Abstract:

The twentieth century drama participates in political critique through discourse of domesticity. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate revived Victorian perception of domesticity in the twentieth century theatre of anger. In the context of Victorian domesticity, the home is the primary social unit that serves as a place wherein the British negotiate and define social, gender and domestic roles; nevertheless, the home in the theatre of anger reflects the anxiety surrounding domesticity where characters struggle with tremendous social changes of postwar Britain. John Osborne exploits Victorian domesticity to refer to the vulnerability of masculinity in Look Back in Anger (1956) in domestic and public sphere. The disintegrating home in the theatre of anger serves as a microcosm of changing society and often characters’ domestic failures signal public and national crisis. In the social, political, and cultural context of postwar Britain, the vulnerability of patriarchal authority in Look Back in Anger parallels the condition of Britain with the nation’s waning power in the international arena. In this study, I will examine how Osborne revisits Victorian domesticity in relation to the anxiety surrounding British masculinity and nationality.

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