Echoes of Disillusionment: Comparative Analysis of 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Aadhe Adhure' in Depicting Middle-Class Struggles

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the social change that was occurring in the 1950s and 1960s in India and Britain by analysing two pivotal plays; “Aadhe Adhure” written by Mohan Rakesh and “Look back in anger” written by John Osborne. The plays bring forth the tumultuous times and its impact on the lower middle class families. Rakesh portrays a dysfunctional family whose spectres of the past still looms over it and amidst the financial instability, emotional drought and incompatibility they must seek their way forward. Meanwhile, Osborne's “Look Back in Anger”, presents a lower-middle-class family struggling to make ends meet in which the social class of members affects their daily life.

By reading both plays comparatively, focusing on the familial conflicts and the characters, this paper highlights what it was to live in the aftermath of consecutive world wars. And in a country which has newly gained independence and is still navigating its way through economic, political and societal stability. This paper contributes to the understanding of how dramatic literature reflects and interrogates broader social changes, offering insights into the lives of individuals navigating turbulent times in two distinct cultural contexts.