Symbolism – Different symbols are used in the play. We have the use of Teddy bear and Squirrel. A bear is a heavy wild animal with thick fur and sharp claws while a Squirrel is a small animal with a long thick tail and red, grey, or black fur.
It can easily be frightened. Jimmy represents Bear and Alison is the Squirrel. These symbols are metaphors for the relationship between Jimmy and Alison. Jimmy is capable of protecting Alison and at the same time can frighten her at will. This is the nature of a bear.
Alison also as a squirrel enjoys protection at least sometimes from Jimmy and also is scared most of the time by him. They play games with these animals when nobody sees them.
This is the time they open up to each other and express their fears and hopes.
Newspapers in the play symbolize the emptiness of contemporary society as Jimmy keeps on complaining that he sees nothing in the newspapers and that they repeat the same thing. “Why do I do this every Sunday?
Even the book reviews seem to be the same as last week’s. Different books- same reviews.” He expects to update himself with the new things in the society, but there is nothing new in the newspapers.
Trumpet also symbolizes freedom in the play. Jimmy plays the trumpet freely without minding the threat from his landlady Miss Drury, while Alison always entertains fears that they will be expelled from the apartment by the landlady. The trumpet is heard and dominates.
Conflict – Conflict dominates the play from the beginning to the end. Jimmy is always in conflict with his wife, Alison. He always casts aspersions at his in-laws in the presence of Alison, their daughter.
Alison later packs out on the advice of Helena, her friend. Jimmy never agrees with his friend, Cliff. They argue and agitate for one thing or the other.
Helena, Alison’s friend, is also taken as Jimmy’s enemy. When Cliff mentions Helena as the name on the phone, he says, one of her old friends. “And one of my natural enemies.”
Foreshadowing – This is when something is mentioned earlier in a play and later happens as events unfold in the play. In Act One, when Jimmy is reprimanding Alison for allowing Helena to come and stay with them, he utters the following statements.
“Oh, my dear wife, you’ve got so much to learn. I only hope you learn it one day. If only something- something would happen to you and wake you out of your beauty sleep! If you could have a child, and it would die.”
Two things are referred to here and come to pass in the book. Jimmy is trying to tell Alison that he wishes something happens to her to wake her up and teach her a lesson.
After Alison leaves Jimmy’s house, her friend falls in love with her husband, and when she comes back, she laments that she has learned her lessons and knows what Jimmy wants from her.
This incident wakes her from her slumber and reunites her with Jimmy. Alison’s having a child and dying is also mentioned and she does lose the child in her womb at the end.
Classical Allusion – Jimmy’s reference to Helena in the play as “Lady Bracknell” is a classical allusion. Lady Bracknell is a character in a drama text titled “The Importance of Being Earnest” written by Oscar Wilde in 1895.
She represents the old and uncivilized ways of Victorian England. Helena is being slandered by Jimmy here to reveal his feelings towards the people of the upper class.
Flashbacks- This is used when Alison tells Helena about their marriage and their early lives after the marriage.
Jimmy also refers to his experience with his father’s deathbed when he was ten years old. He narrates this when he asks Helena whether she has ever watched somebody die. Jimmy refers to the day of their wedding when he tries to tell Helena about the last time Alison is in church.
He says Alison last attended church on the day she got married to him and explains how the marriage programme was conducted that day, how only his parents and he were in the church.
He was not even sure whether they were joined together because he was drunk. Flashback is also used when Colonel Redfem comes to take Alison to his house.
He pities Alison for what she is going through in her matrimonial home and says that Alison’s mother should be blamed for what she is going through.
He refers to their involvement in Alison and Jimmy’s affairs and says that he dislikes their involvement then. This is also used when Alison comes back and regrets her coming back.
She explains how she tries to stop herself from coming back to Jimmy, and how she wants to turn back, even after boarding the train.
Jimmy also flashes back to how he met Alison and what enticed him about her that she had “relaxation of spirit,” but later discovered that she didn’t have anything like that in her.