This question demands that the candidates examine Jimmy’s love for Helena. Most candidates were not able to relate their responses to the theme.

The question requires the candidates to:

• Relate the theme of social class conflict, strained marriages and strained friendships.
• Provide a detailed character description of Jimmy and Helena.
• Helena’s appearance at Jimmy’s one-room flat. Helena is unable to tolerate Jimmy’s offensive behaviour towards everyone and threatens to slap him.
• Jimmy and Helena after Alison is gone: when Helena tells Jimmy; ‘I love you’, his reply is ‘I think perhaps you do. Yes, I think perhaps you do’. Jimmy can afford to kiss Helena and make love to her.
• Finality is brought to their relationship when Alison re-enters or suddenly re-appears: Jimmy has angrily demonstrated that he does not love Helena. He sees Helena as articulate and combative, but she is upper class, like Alison. Most of his arguments with Helena are on Alison and her parents, or on religion and politics, hardly on matter of intimacy. Jimmy confesses to Cliff before the latter leaves; ‘… something I want from that girl downstairs, something I know in my heart she’s incapable of giving’.

Candidates did not highlight these and thus scored low marks.