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    Mian Hamayun Nawaz
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    Jimmy Porter is the male protagonist of John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger". He is a 25-year-old university graduate who works at a sweet-stall and is constantly angry and bitter. He criticizes and curses his wife Alison harshly. Jimmy represents the frustration and rebelliousness of postwar Britain. Though angry, he has wit and intelligence. However, his anger ultimately proves destructive to himself and those around him.

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    Critical analysis of Jimmy Porter

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    Jimmy Porter is the male protagonist of John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger". He is a 25-year-old university graduate who works at a sweet-stall and is constantly angry and bitter. He criticizes and curses his wife Alison harshly. Jimmy represents the frustration and rebelliousness of postwar Britain. Though angry, he has wit and intelligence. However, his anger ultimately proves destructive to himself and those around him.

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    549 views2 pages

    Critical Analysis of Jimmy Porter

    Uploaded by

    Mian Hamayun Nawaz
    Jimmy Porter is the male protagonist of John Osborne's play "Look Back in Anger". He is a 25-year-old university graduate who works at a sweet-stall and is constantly angry and bitter. He criticizes and curses his wife Alison harshly. Jimmy represents the frustration and rebelliousness of postwar Britain. Though angry, he has wit and intelligence. However, his anger ultimately proves destructive to himself and those around him.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Critical analysis of Jimmy Porter’s character

    Look Back in Anger’ by John James Osborne marked the beginning of the
    revolution in British Drama. It is a play of protect against the contemporary
    English society which reflects the mood and temper of post-war England .

    Jimmy Porter a tall, thin young man of about twenty-five years is the male
    protagonist of the play. He is the hostile hero who dominates the whole play. It is
    his behavior and thought that has a decisive influence upon the situations and the
    other individuals in the play. He represents the fury and rebelliousness of the
    post-war period. He is a disturbing mixture of sincerity and malice, of tenderness
    and cruelty. Jimmy is a university graduate but even after various trials has no
    proper job and runs a sweet-stall.

    “I said do the papers make you feel you're not so brilliant after all?”

    He is addicted to pipe-smoking. He is also a good eater, although eating well has


    not made him any fatter. Playing the trumpet can be regarded as his hobby
    although it is not liked by any other characters in the play.

    Jimmy is an angry young man whose anger depicts the frustration of modern age.
    Although no proper cause of his wrath is given throughout the play yet we can
    see that he is habitual of cursing and shouting. One principal reason for his anger
    seems to be the disparity between his own working-class origin and the upper
    middle class to which his wife belongs.

    In other words, he is conscious of class distinctions of which he strongly


    disapproves. Another reason for his dissatisfaction is that he is leading a routine
    life which offers no excitement or even variety. He hates Sundays because
    Sundays depress him by their sameness. Jimmy is constantly finding faults with his
    wife. He criticizes her on everything and sometimes becomes very harsh with his
    criticism.

    "Why, why, why, why do we let these women bleed us to death?"


    He is so bitter that he even curses his own wife to lose her child which she
    subsequently does by the end of the play.

    “If you could have a child, and it would die...if only I could watch you face that.”

    Jimmy is also unsparing in his condemnation of Alison’s parents and her brother
    and he has some very hard things to say about each of them, especially about
    Alison’s mother and brother. In spite of Jimmy’s anger, resentment, cynicism, and
    bad manners we must give him some credit for processing a brilliant wit. He
    makes sarcastic and witty remarks on Allison, like criticizing her for her silence by
    saying “You can talk, can’t you? You can express an opinion. Or does the White
    Woman’s Burden make it impossible to think?” Jimmy gives a callous impression
    but we can see his sentimental side too. He is not emotionless but a little
    unexpressive and arrogant. In short he can be considered a villain for the ways in
    which his anger proves to be destructive for himself and to those in his life.

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