A Taste of Honey - Movie Review Example

1 TO WHAT EXTENT DOES A TASTE OF HONEY CHALLENGE IDEAS OF MOTHERHOOD IN THE 1950'S Introduction A Taste of Honey caught the public eye globally when its movie version 'A Taste of Honey' directed by respected British director Tony Richardson won awards after awards both in the local scene i.e. United Kingdom and in Europe and in USA in 1962. It first won 4 BAFTA awards for best film, best actress (Dora Bryan), best screenplay (Richardson and Shelagh Delaney) and most promosing newcomer Rita Tushingham. It then made a splash in the Cannes Film Festival snatching the best film, the best actress for Rita Tushingham and best actor for Murray Melvin (IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055506/awards). It then won raves in USA where it won the best director award for Richardson in the Directors Guild of America and the New York Critics Circle Award (Todd 1989,p.184). Coupled with its winning the Writers Guild of Great Britain Award for Delaney and Richardson, the focus of interest was suddenly centred on Delaney's original play which was first produced and publicly shown by Joan Littlewood at the Royal Theatre, Stratford East in 1958 (Wandor 1986,p.143). Movie and play viewers as well as critics can't help but be dazzled and drawn in by the passionate, poignant emotions, the heart-wrenching pathos and the moving social issues and themes addressed by Delaney's script which in these modern times are still relevant i.e. child neglect; sexual prejudice; teenage, out-of-wedlock pregnancy; abortion dilemma; loneliness; survival and struggle out of poverty; miscegenation or interbreeding of races which was a taboo at that time; homosexuality; platonic relationship and maternal alienation. What was fantastic was that all of these profound and complex issues and emotions were written by an 18-year old girl who 2 never wrote anything at all in her entire life and she wrote it with all gritty realism and the overweening bravado of a veteran playwright. The question on everybody's lips was 'where on earth had she extracted all those emotions and experiences' The answer could lie on her own background. A daughter of working-class parents and herself born and reared in the shabby, squalid environment of Salford, she could only be gifted with a keen, perceptive insight of things, an empathy for the socially marginalised and an innate talent for accurately depicting the world as she saw it . Plot Synopsis of A Taste of Honey The play opens with a fortyish mother Helen squabbling with her 18-year old daughter on trivial matters such as how to prepare coffee and other paltry issues. Both have just transferred to this new squalid apartment. Helen's paramour, Peter who is much younger than Helen suddenly barged in and is surprised to learn that Helen has a daughter and invites her to come with him for a drinking bout. Rejected, he offers her marriage while at the same time boasting to Jo his collection of girlfriends as shown in the many women's photos in his wallet. The next scene introduces Jo's suitor, a young black man who is a sailor-on leave for the Christmas holidays. He offers to marry Jo which Jo assented to. After 'The Boy' has left, Helen comes to announce her wedding with Peter and that she is leaving Jo to live with Peter in his house. Jo wept in abject desolation and was comforted by The Boy, who in Jo's misery and loneliness was invited to spend one week with her. Jo's depression is further compounded by Helen's revelation that Jo is in reality her daughter by the village idiot with whom she had a one-night stand. She further relates that this is the reason she was divorced by Jo's putative father. Distraught with the thought that she could have inherited idiocy-tainted genes, Jo is left on the brink of despondency while Helen prepares for her wedding. 3 The next scene shows a six-month pregnant Jo, courtesy of The Boy, with her gay friend and housemate Geoff. He was evicted in his own apartment on account of his homosexuality and thus Jo offered him a place to stay. Geof is mother, sister, friend rolled into one. An art student, he pays for the rent and supports Jo, who hibernates due to cruel innuendoes from neighbors. While Jo is at sea as to what to do with the baby, Geof sees himself as the prospective father of the baby and even expresses desire to marry Jo. In comes Helen who is aghast at Jo's condition and has proclaimed that the whole neighborhood has called her a whore. As Helen is about to leave, Peter arrives to taunt her and screams that he has erroneously married his mother,an old bag and that he is busy pursuing younger women. He further declares that he can never allow Helen to bring Jo to his home. Helen runs after the departing Peter leaving Jo to Geof's care. The next scene shows a heavily bloated Jo being visited by Helen who confesses that she was thrown out by Peter in lieu of a younger woman. She insisted on caring for Jo while insulting and driving away Geof. Jo discloses that the baby will be black which shocks Helen and provokes her to suggest that the baby be drowned or given away. The play ends with Helen seeking drink in a bar (Delaney & Speakman 1989,pp. 1-46). A Taste of Honey As A Play That Absolutely Challenges Ideas of Motherhood in the 1950's During the 1950's, the concept of motherhood verged on the traditional and the ideal and motherhood was conceptualised as an institution. The post-war decades of the 1950's and 1960's "constructed motherhood as a role within the family setting which encompassed child care, shopping, cleaning and husband care" (Gatrell 2005,p.47). Women were ideated with images focusing "predominantly on their identity as housewives and mothers". These 4 preconceived ideas of motherhood was abetted and promoted "by governments and by advertising companies in Britain and America"which painted the image of white, middle-class, stay-at-home mother" (Gatrell 2005,p.47). Sociologist Adrienne Rich claimed that in those days, motherhood as an institution was socially constructed and "established by a patriarchal society to undermine the social identity of women". She asserted that in those days a natural mother was stereotyped as one who is selfless, driven by maternal instinct whose love is unconditional and is a person "without further identity, one who can find her chief gratification in being all day with small children" (Gatrell 2005,p.50). A Taste of Honey completely challenges the ideas of motherhood in the 1950's as described hereinabove. Delaney presents a mother who is dysfunctional and who is completely opposite to the description of the ideal mother in the 1950's. She is not a housewife nor a mother in every sense of the word. There nary was a hint that she is engaged in housekeeping, shopping, child caring, cleaning or husband caring. In fact she was divorced by her husband. She also berated Jo for keeping the house clean. There never is an instance where she cared and nurtured for Jo. In fact she expects Jo to take care of herself while she is busy with her promiscuous dalliances and her drinking activities. She is hardly a stay-at-home mother. In fact she is flighty and she shows a ready abandonment of her child whenever a better opportunity comes along and the opportunity usually is in the form of a moneyed man. In truth her heart is open to any man but is closed shut for her daughter. Only when she was thrown out of the house by Peter in lieu of a younger woman did she realise that she has a daughter after all. She is anything but selfless. She is instead self-absorbed, self-centered, egocentric and blithely irresponsible who has no consideration for her daughter's feelings. She is too selfish that she will leave her daughter anytime for any man who is willing to run off with her. Her love is unconditional for Peter, 5 he who humiliated her, taunted her and threw her out like rotten garbage when a younger, fresher woman came along. Her love is unconditional for herself that she will do everything that catches her fancy without consideration to the effects it will have on her daughter. Her alcoholism and promiscuity comes first, her daughter comes last. She is termagant, domineering and brash and these are symptoms of her lack of love for her daughter and an utter absence of maternal instinct. That her daughter means nothing to her is displayed when the man she is willing to marry never even knows about the existence of her daughter. That her granddaughter or grandson means nothing to her is shown when she suggests the drowning or giving away of the poor baby. What matters to her then is how society will judge her and yet her life is despicable without virtues to speak of. Conclusion The play A Taste of Honey is a brilliant and eloquent demonstration of how not to rear and bring up a daughter . The 'mother' in the play is not a mother in every sense of the word. In fact she is everything but a mother. All the qualities she has displayed are the antitheses of the qualities of an ideal mother as conceptualised in the 1950's and 1960's. Therefore we conclude that A Taste of Honey absolutely challenges the ideas of motherhood in the early 1950's. BIBLIOGRAPHY Delaney,S & Speakman,R 1989, 'A taste of honey', Heinemann. Gatrell, C 2005, 'Hard labour: the sociology of parenthood;, McGraw-Hill International. IMDb 1990, 'Awards for A Taste of Honey', http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055506/awards. Wandor,M 1986, 'Carry on understudies: theatre and sexual politics', Taylor & Francis. Read More