He takes this action very personally as an affront to him. ![]() Alison's break with Jimmy occurs when she goes to church with Helena, a rejection of Jimmy's secularism. Jimmy expects all of those he cares about to be committed to those things as well. Such relationships lack power and realness. Casual acquaintances will not do for him. Jimmy's allegiances are a result of his intense character and desire for raw emotion. In this quote, Alison attempts to explain Jimmy's character and motivations to her friend Helena. Not only about himself and all the things he believes in, his present and his future, but his past as well." Look Back in Anger, 42. "It's what he would call a question of allegiances, and he expects you to be pretty literal about them. In comparison, the American Age is "dreary," meaning that the fashion and culture of this previous age has been wiped away by the rise of America as a great world superpower. He views himself as a descendant of this more fashionable age, stuck in a time in which the world around him does not understand his passions and motivations. Jimmy, however, is also in many ways a sentimental Edwardian. He derides his father-in-law for being an old "Edwardian." This Edwardian Age is a reference to the reign of King Edward VII in Great Britain, a brief period at the beginning of the 20th century where a fashionable British elite influenced the art and fashions of continental Europe. Jimmy is a character that is not of his age. But I must say it's pretty dreary living in the American Age - unless you're an American of course." Look Back in Anger, 17. ![]() "If you've no world of your own, it's rather pleasant to regret the passing of someone else's. It should also be noted that most of the play occurs on a Sunday, suggesting that in Jimmy's righteous anger is a modern attempt to find the kind of real life that traditional religion sought to convey for its believers. ![]() This use of a religious phrase should be compared to Jimmy's antagonism towards traditional English Anglicanism, which Jimmy firmly rejects. This quote is a reference to black gospel religion which Jimmy associates with things such as jazz music (Jimmy also plays the trumpet, a similar reference). The desire for emotion expresses itself in his anger towards his wife and their domestic existence. Jimmy is primarily concerned with a way to live a real, enthusiastic, and emotional life. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice cry out Hallelujah!.Hallelujah! I'm alive!" Look Back in Anger, 15. "Oh heavens, how I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Without the suffering of losing something close and important to her, Jimmy sees Alison as an incomplete or unborn person, incapable of true emotion and life. It is dramatic irony in that the audience already knows that Alison is pregnant when Jimmy speaks this line, but he does not realize this fact. It foreshadows future events in the play in which Alison loses her pregnancy, Jimmy's child, to miscarriage. The quote is an example of dramatic irony as well as foreshadowing. This quote, spoken by Jimmy, demonstrates his vicious anger towards Alison. ![]() "If you could have a child, and it would die.if only I could watch you face that." Look Back in Anger, 37. On the other hand, it is meant to convey destruction - how Jimmy's frenetic quest for real life destroys the lives of those to whom he is closest. The word "burn" has a double meaning in this way on the one hand it is meant to represent a burning of physical, bodily energy. Though his quote, literally, is meant to convey the kind of physical energy that Jimmy has in his everyday life, on another level the quote is meant to suggest the kind of destruction that Jimmy brings to the lives of those around him. This quote, spoken by Jimmy, is a glimpse into his character and his anger. We just burn everything up." Look Back in Anger, 12.
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