Offer Your Own Response To, And Explanation For Jimmy Porter's Conduct In John Osborne's Play
...own criticism of the way in which England was failing.
To be able to understand Jimmy Porter's character, and perhaps to even sympathise with him, it is necessary to see him, indeed, the whole play, in social, historical and cultural context, and, perhaps, to glance at John Osborne's own life and persuasions as well. With Jimmy Porter, Osborne created the voice not only for his own criticism of the way in which England was failing, but for those of the whole generation.
England after the Second World War was economically and politically exhausted. The Labour government did not have the situation under control and was therefore in a state of inertia (the development of the elections' results are proof enough for the widely spread dissatisfaction with the Labour Party: in 1945 and 1950 they won with 393 and 315 seats, while in 1951 there was a big swing and the Conservatives won with 321 seats. They stayed in power until 1964). The stagnancy of the economy prevented the country from adequately developing.
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The patriotic Jimmy feels betrayed by the government and his landsmen, who do nothing to prevent the country's decline. There is great bitterness and resignation in his lines: the bitterness and resignation of a lone-standing warrior, who has powerlessly to watch his own city being captured.
'Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm.'
These kind of emotions are also expressed in Philip Larkin's poem "Going, Going", in which he complains that life is becoming more and more meaningless:
'more houses, more parking allowed/more caravan sites, more pay.
(...)greeds / and garbage are too thick-strewn / to be swept-up now, or invent/excuses that make them all needs'
Both, Philip Larkin and John Osborne...
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