Look Back in Anger - John Osbourne

Jimmy: "[Don’t try and patronize me. (Turning to CLIFF.)] She’s so clumsy. I watch for her to do the same things every night. The way she jumps on the bed, as if she were stamping on someone’s face, and draws the curtains back with a great clatter, in that casually destructive way of hers. It’s like someone launching a battleship. Have you ever noticed how noisy women are? (Crosses below chairs to LC.) Have you? The way they kick the floor about, simply walking over it? Or have you watched them sitting at their dressing tables, dropping their weapons and banging down their bits of boxes and brushes and lipsticks? (He faces her dressing table.) I’ve watched her doing it night after night. When you see a woman in front of her bedroom mirror, you realize what a refined sort of a butcher she is. (Turns in.) Did you ever see some dirty old Arab, sticking his fingers into some mess of lamb fat and gristle? Well, she’s just like that. Thank God they don’t have many women surgeons! Those primitive hands would have your guts out in no time. Flip! Out it comes, like the powder out of its box. Flop! Back it goes, like the powder puff on the table. [CLIFF (grimacing cheerfully). Ugh! Stop it!] (Moving upstage.) She’d drop your guts like hair clips and fluff all over the floor. You’ve got to be fundamentally insensitive to be as noisy and as clumsy as that. (He moves C, and leans against the table.) I had a flat underneath a couple of girls once. You heard every damned thing those bastards did, all day and night. The most simple, everyday actions were a sort of assault course on your sensibilities. I used to plead with them. I even got to screaming the most ingenious obscenities I could think of, up the stairs at them. But nothing, nothing, would move them. With those two, even a simple visit to the lavatory sounded like a medieval siege. Oh, they beat me in the end – I had to go. I expect they’re still at it. Or they’re probably married by now, and driving some other poor devils out of their minds. Slamming their doors, stamping their high heels, banging their irons and saucepans – the eternal flaming racket of the female."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I really like this monologue and I have had previous experience playing the role of Jimmy Porter. I like the character because we share some of the same traits like sarcasm. This means I can relate to the character. This individual piece is very interesting to me because it shows a side of Jimmy that is very strong. In the monologue he is ranting about Alison and generalising women as a whole, Alison is in the room with him and the speech is spoken to Cliff. This monologue pretty much shows most of Jimmy's character and shows what kind of person he is.

For this piece I used a slightly more aggressive version of my own voice which was at some points in the speech quite comedic when he was exaggerating. This was effective because I didn't want to be really dramatic to the point where it was unrealistic. My voice was very firm and strong unlike the voice I used for Simon which was very shaky and scared, this is a great technique that shows my vocal variety not just in terms of accents and voices but the quality and strength of it too.

I started the monologue with my hands in my pockets to show that he starts off quite calm and gets more aggressive and his personal feelings come out more. This is shown by the hand gestures and the body language. The more into the rant Jimmy got the more I would move my arms about and animate myself, trying to express the seriousness of the speech to the audience through physicality.

I think one of the reasons Jimmy is very opinionated may be because of past experiences, in the monologue he talks about this flat he had underneath a couple of girls. He rants about how annoying they were, I believe Jimmy has had plenty of experience dealing with the type of people he doesn't like. I believe he has never really gotten to know any women who share the same beliefs and views as him which is why generalises women the way he does. I think another reason Jimmy dislikes women is because he doesn't really understand them, they think in a way that is different to him, therefore he believes they are intellectually inferior.

Back in the time this play was written it was not uncommon for men to be sexist and believe they held more power than women. I believe that a lot of the writer comes through the character of Jimmy, Osbourne was often criticised for the remarks he made about social standing and towards his own family, his wives and children, Osbourne was part of the Angry Young Man movement. In the play Jimmy is what most people would describe as an angry young man, he shares many similar beliefs and opinions about how the social and political structure has hindered his dreams much like his creator. This was interesting to me because it allowed me to develop my character by looking at the writer not just the character.