Look Back in Anger AS a well-made play

well-made play: A play that is logically and tighty constructed . At the climax and denouement , all the details of the skillfully contrived plot fall neatly into place . the well-made play is a style of dramatic writing characterized by a meticulous, methodological purposiveness of plotting. The logically precise construction of the well-made play is typified by a number of conventions. The plot is most often based on a withheld secret—known to the audience but unknown to the characters—which, when revealed at the climax, reverses the fortunes of the play's hero.

Look Back in Anger is a well-made play, with all its climaxes, its tightenings and slackenings of tension in the right places. Another critic rightly calls it a traditional play as regards its construction, with its division into three Acts. The play follows the traditional pattern of the well-made play: exposition, climax or complication or denouncement, final resolution of the action. 
Exposition, climax or complication or denouncement are the principal features of a successful and effective play, and all these features are to be found in this well-made play also. The action of the play develops in a logical and coherent manner. In Act I we are introduced to the hero, Jimmy Porter, who is a man at odds with his wife, with his wife’s family, with his friend, and with the world at large too.


The tension in the play begins in the very first Act when Jimmy begins to criticize everything and everybody, particularly his wife Alison. This tension deepens in Act II when Jimmy finds himself compelled to accept Helena as a guest in the house, in spite of the fact that he looks upon Helena as his “natural enemy”. The verbal skirmishes between Jimmy and Helena add to the tension and the conflict becomes very dramatic here. Alison’s refusal to go with Jimmy to London is another aspect of the dramatic conflict in the play. Thereafter Alison’s departure from her husband’s home marks one of the climaxes in the play. Helena’s kissing Jimmy all of a sudden, after the way she has openly been expressing her strong dislike for him, comes as a very big surprise to us.

 In Act III, which is comparatively free from conflict and tension, and where we find Jimmy almost in a relaxed mood acting a comic part, with Cliff joining in the fun, another big surprise comes at the end of Scene I when Alison suddenly returns. Scene II of Act III is again highly dramatic and full of surprises. It is a highly dramatic scene firstly because Helena suddenly announces her decision to leave Jimmy, secondly because we find that Alison has had a miscarriage, and thirdly because the kind of dialogue which Alison and Jimmy now have and which leads to their reconciliation. Helena’s departure is an even bigger surprise than her having suddenly kissed Jimmy at the end of Act II was. The reconciliation between husband and wife is a surprise also in view of the circumstances under which Alison had left Jimmy. In short, it is a gripping play by virtue of its dramatic situations and its unexpected turns of plot.

The tension in the play begins in the very first Act when Jimmy begins to criticize everything and everybody, particularly his wife Alison. This tension deepens in Act II when Jimmy finds himself compelled to accept Helena as a guest in the house, in spite of the fact that he looks upon Helena as his “natural enemy”. The verbal skirmishes between Jimmy and Helena add to the tension and the conflict becomes very dramatic here. Alison’s refusal to go with Jimmy to London is another aspect of the dramatic conflict in the play. Thereafter Alison’s departure from her husband’s home marks one of the climaxes in the play. Helena’s kissing Jimmy all of a sudden, after the way she has openly been expressing her strong dislike for him, comes as a very big surprise to us.

 In Act III, which is comparatively free from conflict and tension, and where we find Jimmy almost in a relaxed mood acting a comic part, with Cliff joining in the fun, another big surprise comes at the end of Scene I when Alison suddenly returns. Scene II of Act III is again highly dramatic and full of surprises. It is a highly dramatic scene firstly because Helena suddenly announces her decision to leave Jimmy, secondly because we find that Alison has had a miscarriage, and thirdly because the kind of dialogue which Alison and Jimmy now have and which leads to their reconciliation. Helena’s departure is an even bigger surprise than her having suddenly kissed Jimmy at the end of Act II was. The reconciliation between husband and wife is a surprise also in view of the circumstances under which Alison had left Jimmy. In short, it is a gripping play by virtue of its dramatic situations and its unexpected turns of plot.
The tension in the play begins in the very first Act when Jimmy begins to criticize everything and everybody, particularly his wife Alison. This tension deepens in Act II when Jimmy finds himself compelled to accept Helena as a guest in the house, in spite of the fact that he looks upon Helena as his “natural enemy”. The verbal skirmishes between Jimmy and Helena add to the tension and the conflict becomes very dramatic here. Alison’s refusal to go with Jimmy to London is another aspect of the dramatic conflict in the play. Thereafter Alison’s departure from her husband’s home marks one of the climaxes in the play. Helena’s kissing Jimmy all of a sudden, after the way she has openly been expressing her strong dislike for him, comes as a very big surprise to us.
 In Act III, which is comparatively free from conflict and tension, and where we find Jimmy almost in a relaxed mood acting a comic part, with Cliff joining in the fun, another big surprise comes at the end of Scene I when Alison suddenly returns. Scene II of Act III is again highly dramatic and full of surprises. It is a highly dramatic scene firstly because Helena suddenly announces her decision to leave Jimmy, secondly because we find that Alison has had a miscarriage, and thirdly because the kind of dialogue which Alison and Jimmy now have and which leads to their reconciliation. Helena’s departure is an even bigger surprise than her having suddenly kissed Jimmy at the end of Act II was. The reconciliation between husband and wife is a surprise also in view of the circumstances under which Alison had left Jimmy. In short, it is a gripping play by virtue of its dramatic situations and its unexpected turns of plot.