Symbolism in Look Back in Anger:

Bear and Squirrel game:

The bear-and-squirrel game in Look Back in Anger occupies a special place. It is a symbolic
device which serves an important dramatic purpose. According to a critic, this game is a brave
attempt by Jimmy and Alison to compensate themselves for the failure of their marriage.
Alison and Jimmy’s bear and squirrel game gives them a way to access a simple affection for
each other that they cannot achieve in normal life.

Jimmy is the bear, a large, strong, and dangerous animal, and Alison is the squirrel, a small,
nervous, and easily scared animal. They both refer to the stuffed animals at a few points, and
they play a little game as the two animals, but only when they are alone and no one can see
them. The animals symbolize the fact that social norms and conventions interfere with the love
that these two characters have for each other. Their relationship is a site of class and societal
conflict, and they are angry and fighting with each other most of the time. When they act like
animals, whose only concerns are food, shelter and cleanliness, they can forget that conflict and
feel a simpler version of love for each other.

The fact that they keep stuffed animal versions of the bear and squirrel in the apartment
reflects a childlike innocence that these characters find it difficult to maintain in their troubled
world, but that they still hope for. This game is a safe place for Jimmy and Alison's distorted
relationship. It is the one place where they can both open up to each other and freely express
their fears and hopes.

“Bears and squirrels are marvellous.”

Trumpet:
A few times in the play, Jimmy plays the trumpet in another room down the hall. He was once
in a jazz band, and Alison suspects he would prefer to do this than sell sweets at a street stall.
Music can be used to symbolize many things, but Osborne appears to use the trumpet as an
expression of freedom for Jimmy. It is also an emotional outlet for his frustrations, as he is
usually heard playing it after he encounters a distressing situation (like Alison's return to the
apartment at the end of Act 3). In Act 2, Scene 1 Jimmy announces to Alison, Helena, and Cliff
that "anyone who doesn't like real jazz, hasn't any feeling either for music or people." In this
regard Jimmy's music playing symbolizes his belief that he understands music and humanity far
more than the others.
Newspapers:
Jimmy and Cliff read newspapers throughout Act 1 and Act 3, and they are a major visual
feature in the apartment. Jimmy uses the newspaper as a symbol of his education.

“I said do the papers make you feel you're not so brilliant after all?”

They are a way for him to mimic the habits of the upper class, university-educated elite. He
repeatedly comments on what he is reading, sometimes using erudite vocabulary. He also uses
newspaper articles as a way to belittle the intelligence of Cliff and Alison, which is one of the
tactics he employs to make himself feel smarter and more worthwhile.

Ironing as a Symbolic Device:

A few other symbols have also been used in the play. There is Alison’s endless ironing, for
instance. Her ironing represents the kind of routine with which Jimmy is fed up. The ironing
serves to add to Jimmy’s boredom and it therefore becomes also a symbol of his boredom. In
one of his early speeches in the play Jimmy complains:
“Always the same ritual. Reading the papers, drinking tea, ironing.”
Subsequently also he shows his impatience with the ironing. It is ironical that, after Alison
has gone away and has been replaced by Helena, we find Helena also ironing the clothes like
Alison, so that from one point of view at least there is no change in Jimmy’s life.
Church-bells:
Church-bells also serve as a symbol. Jimmy feels annoyed when he hears this sound. He is
opposed to church-going; he is opposed to religious practices and rituals; and the church-bells,
being symbolic of the church, annoy him. In Act I, when he has declaimed about the noise that
women make, he hears the ringing of the church-bells and says:
“Oh, hell! Now the bloody bells have started”.
The sound of the church-bells is an irritant to him, and he feels that this sound will drive him
crazy. The church-bells irritate him also because they suggest in a vague manner the existence
of a world other than the one with which Jimmy is familiar, and that other world is the spiritual
world.