The Entertainer Study Guide

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eNotes | TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE ENTERTAINER STUDY GUIDE 1

SUMMARY 3
Summary 3

THEMES 4
Themes: Themes and Meanings 4

CHARACTERS 4
Characters: Characters Discussed 5

ANALYSIS 6
Analysis: The Play 6
Analysis: Dramatic Devices 8
Bibliography 8

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Summary

Summary
In The Entertainer, Osborne’s hero is Archie Rice, a pathetic music-hall performer whose domestic life is as much a
failure as his comedy act. Himself an admirer of the English music hall and its vaudevillian traditions, Osborne
alternates domestic scenes of the Rice family with scenes of Archie’s coarse patter in the music hall to symbolize the
decline of imperial England. In its late nineteenth and early twentieth century heyday, the music hall was an
important expression of urban working-class pride, an entertainment that avoided anything “highbrow,” serious, or
intellectual. By the 1950’s, the music hall had been replaced by cinema and television, degenerating into an even
more decadent popular art, and in this mid-1950’s music hall Archie is merely a comic setup man for a tacky
striptease.

The family unit headed by Archie is equally disappointing. As a father, Archie is self-centered and insensitive,
viciously ridiculing his own doddering father, Billy, who lives with the family in their dilapidated and noisy slum
apartment. Archie’s wife, Phoebe, is a pathetic alcoholic who endures Archie’s sexual infidelity by retreating
mindlessly to the cinema. The play’s action takes place in 1956, during the Suez conflict, when Egypt seized control
of the Suez Canal. Frank, Archie and Phoebe’s elder son, is a conscientious objector, fresh from six months in
prison. Frank works two menial jobs. Mick, Archie and Phoebe’s younger son, has accepted the call for army service
in Cyprus but has been captured and made a prisoner of war. Jean, Archie’s daughter by his first marriage, is a
more sensitive person, having thrown off the old-fashioned and sexist attention of her conservative boyfriend,
Graham, but, under the influence of a little too much gin, Jean seems equally incapable of strengthening the family
unit. As the family members squabble throughout the play, it is clear that they all exist in their own little worlds,
seldom listening to or really communicating with one another. In many ways, The Entertainer can be seen as an
English version of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night (pr., pb. 1956); both are portraits of profound
domestic failure.

The climax of the action comes with the news that Mick, thought to be released and on his way home, has been
killed. Compounded with that grief is the soon-to-follow funeral for Billy; Archie had attempted to get Billy back onto
the music-hall stage in order to revive Archie’s own career. In the last scene, Archie is on stage and the symbolic tax
man, whom Archie has been cheating for the last twenty years, is waiting in the wings, like death, to take Archie to
jail. Archie is supported in his last minutes by Phoebe, but there is no hopeful vision of an improved marriage as the
lights snap out for the last time. Osborne’s vision of the domestic future of the Rice family is as bleak as his vision of
England’s future as a world power.

One of the most interesting theatrical aspects of The Entertainer is that the renowned British classical actor, Sir
Laurence Olivier, took the role of Archie Rice in its initial London production. In Look Back in Anger, Osborne had
made himself into a literary phenomenon by belittling the British establishment. Olivier was a significant member of
that establishment’s theater wing, but when he expressed an interest in Osborne’s work, Olivier was cast as Archie
Rice; Olivier’s star status, along with a chillingly real performance, made The Entertainer a smash hit. It was soon
transferred to London’s West End and then was made into a successful film. After his first two plays, Osborne was
himself a bona fide “star,” part of a new establishment.

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Themes

Themes: Themes and Meanings

The Entertainer is a play about decadence and decay: the decadence of the Rice family’s habits, the decay of
propriety and of the music hall as a primary form of entertainment (indeed, as a way of life). It also addresses the
hypocrisy of war and the futility of ordinary people—nobodies—trying to be somebodies. The man in Archie’s joke at
the play’s end ironically finds heaven by saying a word whose crudity reflects his low class. Mick’s death reveals that
obedience only leads one to be fodder for leaders to send to war at their will; by brainwashing young people into the
patriotic way of thinking, politicians also remove any potential threat to the established order. Jean represents the
new mind, the new woman, who will not settle for life as it traditionally has been. She rejects Archie’s phony
persona, including his need to flirt, as being as old-fashioned as his pathetic antics onstage. She loves Billy because
he has faded from the limelight with a dignity Archie cannot muster. She loves Phoebe for her simplicity and
endurance in the face of infidelity, the death of her son, and her miserable past existence—which Archie so cruelly
and contemptuously dismisses.

The play is not so much concerned with class as with the effects of time upon tradition. Within two generations, a girl
like Jean can shock her female ancestry by doing the simple thing of going to a rally in Trafalgar Square, while
Archie can desperately destroy Billy’s dignity by putting him back onstage, in a last-ditch attempt to impress a dying
audience. Archie himself does not know when to give up. He is arguably the unhappiest character in the play
because he is the phoniest. Frank’s choice of conscientious objection, set against Mick’s willingness to enlist, also
shows the contrast between old and new attitudes. Mick dies; Frank lives on.

Is Frank’s life, however—as a menial worker in a hospital—worth living? Frank becomes more and more cutting
toward Archie as the play proceeds, and his resentment builds up. He has something of the family’s musical talent
but prefers not to develop it further. His choice, like Jean’s, is that of the modern generation— again, the past dies
out as the world changes. Politics, for them, may be more important than art; music hall and cinema in a parochial
setting are no longer valid forms of entertainment and are certainly not to be taken seriously. Although the audience
is not told where Jean has traveled from, nor where she will go, she is obviously mobile and independent, not
trapped in the town of her birth or imprisoned by outmoded traditions.

In the end, however, interest centers on the figure of Archie. Clearly, he embodies an era, a tradition, a way of life.
All these, one may feel, are associated in Osborne’s mind with 1950’s England, still clinging grimly to its post-
Imperial status in the world, but unable to support it: unable to show dignity (like Billy), unable to break loose (like
Jean), ultimately facing only death or futility (like Mick and Frank, respectively). Archie Rice’s threadbare comedy is,
in the end, not only a satire on British humor; it is also a commentary on British attitudes in general—attitudes that,
Osborne implies, lead to an evasion of reality.

Characters

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Characters: Characters Discussed
Archie Rice

Archie Rice, the title character. He is an actor, singer, and comedian in an archaic and dying institution, the English
music hall. He is known as the “professor” by his fellow artists. His career has never afforded more than a meager
livelihood and a shabby sort of gentility, a remnant from the better times when his father, Billy Rice, was a very
successful showman. At fifty, he is dapper, friendly, and superficially a gentleman. Despite his self-deprecating claim
of being selfish and unfeeling, he is affectionate toward his family, especially his daughter, Jean, and his father. He
brings the gag man’s enthusiastic buoyancy into his domestic conversation to mask an entrenched cynicism and
self-pity. At times, he is inattentive and unresponsive, even evasive. Seeking solace for his failure, he drinks
excessively and womanizes openly, tormenting his long-suffering wife, whom he both pities and resents. His plan to
divorce her and marry a much younger woman is thwarted, and his emotional string runs out with the deaths first of
his son Mick, and then of his father. He is unable to accept a proffered chance for a new life in Canada. As the play’s
ending makes clear, he will end his days either in jail for tax fraud or in poverty, soullessly repeating his music-hall
routines before progressively smaller and less appreciative audiences.

Billy Rice

Billy Rice, the family patriarch, a retired music-hall showman. He is a dignified man in his seventies, fastidious in
manner and dress and both slim and sprightly. Although at times grouchy and stubborn, he inspires fondness in
Archie and love in his granddaughter, Jean. Despite his nostalgic ramblings about past glories and his mistrust of
contemporary trends, he knows that the music hall is doomed and thinks Archie is a fool for following in his
footsteps. He is also mindful of his familial responsibilities. It is Billy who quashes Archie’s plans to divorce Phoebe
and marry the younger woman. He tries to make amends for his interference by going back onstage with Archie, but
the ordeal soon kills him. His death leads to the dissolution of the family.

Jean Rice

Jean Rice, Archie’s daughter by his first wife. At the age of twenty-two, she is a wise, loving, and thoughtful woman
whose selflessness contrasts with her father’s selfishness. Her attractive character compensates for her physical
plainness. She has a special bond with her grandfather, who is sensitive to her warmth, humor, and intelligence. She
is also well educated and responsive to social causes. To the chagrin of her fiancé, Graham Dodd, she has even
participated in protest demonstrations. Blaming Archie for Billy’s death, at the play’s end she decides to sacrifice
marriage and respectability to care for Phoebe, her stepmother.

Phoebe Rice

Phoebe Rice, Archie’s wife and stepmother to Jean. About ten years older than Archie, she is a rather wretched,
pathetic character. She covers her faded good looks with badly applied makeup and supports her unwillingness to
face reality with calculated deafness. She fidgets and chats nervously, afraid of getting trapped in confrontations,
which depress her. She is basically resigned to her fate, even accepting Archie’s flagrant philandering although she
obviously is deeply wounded by it. Mostly passive, she evokes Archie’s meanest traits, as is evidenced in his
curtness toward her and his cruel, music-hall jokes.

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Frank Rice

Frank Rice, Archie and Phoebe’s son, and half brother to Jean. A somewhat pallid young man of nineteen, he is
prone to sickness. As a conscientious objector, he served time in jail for refusing military service. He now plays a
piano in a bar. Although somewhat shy and retiring, he is drawn into Archie’s routines as a straight man or “feed,” a
role that suits them both because it alleviates the need for a more genuine rapport. Frank’s need for familial love and
affection is filled largely by Jean, but he will leave her to care for his mother when he seeks a new beginning in
Canada.

William (Brother Bill) Rice

William (Brother Bill) Rice, Archie’s brother, a successful, highly regarded barrister. He is a wealthy man who has
from time to time bailed Archie out of financial difficulties. After the death of their father, he offers Archie passage to
Canada, temporary support, and the settlement of Archie’s debts, but with the stipulation that he will do nothing
should Archie refuse. There is no real understanding or bond between them, and Archie’s rejection of his offer
merely baffles him.

Graham Dodd

Graham Dodd, Jean’s fiancé, a respectable, well-educated, and somewhat stuffy young man whose self-assurance
is punctured by Jean’s decision to break off their engagement. As is the case with Brother Bill, little is seen of him,
and his character is not extensively delineated.

Analysis

Analysis: The Play

The Entertainer is set in an English coastal town. Its action centers on the Rice family, and specifically on Archie
Rice, the “entertainer” of the title. In scene 1, though, the audience is introduced to the family through Billy Rice,
Archie’s father, and Jean, Archie’s daughter. In a sense these two characters represent a saner past and a more
hopeful future: The present, for the Rices, is a run-down, noisy, postwar slum.

Scene 2 (like scenes 4, 7, and 13) consists of a short monologue by Archie, delivered onstage just as it would be in
one of his performances: He is a comedian in a music hall, or what Americans might call a burlesque theater, and
these scenes represent samples of his professional humor. They are deliberately coarse, cheap, and unattractive;
they represent the poor, defiant, and selfish attitudes John Osborne thinks typical of the England of his time.

In scene 3, further characters assemble. Phoebe Rice returns from the cinema, where she spends her spare time
watching films that make no impression on her. Jean reveals that she has been to a rally in Trafalgar Square which
sparked off a row with her conservative-minded boyfriend, Graham. He shares Billy’s view—that women should be
kept on a tight rein—and wants Jean to marry him; she, however, is budding into something other than the perfect

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wife. The talk turns to Frank and Mick (Frank’s brother), the former having been imprisoned for refusing the draft, the
latter having willingly joined up. Jean, representative of the new generation, admires Frank for saying no and going
to jail. Billy and Phoebe seem to think Mick has made the better choice.

This issue is not as casual as it might at first appear. All through scene 5 (after another music-hall monologue by
Archie) a telegram waits for Archie to open it. It is bound to be bad news, and in the end the audience discovers that
it says Mick has been taken prisoner. Archie avoids this knowledge until the very end, in the same way that he has
avoided any commitments or intellectual honesty throughout his life. He is a womanizer; he despises and maltreats
his family; he makes a joke of everything—including his father’s pride and his daughter’s passion. He tries to laugh
off even the news of his son’s capture, but as the curtain comes down his banter ceases—for the first time—and his
chronic insecurity is revealed.

In act 2, the family has heard that Mick is to be repatriated, and the mood is lighter; still, tensions are present.
Phoebe, maudlin drunk, brings up many memories of Archie which show him in a worse and worse light. Archie
eventually launches into a diatribe, justifying himself by attacking his wife’s laziness and lack of passion. As the
scene develops, order completely breaks down, with all the characters attacking each other and justifying
themselves. The feuding is checked only when Billy is found helping himself to a cake set aside for Mick’s
homecoming. The Rice family, it is clear, is hopelessly contaminated by selfishness, the same selfishness revealed
in Archie’s monologues.

Is there any hope for this family? Archie, harassed by the Inland Revenue—he has not paid any tax for twenty years
—has various plans: leave the country and go to Canada; leave Phoebe and marry a barmaid; bring his father out of
retirement in an attempt to save his own career. None of these, except perhaps the first, seems very plausible, and
Archie’s advice to Jean—to be more selfish in order to survive—rings hollow. However, it may have some validity
after all: At the end of the second act comes the news that Mick, the dutiful child of family and country, has been
killed by his captors. Only the antiheroes, it seems, are left alive.

At the start of act 3, Frank sings a protest song about the emptiness of a hero’s homecoming once he is dead. Jean
emerges from her shell more cynical and disillusioned than anyone. She attacks Archie mercilessly for his ineptitude
and his inability to change. She demands to know the purpose of their existence—is it just to please an audience?
Her comments, however, make no impression whatsoever. The chatter springs off in all directions, even when Jean
tells the family about Archie’s plans to remarry. Billy is in fact preoccupied by his imminent return to the stage,
engineered by Archie, even though Jean predicts that the strain will kill him—which it does. He dies offstage.

In death, Billy at last gains Archie’s respect, but Archie’s hypocrisy makes Jean even more determined to remain
with Phoebe, reject her father, and leave her fiancé, Graham, from whom she has now grown away. As she and
Graham argue, Old Bill, Archie’s successful brother, is busy convincing Archie that he must go off to Canada—at
Bill’s expense. As the alternative is jail, Archie gives in and agrees to go. Jean, meanwhile, states that she has lost
any spiritual faith she may have had and must rely only on herself.

The final scene shows Archie, onstage for the last time. He tells a vulgar joke about an ordinary man who finds
himself in heaven, which says something about Archie’s philosophy. Phoebe is there to help him offstage, the light
snaps out, and Archie is gone. The music hall, the audience perceives, has gone with him.

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Analysis: Dramatic Devices
John Osborne, in The Entertainer, gives precise directions on staging, scenery, and characterization. He carefully
describes the town in which the Rice family lives, the lighting, music, particular types of “swaggering” onstage,
clothing, and even hairstyles—all of which make the play come alive. There is a determined bid for exact realism.
However, at the same time the play is interrupted by continued scenes from the burlesque tradition, which could
make an audience feel they were not in the 1950’s, but back in the 1930’s, the 1910’s, or even earlier. The
implication is that in the play, as in Archie Rice’s life, performance and staging, deliberate acting and real feeling, are
all inseparably fused.

Further, Archie’s burlesque is juxtaposed to his life at home. He is seen acting professionally, then talking more
freely, but his real conversation too often slides toward a kind of patter, as at the end of act 1, where the telegram
about his son, finally opened, leads only to an obscene joke—of which, however, the audience never hears the end,
as Archie belatedly realizes its inappropriateness and inadequacy.

Conversation is important to the play, when Archie can be elbowed out of the limelight. Its orderly or chaotic nature
serves as a barometer of family feelings. It also illustrates how seldom people actually listen to each other. Further
points are made by the characters’ accents, with Billy’s in particular being described by Osborne with some care: It
is to be old-fashioned, to use pronunciations now the preserve of the English upper classes only (like rhyming “God”
with “Lord”), but at the same time not to sound upper class. Such directions give the play its dimension of history and
age.

Finally, note should be taken of the play’s use of suspense and of action that occurs offstage. The critical event of
the play is the death of Mick, with a clear parallel being the death of Billy. Both are sacrifices, the one to Empire, the
other to Archie, and both take place offstage. A related onstage event is Archie’s refusal to open his telegram. The
implications—regarding Archie’s evasive character and essentially futile life—are strong.

Bibliography
Sources for Further Study

Anderson, Michael. Anger and Detachment: A Study of Arden, Osborne, and Pinter. London: Pitman, 1976.

Banham, Martin. Osborne. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1969.

Brown, John Russell. Theatre Language: A Study of Arden, Osborne, Pinter, and Wesker. New York: Taplinger,
1972.

Carter, Alan. John Osborne. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1973.

Denison, Patricia D., ed. John Osborne: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1997.
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Ferrar, Harold. John Osborne. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973.

Gilleman, Lu. The Hideous Honesty of John Osborne: The Politics of Vituperation. New York: Garland, 2000.

Kennedy, Andrew W. Six Dramatists in Search of a Language. London: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Trussler, Simon. The Plays of John Osborne: An Assessment. London: Gollancz, 1969.