Representations of anger and love in John Osborne's look back in anger

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the role of emotions in oar understanding and responses to literary works of art. This is done through an analysis of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger. After providing background information on the history of the theories of emotion, the thesis goes on to analyze the emotions of love and anger as represented in the play. For this analysis, the Cognitive and Social Constructivist theories of emotions are employed. The thesis demonstrates that the sources of these two universal emotions that the characters in the play experience and express, i.e. love and anger, are their particular cognition of their world, and their values which are shaped by the society they live in. This thesis also involves a discussion of emotional responses to Osborne's play based on the theories of Plato and Aristotle. The role of emotion in art and life is examined and clarified in this connection.