What is Jimmy's attitude towards women in Look Back in Anger? Is he sexist?

Jimmy is clearly sexist and misogynistic, and these tendencies are related to the issue of class conflict at the heart of John Osborne's influential play.

Jimmy's hatred of middle-class values is only partly what causes the hostility he expresses toward his wife. Alison does not have working-class roots as Jimmy does, but his demeaning and abusive behavior is an instance of displaced aggression. He resents the middle class, so he conveniently takes out his hatred on Alison and on her friend Helena. When Helena arrives at their flat to stay with them, Jimmy's behavior becomes even more obnoxious than before. He ridicules Helena and her aspirations in the theater, since this, too, is a symbol of the value system he self-consciously derides.

Though it is not often noted, the situation is similar to that in Tennessee Williams's Streetcar Named Desire in which Stanley behaves abusively toward both Stella and Blanche and has contempt for their "higher" social background. A major difference, however, is that unlike Stanley, Jimmy has been to university, so there is an element of deliberation in the materially sparse life he has created for himself and his wife. Jimmy is presented as a brilliant educated man who has essentially opted out of the system by choosing to make his living by running a market stall instead of finding skilled or professional work. This ties in with his misogyny, because he refuses to support his wife adequately, but it is again a symptom of his class hatred; he flouts the values of bourgeois society and its requirement that he should find a "respectable" job.

In the 1950s Jimmy's antagonism specifically toward women probably seemed less obvious and much more excusable than it does today. Alternatively, it could have appeared simply as a by-product of his general rebelliousness, which is apparently intended to be seen as admirable. Today, most of us would see that his abusive behavior, though connected with the class issue and even with existentialist themes, is clearly a manifestation of a brutal and even sadistic form of sexism.

What is the full implication of Jimmy's misogyny in Look Back in Anger?

Look Back in Anger first opened in 1956. Declared a chauvinistic play by the critics of the time, it has undergone revision over the years, and many contemporary scholars think that it is unfair to dub Jimmy a misogynist.

It is true that he vents his frustration and anger on his wife, and hates his mother-in-law from the bottom of his heart. Yet if you think on it, Jimmy hates the whole of humankind. He feels disappointed in society and politicians and thinks that he has not been dealt a fair hand in the game of life.

By marrying Alison, he has taken a hostage from the social class he detests the most. His feelings toward her are indeed ambivalent, for he would like her to stand up to him, to react at his attacks, and in that way show that she equals him in stamina. As Alison opts for not responding, she fuels his rage further.

If we agree that a misogynist hates all women, we should also agree that this is not true of Jimmy. He loved Madeline, loves Hugh's mother deeply and, after the first verbal squabbles with Helena -who does confront him- settles down with her in a very different mood that the one that loomed over his previous time with Alison.

Therefore we should be very careful before labeling Jimmy as a misogynist. We may call him a misfit, a character that finds fault with everything but is incapable of involving himself with reality and taking action, an immature personality, and certainly "an angry young man." But he does not show the consistent hatred of women that would place him in the category of misogyny.