94. Jahresbericht des Bundes-Realgymnasiums Steyr 1976/77

example of his behaviour towards Alison throughout the whole play. He always Iooks for some reason to qu a rr e! with her to make he r break down but he never succeeds in ,doin g so beca use Cliff ma nages again and again to calm him down. Howeve r, when Helena comes, she manages to divide Alison a1ld Jimmy completely. Alison's hasty departure to her parents does not surprise one if one knows that she is pregnant and knows about Jinm1y's strange !o,ve-hate-relationship to her too (for it is rather uncommon to marry somebody to get one ' s own back 011 the class he comes from). Jimmy's relationship to Helena is quite interes ting, too. After he h;,, called her his natural enemy a nd after th ey bave d isliked each other from first sight, they fall in love. In th e first scenes of Act llI Helena even repOa- ces Alison, but she leaves Jimmy when Alison re turns . After Jimmy has tried to mak e Alison break down si nce th e day of their ma rri age, he is successful in the last scenes, because Alison has lost the baby. Osborne ' s characterization of the people i n the play is a ma ster-pi ece. Jimmy, for example, has become the symbol of the so-called „Angry Young Men ". lt does not surprise me that his generation is angry, beca use they have see n the United Kingdom win World War TI and then lose its colonies, its leadin.g position in Europe, and even a war against such an unimportant state as Egypt. Tl1e only thing that has not changed is the behaviour of the British, they are still arrogant 1 and pretendin g to be a world power. The reasons for his marriage to Alison are no t only love but also a sort of revenge on th e „Upper Middle Cl ass " . Al ison is a cha racteri stic upper-class girl. Sh e was brought up in lndi a , where her family li ved because her fath er served as a colonel in some Maharaja's army, therefore she knew nothin g about the sit uation in the United Kingdom. However, Jimmy manages to show her that he intell'ds to use her ,as a hostage against the class she comes from . So it is logica l that Alison' s former friends dislike Jimmy. As she -is go ing to have a baby she wants to have peace all'd her fr.iend Helena gives he r the advice to go back to he r parents . Helena opposes Jimmy as long as Alison is present, bu t then she turns over and her hat e changes into love. In the followin g few weeks Helena has to Iower h er standa rd s to get on well with Jimmy and as she has ,a strenger will thm1 Alison this is not easy for her . Since she does not need Cliff to calm Jimmy down and because CliH is fond of Alison he intends to leave them. However, as AMson comes back to Jimmy, Cliff will probabl y stay with them beca use they wi ll need a mediator again. This early play of John O sborne, the a uthor of „Tl1e World of Paul Slickey " and „A Patriot for Me", is certainly on e of th e best exampl es of mod ern literat ure. lt is not onl y interes ting because of its fantastic drawing of characters but also because of th e probl ems it deals with . The economic situation of the United Kingdom has pe rhaps grown wo rse since 1954 a nd the probl ems between the various classes are ,still not solved. However, th e most interesting problems are the problems between Jimmy and Ali son, two young people who have 1 decided to li ve together a nd to look for a way to do so. (Slightly adapted) 22