Analysis Of 'Look Back In Anger' By Cliff Lewis

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Recommended: Critical overview of looking back in anger

Cliff Lewis is from the working class and, according to the stage directions (page 10), he is the same age of Jimmy; physically is short, dark and big boned; and psychologically, he is easy and relaxed almost to lethargy. He is Jimmy and Alison’s friend and he lives with them. His relaxed humor changes only when Alison is going because he does not want to see anyone hurt. He is considered by Jimmy like someone common and uneducated, and Cliff thinks that Jimmy gets on him because of that (he tells Alison in the page 30). He changes a little bit, because at the beginning of the play, he thinks that he is not capable to live on his own again because he is rough and ordinary (and also because he does not want to leave Alison alone) (Page 27); but at the I think this is a perfect example of a toxic relationship. Kenneth Tynan from the Observer (1956) said that ‘’Look Back in Anger presents post-war youth as it really is (…) all the qualities are there (…) – the drift towards anarchy, the instinctive leftishness, the automatic rejection of ‘official’ attitudes, the surrealist sense of humour…’’ and that is right: Throughout Jimmy’s character it is seen that he has lost all hope for the world and he fights for the working class, also hating the upper classes. I think this is the good point of the character because he is reflecting a real attitude towards society. John Russell Taylor, an English critic, commented that “Look Back in Anger (…) has its inarguable importance as the beginning of a revolution in the British Theatre” and that is also true: this play changed the English Theatre and influenced a lot of playwrights to do their plays; but it is also said by Alan Sillitioe, a writer, that “Osborne didn't contribute to British theatre, he set off a landmine and blew most of it

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