 1958 when she was only 18.

"A Taste of Honey" is a story about the relationship between a girl

and her mother. The mother, Helen, who is a semi-whore, leaves her

daughter, Jo, to get married to Peter. Jo has a relationship with a

sailor and gets pregnant. The sailor then leaves for duty. Jo meets

Geoff, they become friends and Geoff offers to help Jo bring up the

baby. Helen returns after splitting up with Peter and wants Jo back.

The audience that Shelagh Delaney was writing for consisted mainly of

middle class and upper class people. Her audience were used to seeing

productions about characters leading similar lives to their own. The

stereotypical play was where the men worked and the women stayed at

home, cleaning and cooking. "A Taste of Honey" did not have these

qualities at all. Shelagh Delaney's aims were to shock her audience

into seeing what the real world could be like. The audience of the

time were relatively un-aware of the truth about working classes and

their lives.

This type of play was new to the theatrical stage, and could take time

before the "working class" plays would be accepted and appreciated.

The upper classes were mostly unaware that the lower classes were

leading such different lives to themselves. Shelagh Delaney's play

brought to light what the lower classes lives were like and the

differences between the two classes. The plays of the time had very

structured, clear story lines, with stereotypical happy families.

Shelagh Delaney challenged these ideas about the ideal play along with

man...

... middle of paper ...

... "A Taste of Honey" was inspiration for many writers.

The writers of "Soaps" like Coronation Street and Eastenders will have

been greatly influenced by the new ideas that Shelagh Delaney had

brought into theatre. Shelagh Delaney will have influenced these

writers because she had written a play about a topic that hadn't been

shown on television before and the producers were looking for new

ideas.

Shelagh Delaney's work only has a small relevance to today's audience.

Most of the ideas and concepts in it are aimed to suit the audience of

the 1950's/60's. The theatre audiences of today know that most modern

working classes do not live as the characters do in "A Taste of

Honey".

In "A Taste of Honey" Shelagh Delaney shocked her audience by

presenting them with situations that they were not used to. This

effect created a well structured and enjoyable play.

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