Look Back in Anger abounds with recurrent images which are suggestive and meaningful in the context of the drama. Jimmy Porter’s denunciation of individuals like Alison, Alison’s mother, and Helena is couched in beast imagery of the substantial variety.
Mrs. Redfern (Alison’s mother) is called a “rhinoceros in labor”, “female rhino”, “an old bitch“, and “an overfed privileged old bitch”. Helena, too, is seen as a “bitch” to which Jimmy adds,
“She is a cow………..she seems to have become a sacred cow as well”.
Alison is referred to contemptuously as “stupid bitch“, and “that bitch“. “She is also a python. She devours me whole every time as if I were some over- large rabbit”. Again in his lyric in Act II. In scene I, he sings, “avoid that old python coil”, when he refers to women in love. M. D. Faber in his article, “The Character of Jimmy Porter”, discusses Jimmy’s oral fixation and refers to his fear of “being eaten or devoured”. So, Alison becomes the devouring Python.
Jimmy’s “orality” is also beastly when once, for a change, Cliff uses beast imagery to denigrate Jimmy, calling him “a bloody pig” for his hunger. At the same time, Jimmy, Alison, and Cliff refer lovingly to one another as the bear, the squirrel, and the mouse respectively.
