Jimmy's marital life and his
relationship with wife Alison is one of the chief concern of the play, Although
Jimmy and Alison had a love marriage, their marital life was full of tension. Alison's
parent's apposition to the marriage due to Jimmy's low 80cial status enraged
Jimmy. He could never forgive Alison's family members for their disapproval of him
and constantly bullies his wife in a way to get back to them. He treats her in
a callous manner attacking and abusing her parents, her brother in a ruthless
manner. le finds fault with her for her endless ironing of clothes, for being
devoid of animation and enthusiasm, of being silent when he expects her to retaliate
to his attack, for being "pusillanimous", for having the passion of a
python, for coming under the influence of Helena, for being indifferent to the
ailing Mrs. Tanner and so on. He shares some occasional moments of tenderness
with her and plays the bears-and-squirrels game, thus escaping to the world of fantasy
and shower their uncomplicated love for each other. But otherwise his attitude
towards her is of scorn and contempt. He humiliates her in front of Cliff by
comparing her sexual passion to that of a python. He cares little not to hurt
her feeling while criticising her family members. In fact he deliberately tries
to bully her by ridiculing her parents and brother and attacking them with
harshest possible language. Alison rightly says to Helena that he treats her
like a hostess of the middle class against whom he is waging war Jimmy considered
Helena as one of his "natural enemies" when she is first introduced.
There is no love between them and he does not even spare her from his ruthless
verbal assault. His behaviour with her is very un-gentleman like. After the
kissing incident, she becomes his mistress and he shares a good report with
her. In her Jimmy finds a good soulmate. She replaces Alison completely in the
Porter's household. She takes over Alison's work on the ironing board,
ceaselessly ironing clothes wearing one of Jimmy's old shirt.
Though Jimmy does not play the bears-and-squirrels game with her, yet he shares some tender moments expressing their love for each other. On Alison's return when Helena decides to leave her, he is hurt. He accuses her of hypocrisy for trying to lead a saint's life. He also accuses her of trying to escape the pain of being alive. After her desertion he is so distressed that he bangs his fist against the window frame.
The
premise of the play is that Jimmy is lower-middle-class, both Helena and Alison
are upper/middle-class, and most of their problems stem from this difference.
Alison is less excitable and doesn't stir up as much trouble as Helena. The two
women appear to be aligned in many ways and are supposedly friends, but Alison
is more practical and is willing to walk away from Jimmy, whereas Helena seems
willing to put up with his poor behavior. Alison betrays Jimmy by leaving him,
but Helena betrays Alison by taking up with Jimmy. Where Alison is discouraged
by the abuse she endures from Jimmy, it lights a fire in Helena. For example,
once Alison has gone home with her father, the fight between Jimmy and Helena
crosses the line, and they end up getting romantically involved. When act 3 begins, Helena has taken on
Alison's role, and she is only able to see the error of her ways when Alison
returns to see Jimmy. Neither of the women is especially important to Jimmy, as
he isn't sad to see Helena leave and does not seem especially glad to have
Alison return. They are similar in their station in life but different in how
they handle Jimmy's behavior. Alison and Helena both end up
living with Jimmy Porter, Allison as his wife and Helena as his mistress.
Allison and Helena are
both upper-to-middle class, something that drives Jimmy crazy. In a way, both
Alison and Helena rebel against their families by taking up with Jimmy, but
Alison, it seems, actually loves him.
No comments:
Post a Comment