Osborne's Look Back in Anger: Lamenting the Downfall of the British Empire

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger (1956) and to investigate the implicit theme of lamenting the downfall of the British Empire that resides in the external and obvious theme of anger and discontent that the play is replete with.

The research comprises two main parts: the first part is a prelusion about the historical period in which the British Empire began to degrade. There is also a brief summary about Osborne’s drama that elucidates, in a way or another, the theme of the downfall. The second part of the research is devoted to the analysis of the play and to present how the theme of lamenting the downfall is manifested through Jimmy Porter’s and Colonel Redfern’s sense of nostalgia to the Edwardian flourishing era; comparing to the then post-war period in which Great Britain comes to lose its national identity as well as its supremacy as a leading world power.

The research comes to conclusion that the play is considered as a turning point in the history of the mid twentieth century British drama. It stands as an elegy to lament the downfall of the British Empire.  It could be classified within the post-colonial literature.