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Describe the relationship between Jimmy and Alison in Look Back in Anger.

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The relationship between Jimmy and Alison Porter in Look Back in Anger is highly dysfunctional and abusive. Jimmy is the original "angry young man" of the realist school of British theater known as "kitchen sink drama" and Alison is the primary target of his anger. Although intelligent and well-educated, Jimmy is from a working class background and deeply resents the higher social classes he believes are holding him and society back. This includes Alison, who is from the upper-middle class Redfern family. Jimmy is constantly insulting and excoriating Alison's family and complaining about their treatment of him, complaints which we realize are unjustified when Alsison's father, the affable Colonel Redfern, arrives and treats Jimmy in a perfectly friendly manner.
Alison sacrifices herself and her feelings to Jimmy, constantly attempting to appease his anger. She leaves him briefly, while pregnant, but returns upon losing the baby, telling Jimmy that she will now understand him better because she has suffered loss. Jimmy, meanwhile, has been carrying on an affair with her friend Helena (who had hypocritically advised her to leave him), a matter which seems to occasion him no guilt whatsoever. He has no sympathy for Alison's loss and only takes her back grudgingly. There is every reason to believe that his abuse and selfishness will continue exactly as before.

Look Back in Anger

Describe the relationship between Jimmy and Alison in Look Back in Anger.

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