Taste of Honey: From dependence to independence :: English Literature

Taste of H superstary From dependence to emancipationA Taste of Honey was written by Shelagh Delaney when she was 18, andpublished in 1958. Four eld later, in 1962, it was turned into afilm. It shows life as it really was for many a(prenominal) an(prenominal) people in and around theslums of Salford, near Manchester, subsisting with the poor housing andlack of opportunity. The characters are genuine you can reallybelieve in them. Some of the characters were totally different fromthe usual straight-laced characters that were so common in thekitchen-sink dramas that were around at the beat. For instance, ahomosexual, a young pregnant individual girl, a semi-whore mother and ablack sailor all living in the analogous areas, and some even living in thesame houses as each other. This was completely different from thesafe plays of the time. There is hope in the play the characters,especially Jo, are able to overcome their fears and problems and carryon with their lives.The charact ers in a taste of honey speak like regular working classpeople in the north of England. There are not many examples ofregional dialect, but there are a few, such as when Helen says, Eee,theres a terrible draught, showing that Helen is a house physician ofLancashire. The characters drop letters, making them sound morecommon. There are many examples of this, including Jo saying, Youpacked em, and Helen saying, Turn em all. This shows that Helenand Jo are ordinary, common, working class or lower, people.The ancient Greeks believed that a play had to be realistic, and thatto be realistic the action of the play should form one setting. Thetime the play took to act should be equal to the time covered in theplot and that the play should have only one main falsehood. The Greekscalled these ideas the three unties of time, action and place. Thisis different to a taste of honey in that the play, although onlyhaving one main plot, has a sub-plot. The main story is the story ofJo, and the su b-plot being Helens story.There are many objects in the play which could maintain a hiddenmeaning, from something a simple as darkness or a light bulb, todeeper things such as an eye patch or children singing. The list isendless. The very first instance of symbolism is the plays title, ataste of honey. A taste is a very small amount for a in brief period oftime. Honey is sweet, and therefore honey represents good. From Jospoint of view, her life is bad.