JIMMY’S VIEWS ABOUT THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY OF HIS TIME IN THE PLAY
The theme deals with the conflict between the social classes in Victorian/English Society which is highlighted in the marriage between Jimmy and Alison. Jimmy is about 25 years old. He is married to Alison Redfem. The playwright describes him as ‘capable of cruelty and sincerity’. He’s tall and slim and has few friends because of his ‘apparent honesty’. He is a university drop out. His view of the structure of Victorian Society is that it is divided into working class and middle/upper class people and based on education and privilege. Jimmy drops out of the university after one year. He and his friend, Cliff, are decidedly working class, except that ( ‘some of his mother’s relatives are pretty posh’. His wife, Alison and her parents are of a stable middle class family. Alison’s brother, Nigel is fairly well-to-do. Her father and mother are fairly well to do too. He sees that all is not well between the classes and he hates Alison’s parents, particularly her mother. for not wanting him to marry Alison. He does not like Alison’s friend, Helena, though they temporarily fall in love and she leaves him to save her conscience. After he has married Alison in a rush, he and his friend Hugh Tanner, drag her along to gate-crash her parents’ middle class friends’ parties and cause a stir. He finds working class life routine and monotonous because people are generally jobless. They accept any job like the sweets-stall to make ends meet, He and his friend, Cliff, pour over the weekend newspaper, aimlessly to kill boredom. Alison and Helena while away the time ironing. For him, love across-class marriages have built-in instability. His marriage to Alison is not conventional; it is unconventionally blessed in Church. Alison’s parents attend the ceremony uninvited. The marriage itself remains stormy, Jimmy and Alison begin to make a few sacrifices for love e.g. when Alison returns to Jimmy after she moved out of the house. Alison's Parents’ marriage is, however, stable because it is founded on class, love and convention. Alison’s father, Colonel Redfern feels guilty about how he treats Jimmy.
JIMMY PORTER’S SENSE OF ALIENATION IN THE PLAY:
The play deals with the frustrating social life of post-World-War-II Britain and its negative effect on relationships Jimmy shows his frustration in his relation with his friend, Cliff and his wife, Alison as well as in what he does as a middle-class man. Jimmy Porter is the protagonist. He is tall and thin and about 25 years. He is married to Alison and smokes a pipe. He and Cliff are friends and all three live together in a flat. He is educated, unemployed but operates a sweets stall. Often drinks tea, and blows his jazz trumpet to keep off boredom.
Jimmy is highly educated. Jimmy's education has not been obtained through the old, respected institutions: “According to him, it’s not even red brick. but white tile’ (Alien-Act 2Sc.1) (iii) He finds himself out of job because he does not have the contacts which will get him a high placement He therefore feels estranged from the establishment and becomes increasingly frustrated and angry and lashes out on Cliff, his friend and Alison his wife at the least provocation. He marries Alison in an unconventional and private manner to defy her parents: preference. Right after marrying Alison , he takes her along and gate crashes parties of well known middle class families in an embarrassingly untidy or inappropriate clothing. He nicknames Alison “Pusillanimous’. feeling that Britain has lost its identity: Jimmy finds it difficult to achieve stability because, according to him, Britons are ‘living in the American age’. He and others like him are drifting: ‘Our youth is slipping away’.
Jimmy’s responsibility for his own alienation can be attributed to his own haughty and self-righteous attitude to life. His feeling of being wronged by society and wanting to pay back. His earlier failed attempt to truly love Alison and Helena. He is redeemed by Alison's sudden, return and their resuming lives as husband and wife (He is a squirrel and she is a bear).
COMPARISON OF JIMMY AND CLIFF AS FRIENDS:
The play deals with the frustrating social life of Post-World-Wai-ll Britain and its negative effects on relationships. Jimmy shows his frustration in his relation With his fiend, Cliff and his wife. Alison. Jimmy and Clift’s friend is sustained by their contrasting attitudes to life. Jimmy Porter is the protagonist. He is tall and thin and about 25 years. He is married to Alison and smokes a pipe. He and Cliff are friends live together. Cliff Lewis is short. dark, and big boned and the same age as Jimmy, He lives with Jimmy and his Wife in the couple's attic bed-sitter and assists Jimmy in his business. (3) Both Jimmy and Cliff come from middle class background. Jimmy is a drop-out educated from the university but unemployed except that Jimmy operates a sweet Stall that is given to him by his friend, Hugh Tannet’s mother. Their relationship is marked by boredom in the flat they share as Cliff is often asked to make tea to kill off their boredom, on Sundays, they are both glued to newspapers and quarrelling over who is more educated about the ongoing news.
There are Complications in their relationships and at the centre of the complication is Alison, Jimmy's wife, & Cliff is opposed to Jimmy's ill-treatment of Alison and falls for her. Jimmy does not even care when Cliff and Alison are in a compromising situation. Even when Cliff commends Alison, Jimmy does not appreciate. Jimmy can be vulgar and sometimes insults his friends as ignorant.
Regardless of their amicable banter, Cliff is unhappy, Cliff suddenly decides to leave Jimmy to Alison when he is of no use to the relationship.
ALISON’S REACTIONS TO JIMMY’S ATTACKS ON HER FAMILY
The theme deals with the conflict between the social classes which is highlighted in the marriage between Jimmy and Alison. Alison Porter is Jimmy Porter’s wife. She is the daughter of Colonel Redfem. She is from the upper class. Alison is described in the play as “elusive personality, tall, slim, dark”. She is about the same age (25years) as Jimmy and Cliff. She is a friend of Helena. She is Cliff’s best friend and confidant.
Jimmy Porter is Alison’s husband. Jimmy is well educated and informed; a university dropout. He runs a sweet-stall together with Cliff. He is described as ‘tall, thin, young man of about 25 years of age’. He is a ‘disconcerting mixture of Sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting... cruelty’. Jimmmy’s attacks on Alison and her family when Jimmy derisively asks Alison if she feels the papers make her not so brilliant. He often insults Alison for her inability to react to the problems of her social class. He calls Alison ‘Lady Pusillanimous... wanting of firmness of mind, of small courage, having a little mind, mean cowardly, timid of mind...’ He disparages Alison’s brother, Nigel and calls him “the straight-backed, chinless monster who went to Sandhurst”.
Jimmy condemns Nigel’s lifestyle. He says “He’s a big chap? ... The Platitude from outer space... Now, Nigel is just about as vague as you can get without being actually invisible”. Jimmy attacks Nigel and Alison, labelling them “Sycophantic, Phlegmatic and Pusillanimous”. Jimmy insults Alison's Mummy and Daddy, calling them “militant, arrogant and full of malice”. He condemns Alison’s father’s disposition to re-live the romantic past.
Alison takes Jimmy attacks on his family “tirades calmly” without saying anything and ignoring him. She shows she is “used to these carefully rehearsed attacks’ and ‘carries on with her ironing’. She deliberately attempts to divert attention to the other issues such as asking Cliff if he wants to smoke. She takes Helena’s advice to leave Jimmy.
Alison's reactions demonstrate maturity and love. Her reactions highlight Jimmy's needless and misdirected anger against socio-economic problems in the society. It paves the Way for Allisson's return and enables Jimmy to take Alison back and the two to enjoy their true love as bear and squirrel
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