Role of women in the 50s

Look back in anger (1956) by John Osborne, is a story of a couple (Alison and Jimmy) and a good friend of their two (Cliff), who live together in an apartment. The play tells the story of how different they are, how they try all the time to get along together, and how difficult it is to have a family, recognizing new ways of living and discovering that one never knows someone completely. The most problematic character is Jimmy, who seems to be very aggressive and impolite with her wife while his personality changes when relating to Cliff. Although Alison belongs to a different (higher) social class than the other two, it is not a problem for her to live in “working-class conditions”, Cliff most of the times have the role of moderator in the argues that the couple have, he is neutral and tries to support both of them.

One day after Jimmy pushes Alison to the floor while she was ironing and hurt her hand, she decided to go to the doctor and discovered that she was pregnant, she thought of telling him, but was actually frightened and every time she tried to do so, Jimmy interrupted her. Alison finally told Cliff about her pregnancy at what he responded she should tell Jimmy about it. Worried about her health, and constant disputes with her husband, Alison decided to call her friend Helena in order to feel safe in this new condition she was. Jimmy (still not knowing anything about Alison’s pregnancy) has been hating Helena for years and when she arrives their apartment, he treated her even worse than her wife. After some time, and being a witness of how Alison’s life was, Helena persuaded her to go to her parents’ house to be calmer, she left a note in which she explained him she was pregnant and in my mind I thought he was going to care, but instead immediately after Alison left, Helena and Jimmy start a love relationship even though they seem to hate each other. In my opinion it was just like a business and they did it by necessity.  

 I thought his behavior was going to change after he knew about the baby, clearly it did not and this in particular made me think about the role women and men had at those times, remember it was 1956 and women did not have the same rights than we have now, it was not important, not even significant the “class” they belong to as long as they were women, I think Jimmy represents quite well the mentality of the majority at that time.

We can see that to Jimmy women were replaceable, women just accepted what men wanted because without a man women would lose their value, they would not be able to get a family which was their main objective and wish, a phallic society is represented here by a powerful and aggressive man against two really weak women. 

As it could happen in the past I wonder if it will still happen in the future, or something even more related to us is it happening in the present? Is it happening to us? Is it still a man’s' world?.

After some time, Cliff decided he wanted other things and as he discovered he did not get along with Helen he chose to leave, here we could appreciate another vision of life and women from Cliff, I think he was not agree with what was happening with Jimmy and Helen and so he decided to go. After Saying goodbye in the train station, Helen and Jimmy went for a drink where they found out Alison had come back, Jimmy escaped, and Alison told Helen she had lost the baby, Helen felt guilty for what jimmy and her had been doing and decided to end that relationship. Jimmy went back to the train station where he found Alison waiting for him. She told him about the baby and they got back together. In my opinion he knew she was going to be there waiting for him, even after what she saw (her husband and her friend together) he knew it because she is a women. I would like to finish with a quote by Virginia Wolf, a women who thought differently.