Autobiographical Realism in John Osborn’s Look Back in Anger

Pages:201-202
Arvind Nasier (Research Scholar, C.M.J. University, Meghalaya)

Look Back in Anger (1956) is John Osborne’s most renowned play. He dedicated the play to his beloved father in remembrance of his early death. The title of Look Back in Anger determines the underlying theme: the play is “motivated by outrage at the discovery that the idealized Britain, for which so many had sacrificed themselves during the war years, was inauthentic” (Innes, Modern British Drama: 1890-1990 102). Protagonist Jimmy Porter could no longer live within this kind of society and he got isolated and alienated. Heilpern concluded that Osborne had considered six other titles for the play: Farewell to Anger, Angry Man, Man in a Rage, Bargain from Strength, Close the Cage behind You and My Blood is a Mile High (163). Eventually Osborne chose the title Look Back in Anger, inspired by the Leslie Paul’s homonymous autobiography about “a disillusioned social philosopher […] who lost faith in Soviet Russia during the 1930s” (Heilpern 163-164). His choice made perfect sense because disappointment in society is a major characteristic of both the plays. The plot of Look Back in Anger was affected by A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), a play of the American playwright Tennessee Williams: