From dependence to independence Essay Example for Free

From dependence to independence Essay A Taste Of Honey is a twentieth century play set in the 1950s. It is known as a kitchen-sink drama and was written by Shelagh Delaney at the age of 18 and was first performed in May 1958. A kitchen-sink drama originated in the literature in the 1950s and 1960s. Its aim is to create a true picture of the hard life and troubles of the working class life. In A Taste Of Honey the two main characters are always falling out with each other and the people around them. The conditions they live in are cramped and poor in bedsits or flats. An example of a kitchen-sink drama is in Look Back In Anger by John Osborne and Saturday Night And Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe. Plays and dramas in the fifties were performed for the middle and upper classes but then came the debut kitchen-sink drama; Look Back In Anger, which was aimed at the working class. A kitchen-sink drama play uses everyday common language to reflect the lives of the working class people portrayed. A Taste Of Honey is set in Salford, Manchester. It is about the life and relationship between a young girl, Jo, and her mother, Helen. They move around a lot, and have just moved into a shabby one-bedroomed flat in Salford. Helen is a semi-whore who lives off money which has been given to her by her men friends. Helen also drinks a lot. Jo is fifteen years old and she is very talented in an artistic way and enjoys drawing, but she blames her mother, who she refers to as Helen, for disrupting her education. Helen and Jo move into a shabby rented flat in Salford and its very cramped and small. Jo isnt happy but Helen doesnt mind. Jo tries to make the flat look and feel more liveable in by deciding to plant some bulbs. Helens not bothered though, and is happy that at least they have a roof over their heads. She has a what you see is what you get attitude towards life and lives by a day-to-day basis. Helen also uses a lot of sarcasm, for example, when Jo is complaining about the flat, Helen replies, Everything in it is falling apart, its true, and weve no heating- but theres a lovely view of the gasworks. Helen is a single parent and theres no mention of any relatives throughout the play. Single parent families were not accepted in the 1950s and if a couple wasnt married, it was seen as living in sin and frowned upon. A Taste Of Honey is aimed at adults and older teenagers as there is a lot of crude and rude humour and bad language, reflecting their working class lives for example, Helen: Take your bloody money and get out. Peter: Thank you. Helen: You dirty bastard. Also, teenage pregnancies, race and sexuality were big issues in the fifties. Homosexuality was a criminal offence, even if the couple were of a consent age. Many homosexuals were locked up, and underage sex was strongly frowned upon, and abortions were very difficult to obtain. Women had to resort to back-street abortions, which were very dangerous and could be fatal, so thats why there were a lot of teenage pregnancies. In the fifties, there were very few black people and they were given low paid jobs in the service industries and hospitals. These three issues are all part of the story. Jo has a teenage pregnancy, Jimmie is black, and Geof is homosexual. There were no equal opportunities, for example, men got paid more than women in exactly the same jobs. Housing conditions in Salford were poor. Most houses were small, cramped and dirty. Many rented bedsits or flats often shared amenities like bathrooms and toilets, and this is the case in A Taste Of Honey. We share a bathroom with the community and this wallpapers contemporary. What more do you want? In A Taste Of Honey, Jo doesnt call her mother mother. She calls her Helen. This shows that she doesnt have much respect for her mother and wishes to live her own life, and not to be ruled over by someone who is not a good mother figure. I think Jo is lonely, as she hasnt settled down in a school yet so she hasnt had the chance to make any friends. Helen also treats Jo as if she is just something thats there. She refers to Jo as she and her. Wouldnt she get on your nerves? Helen also drinks a lot, and even though Jo isnt treated as a real person, she still wishes her mother would stop. Drink, drink, drink, thats all youre fit for. With Jo wanting Helen to stop drinking, I think this shows that Jo is scared, that if the drinking carries on and Helen gets ill or something happens to her, then Jo will be alone. Helens favourite past-times, which Jo disapproves of, are her drinking habits and sleeping around. Helen is not a good mother and she knows this herself, Have I ever laid claim to being a proper mother? Helen hardly knows her daughter. This is made obvious when Jo decides to have a bath in the morning because its dark outside, and Helen replies, Are you afraid of the dark? whereas in any normal family, the parent would know if their child was afraid of anything with living with them for fifteen years. Jo hates school. She has been moved from school to school and never settled in any of them, so she cant be bothered with it, but she is very talented in drawing. When Helen finds some of Jos drawings, her only reply is, I thought you werent good at anything. Helen starts to encourage Jo by saying its very good, but then her sarcasm returns when she says, I think Ill hang this on the wall somewhere. Now, where will it be least noticeable? When we meet Peter, he enters with a cigar in his mouth. He seems very cocky and seems the sort of person who doesnt really care for other people, as he is self-centred. He keeps telling Jo to go away, and tells Helen to get rid of her, because he just wants Helen for sex. Jo doesnt want to leave the two alone, and keeps interrupting because she is afraid that Peter will get the attention off Helen that Jo has always wanted. Also, Jo knows that Helen will abandon her and go off with new men she meets, as she has done it before. When Helen goes out the room and Jo is left alone with Peter, she starts to question him. Jo sees some photographs in Peters wallet and demands to know who they are of. Can I see the other photos? She then starts to ask why hes marrying Helen and asks if he fancies her. Do you fancy me? I think she asks this because she knows that her mother is beautiful, and she gets lots of attention off men, so Jo wants to see if she could be just like her. Helen is somewhat an idol to Jo, because she always asks people if they think Helen is beautiful, and she wants to be just like her always getting attention from men. Jo, in a way, is jealous of Helen. I think Jo is fairly independent for her age, as she is certain about what she wants to do. She wants to leave school and start working as soon as she can. This shows that she acts older than she really is and is mature for her age. In scene 2, we are introduced to Jos boyfriend. In this part of the play, we know him as Boy, but later on we find out his name is Jimmie. He is a black sailor in the navy and he asks Jo to marry him. Boy is twenty-two, and Jo lies about her age and tells him she is eighteen. He questions her about what Helen will think about him because hes a coloured boy. Boy: She hasnt seen me. Jo: And when she does? Boy: Shell see a coloured boy. I think Boy is worried about meeting Jos mother, as racial prejudice was a big issue in the fifties. Jo tells him, though, that her mother is not prejudice and will not mind, but at the end of the play when Helen finds out that the baby will be black, she starts to get mad. When she finds out, she says, Oh dont be silly Jo. Youll be giving yourself nightmares. She thinks Jo is pulling her leg but she is serious. When she finally realises that it is true, she doesnt care what people will think of Jo, but what people will think of herself. Can you see me wheeling a pram with a Oh my God, Ill have to have a drink. Boy has to go away for six months, and he reassures her hell be back. I think Jo thinks she loves Boy, but doesnt expect him to return, because when he says he is going, Jo says her Hearts broke. Boy offers comfort by saying; You can lie in bed at night and hear my ship passing down the old canal. But when Boy starts to flirt with her in a naughty way, she says, I may as well be naughty while Ive got the chance. Ill probably never see you again. I know it. I dont think that its true love between Jo and Boy, as Jo is young and every time they say they love each other, their replies to one another is always how, and why. Boy: I love you. Jo: How do you know? Whereas if they really did love each other, they wouldnt ask for reasons why. Jos friend Geof, is very considerate and caring. We meet Geof in Act 2, Scene 1 after him and Jo have been to the fairground. Geof is a homosexual and he has been kicked out of his flat by the landlady because of this, so hes been spending time at Jos. By this time, it is summer and Jos pregnancy is obvious. Helen has moved out after marrying Peter and left Jo alone. Geof comes into Jos flat after the fair and is about to go but Jo literally begs him to stay. Geof, dont go. Dont go. Geof! I think Jo is scared to be alone, that she doesnt know what she would do alone with the birth getting nearer. Geof starts looking through Jos drawings and criticises them by saying he doesnt like charcoal and that the drawings are exactly like Jo, with no design, rhythm or purpose. When Geof starts telling Jo that a lot of money will be needed for the baby, she tries to ignore the fact that shes pregnant and tells Geof to shut up, but Geof isnt saying this to worry her, but to get her prepared and face reality. He cares for her and because Helen doesnt know about the pregnancy, Geof thinks she has a right to know that shes going to be a grandmother but Jo objects. Jos relationship with Geof is a love similar to that of a brother and sister, as he is more into looking after her. I think Jo really cares for him too, as she begs him to stay over and she has a laugh with him as well as being flirty at the same time. Jo: Do you like beer? Geof: Yes. Jo: Gin? Geof: Yes. Have you got some? Jo: No, but if I had, Id give it all to you. Id give everything I had to you. When Jo and Geof go to bed, Geof questions Jo about Jimmie. Geof: A black boy? Jo: From darkest Africa! A Prince. She exaggerates as though it was a dream, or a fairytale. Just before they go to bed, Jo laughs and tells Geof, Youre just like a big sister to me. A few months later, Jo and Geof are getting ready for the arrival of the baby and Geofs making a baby gown while Jo wanders about the room. It is not something that the audience would expect a man or brother to be doing. It would more likely be a sister. I think Jo is nervous because the birth is very near and she is restless. She is very excited when the baby kicks, and tells Geof. Jo always seems to flirt with Geof, playfully putting her arms around him, but when Geof is serious about him and Jo, she backs off. Geof: Let me kiss you. Jo: Let go of me. Leave me alone. I think this is where Jo becomes more mature and independent, as she knows what she wants. I think Ive had enough. Im sick of love. But then Jo realises that she cant really cope, that the baby is perhaps more than she can handle and her hormones are getting the better of her. Ill bash its brains out. Ill kill it. I dont want this baby, Geof. I dont want to be a mother. She realises that she wants Jimmie back, she misses him so much, and she wants the real father to her baby. Every Christmas Helen used to go off with some boyfriend or other and leave me all on my own in some sordid digs, but last Christmas I had him. Geof thinks he is only welcome in Jos flat until she finds her next Prince and in my opinion, Geof is hurt. When Helen comes to see Jo with Peter, Peter is prejudiced against Geof and calls him a fruit cake parcel. He is drunk and wants to go to the pub with Helen, and so he starts making his own fun by calling the flat Jo lives in, and calling Jo a slut. Jos attitude towards Geof towards the end of the play changes for the better. From the way they both talk to each other you can see they have both grown up. Jo is more open to Geof about her relationship with Helen. You know I used to try and hold my mothers hands but she always used to pull them away from me. She had so much love for everyone else but none for me. When Jo says that, it actually makes the audience feel sorry for her, and disgusted with Helen, because Jo didnt have a genuine mother figure. She also tells Geof about how Helen got pregnant with her. She tells him about how she was married to a Puritan, but wanted some fun so she had a frolic in a hay loft one afternoon with a daft man. This shows that she feels secure with Geof and more confident with him as she tells him everything that happened and wants him to feel sorry for her and to understand her because she didnt have a good childhood. Jo starts to value Geof, as she realises he cares more than Helen. At the end of the play, Helen tries to hint that she wants Geof to leave so she can move back in. she thinks she could look after Jo better than Geof, even after the months she has missed. There wouldnt be much room for two of us on the couch, would there? The only hint of love from Helen for Jo throughout the play is when Jo is having contractions and Helen strokes her hair, saying everything will be all right. This is the only time in the play when Helen is shown to be supportive of Jo. It shows Jo is independent and has matured, because when Helen doesnt know how to use the stove, Jo tells her, whereas this time last year, it was the other way around. When Geof leaves, and Helen finds out about the baby being black, she says shes going for a drink. This part reflects the beginning, when Helen abandons Jo at Christmas. Unfortunately just when Jo needs her mother the most, she leaves her yet again. When shes out the door, Jo leans against the doorpost, remembering the good times with Geof and smiling to herself, as she recites a rhyme that Geof taught her. This shows that she is now dependant on herself, and knows she can cope by herself, because she was left alone the year before, and knows she can do it again. Jos Taste Of Honey was when she met Jimmie, but in my opinion, I think her Taste Of Honey was the time she spent with Geof, because he taught her a lot of things in life, and throughout the play you can see how she has matured, and adopted a more serious attitude towards life.