The "Angry Young Men" were a group of working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950's. The group's leading members were John Osborne and Kingsley Amis. The phrase "Angry Young Men" was originally coined by the Royal Court Theatre's press officer to promote John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. Leslie Paul’s Look Back in Anger was published in 1951.
John Osborne wrote the play Look Back in Anger, staged by English Stage Company. He was one of the groups known as “Angry Young Men”. This play deals with the alienation of a young man from the social orders of middle-class society. Jimmy Porter became a prototype of a man who is in permanent opposition to everything which represents the old dissembler establishment.
The play Look Back in Anger was really successful when it was firstly performed in 1956. The two main characters are Jimmy and Alison Porter and the plot of the play revolves around their conflicts. But why they were in such a great conflict? The reason may lie in their social incompatibility. Jimmy comes from a working-class background, but her wife is from an upper-middle class. The anger of Jimmy is the most important theme of the play. Consequently, we can say that Look Back in Anger involves or uses characters to demonstrate the importance of classes in British society after the war.
