Question 5 JOHN OSBORNE: Look Back in Anger
Comment on Helena’s role as a moral hypocrite in the play.
This question was a bit popular among the candidates. It is on Helena’s character and how she’s portrayed as a moral hypocrite in the play.
The question requires the candidates to:
- Explain the theme of social class.
- Provide a detailed character description of Helena.
- Explore instances of Helena’s hypocrisy: she subtly undermines Jimmy’s worth before Alison by making him look culpable. She sends a telegram to Alison’s father to come and rescue Alison, pretending to care. She advises Alison to leave the marriage. She seduces Jimmy. She finally stays back to take Alison’s place in Jimmy’s apartment
- Comment on Helena’s usurpation of Alison’s role as wife: she woos Jimmy into falling in love by kissing him. She is fully aware that she is doing the wrong thing by supplanting a friend who has trusted her but lets her emotions take the better part of her.
- Discuss the significance of Helena’s hypocrisy in the play: Helena’s moral turpitude/immorality contributes to Cliff’s show of anger and his exit as a resident in Jimmy’s apartment. Helena’s hypocrisy typifies the double standards of the upper class and brings about the temporary disintegration of the fragile relationship between Jimmy and Alison, as well as that between Jimmy and Alison’s parents.
Candidates did not highlight these and thus scored low marks.