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A Refined Sort of Butcher, A Woman Is.

The document discusses several themes from the play, including the portrayal of gender power hierarchies through Jimmy's sexist views and treatment of women; Jimmy and the young generation's frustration with the unfulfilled promises of the labor party; Jimmy's anger towards an unjust society and social system that limits his potential and choices due to his working class background; the class divisions and tensions resulting from the changing class structure in 1950s Britain; the depiction of love and marriage as emotionally empty and unstable; and Jimmy's dissatisfaction with the lack of enthusiasm and excitement in post-war routine life.

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Rifa Kader Disha
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134 views3 pages

A Refined Sort of Butcher, A Woman Is.

The document discusses several themes from the play, including the portrayal of gender power hierarchies through Jimmy's sexist views and treatment of women; Jimmy and the young generation's frustration with the unfulfilled promises of the labor party; Jimmy's anger towards an unjust society and social system that limits his potential and choices due to his working class background; the class divisions and tensions resulting from the changing class structure in 1950s Britain; the depiction of love and marriage as emotionally empty and unstable; and Jimmy's dissatisfaction with the lack of enthusiasm and excitement in post-war routine life.

Uploaded by

Rifa Kader Disha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1) Power Hierarchies between Men and Women:

The kitchen is a space socially attributed to females based on longstanding


constructs, but the effect of most proceedings in twentieth century world society
were faced by, and mostly caused by men. There are sexist undertones in Jimmy’s
tired, which sometimes aren’t even subtle. The play too, like most others in the
genre, revolves around a male protagonist and there isn’t much scope given to the
female characters, and they remain more or less one-dimensional throughout the
acts. We see Jimmy’s anger towards women when he says-
“A refined sort of butcher, a woman is.”
The power hierarchies between men and women are validated through Jimmy’s
relationship with both Alison and Helena, yet we are fascinated by him. These
plays rarely centered around the emotions and tribulations of its women characters.
His vulgarity intended to draw attention strangely does not paint him as a pervert,
but as a man who has grown deaf with the maddening silence, and he wants a
chance to live, not simply exist. He says-
“Oh, yes, yes, yes. I’d like to eat. I’d like to live too. Do you mind?”
Jimmy’s sexism doesn’t arise out of hate, but out of anger towards his mother; his
anger towards Alison stems from his class consciousness. By simply giving him
the attention, he seeks, there is always an end to the line of longstanding patience
which an Alison or a Helena exhausted just by being around him. Their silence is
the only weapon left to hurt a man against whom no words chance a stand, akin to
the generations of abuse, psychological or physical, that women have had to
endure at the hands of the socially superior sex.
2) Suffering and Anger:
Frustration of Young Generation that Time
Jimmy is like all the young generation in that time that was shocked with the rule
of the labor party. The young generation in that time thought that if labor party got
power, the life of the working class would be improved and the class distinction
would disappear. Thus, the young generation became frustrated and it had a sense
of denial to such situation. Jimmy reflects this sense through his belief that the
future belongs to the young generation. Jimmy has a sense of alienation as if he is
borne out of his time. Helena describes him by saying-
'' I feel he thinks he is still in the middle of the French Revolution.''
He cannot accept that the labor party has betrayed the young generation, so he tries
to escape.
Anger against Society and System
We find him continuously making complaints against the corruption, injustice and
irregularity of the society. He says that-
“There are no beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm”.
We find him in anger constantly abusing and cursing society and system and even
his near ones but he proves mere "a wolver stone Hamlet” unable to make any
action. He is unable to lessen the agonies of his or the people of his class and fails
to convey his idealism to others. He belongs to a working class have “University
Education” but have to work at a shop of sweet. He says-
“I learnt at an early age what it was to be angry—angry and helpless.”
This helplessness makes him angry because he thinks it is only because of this
trauma that he belongs to a middle class so that society is making and fixing the
choices of his aim’s values and goals of life. He was facing many questions which
remain unsolved and the main question was of his existence and identity.
3) Class and Education War:
In 1950’s there was a movement “Welfare of State” (it means classless structure of
the society) by which the people of working class were changing to middle class,
but they were halted on the margins of both the classes as the older policies were
still followed and there was rigidity of the middle class and that’s why the people
from the working class didn’t enjoy the privileges of the middle class. This is the
reason Jimmy is angry on the society as it is maintained through his education,
occupation, work, etc. this we come to know in dialogue of Cliff when he talks
with Alison in Act 1. He says-
“Well, I suppose he and I think the same about a lot of things, because we’re
alike in some ways. We both come from working people if you like. Oh I know
some of his mother’s relatives are pretty posh, but he hates them as much as
he hates yours. Don’t quite know why. Anyways, he gets on with me because
I’m common. Common as dirt, that’s me.”
The lower-class people had the desire for the power on cultural life, as the cultural
life was represented only by the upper-class people and lower class were not
allowed to participate and that’s why Jimmy was commenting on the novels,
newspaper, etc. as he wanted to be the part of cultural life but was not allowed.
4) Love and Marriage:
The martial theme that is portrayed by Osborne in the play, depicts the social
condition in that period. In that period the marriages were not very successful and
the divorce rate was high. Jimmy and Alison, they both got married as they loved
each other. Alison married Jimmy opposing to her parents and it was like Jimmy
won the war by marrying the aristocratic class woman. There was also emotional
cruelty, domestic pain, and emptiness in their relationship. They always came
together in a fairy tale or the world of escape bears and squirrels. It was showed
that Jimmy was not loyal to Alison as when Alison leaves house, he develops a
love relationship with Helena. In this theme we also see the autobiographical
element of Osborne and his first wife Pamela, as Osborne also had issues with her
and it also gives the glimpse of his affairs as in the character of Helena.
5) Lack of Enthusiasm
In the play there is realistic description of the post-war English society by which
young generation was affected. There was dissatisfaction of the youth to routine
life lead by them, like on Sunday’s it was followed by reading newspapers,
drinking tea and ironing clothes. In the play, Jimmy is tired of the same routine of
Sunday were he and Cliff reads newspaper and Alison irons the clothes, were they
show no enthusiasm for anything. Jimmy says-
“Oh heavens, how I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just
enthusiasm that’s all.”
Jimmy is more irritated by routine life which has no hopes, excitement, as there’s
nothing happening around him like in home and society-
“Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no convictions and no enthusiasm.”
This shows the dullness of life and society.”

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