To what extent can one seperate the personal from the social in Essay

To what extent can one seperate the personal from the social in discussing the 'anger' of Jimmy Porter in the play Look Back in Anger - Essay Example Therefore, the anger of Jimmy in the play is both personal and social and the reader can very well experience the mental struggles and hardships that Jimmy undergoes in his day to day life. In fact, Jimmy raises his voice against all sorts of established and conventional social, gender, class and sexual relations; however, he does not point out any solutions and goes on complaining about each and everything he comes across. As Saugata Mukherjee points out, â€Å"The young, educated English youth, portrayed in Look Back in Anger, is a confused soul and the post-war changeover in the character of international politics raises doubts to which he finds no answers† (Mukherjee, 2006, p. 130) Jimmy feels that he is living in a dreary world where â€Å"there aren’t any good, brave causes left† (Osborne, p. 89). He tries to escape himself in to the animal world and the Bear and Squirrel game in the play is such an attempt of escape from the real world. However, the couples understand the inability of the ‘furry animals’ to bring about any positive changes and Alison rightly confesses that the Bear and Squirrel game is nothing but â€Å"a silly symphony for people who couldn’t bear the pain of human beings any longer† (Osborne, p. 46). However Jimmy does not want to live a life of inaction. He is fed up with the routine life that he leads. Sundays are so depressing for Jimmy as he can no longer cope up with the same ritual of â€Å"reading the paper, drinking tea, ironing† (Osborne, p. 8). Thus, for him life is a replica of the same routine and this adds to his dissatisfaction with the new age. He despises the life of inaction that Cliff and Alison lead and cries out: â€Å"Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm† (Osborne, p. 10). He refers to the Edwardian world of Colonel Redfern as a symbol of the bygone era and the colonel’s world provides him inspiration to aspire for changes. Similarly, he retreats to Jazz