Looks back at the 20th century with depression and anger. The 20th century is the period when European theater turned to more realistically themed shows. The Great Depression is one of the main causes of this. 20th century theater is the time when the Great Depression plagued Europe. For this reason, playwrights began to create plays based on realism such as John Osborn's Look Back in Anger. The Great Depression not only affected the United States, but Europe also suffered because the United States was a large trading country for Europe (Pugh). Although the unemployed were not as numerous in Europe, most people still had jobs (Pugh). The thing people were worried about was how far the money would go (Pugh). Because of this, marriage rates overall have declined. But people began to marry at a young age, regardless of age (Pugh). One good thing that came from this was that the crime rate went down. But some of the common laws were ignored, for example speed limits were ignored (Pugh). During this depression there were periods of growth in the economy (Pugh). Newspapers were one of the hardest hit areas and there was nothing to report since crime dropped (Pugh). So when a big event happened after the Great Depression, newspapers took advantage of it. That great event was the Great War or World War I. Great Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 (Rosenberg). Britain declared war on Germany for invading Belgium (Rosenberg). One of the German U-boats sank the British ship called RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915 (Rosenberg). In January 1917 the Germans attempted to send the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico to take them to war but the British decoded the message and prevented it (Rosenberg). The Great War was to end on June 28, 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of...middle of paper...(Heilpein). The play is said to have a “lack of human enthusiasm” (Trussler, 322). The central protagonist is Jimmy Porter (Bolt). Jimmy is a very violent individual (Bolt). But he loves his father and only his father (Bolt). Jimmy has a negative attitude towards women due to past experiences (Bolt). Because of this hatred towards girls, he wants to get revenge on them and make them feel what he (Bolt) felt. Jimmy has an internal conflict of wanting to make his mother angry, he loves her anger (Bolt). The story ends with Jimmy coming to terms with himself and a character named Alison starts acting like his mother (Bolt). John Osborn had a great influence on other playwrights who were also traditionalists. But one thing for sure is that the 20th century is a century of depression and war that will never change, but plays will always change in popularity and style..