A Taste of Honey: Key Quotations

A Taste of Honey: Key quotations

A Taste of Honey: Key theme quotations

In your exam, you will be required to know the play well enough to refer to key pieces of dialogue or events. This will help produce a convincing and thorough interpretation of the whole play. 

To form a strong argument that examines the theme in the question, you’ll need to use references or refer to key phrases or words as supporting evidence. This means that quotes should be linked closely to a point you make about the theme.

Here, we will analyse key quotes grouped according to the following themes:

• Motherhood and family

• Discrimination

• Independence and marriage

A Taste of Honey: Key quotations: Motherhood and family

Motherhood and family

Shelagh Delaney’s play A Taste of Honey, staged in London in 1958, depicts a mother and daughter struggling to find common ground, live in harmony, or find love and security in a world that offers them little personal control. 

Paired quotations

Meaning and context

• In the exposition, Helen tells Jo to turn on the stove as she is unwell:

  • She instructs Jo to try all the knobs and to avoid gassing herself

  • She comments to the audience that Jo is incapable of being independent 

• By the final scene, though, when Helen visits Jo in her own flat, Jo says the same thing to her mother when she asks about the stove

Analysis

• The sharp tone, delivered in short sentences, present Helen as an uncaring mother:

  • Insulting comments about her daughter, which are directed to the audience, breaks the fourth wall, emphasising their poor relationship with each other 

  • This implies their need for outside support

• When Jo mocks her mother by repeating these words back to her when she is living independently, Delaney reveals how impactful a mother’s words can be:

  • Jo has remembered Helen’s words and, once she is independent, uses them against her

  • This presents their relationship as permanently damaged 

Meaning and context

• Helen ignores Jo’s comment that she will not get married, saying that she is just a young girl and will soon change her mind

• She says that everyone will “end up” getting married at some point

Analysis

• Delaney presents Helen’s view that marriage is an inescapable social convention:

  • Her negative attitude to the state of being married is evident in the phrase “end up”, which implies a lack of choice

  • Her view of marriage is that it is a certainty: it will happen “sooner or later”

  • She suggests that Jo is naive to expect she will have a different life

A Taste of Honey: Key quotations: Discrimination

Discrimination

Shelagh Delaney explores the theme of discrimination in her play by creating characters from marginalised groups. Through the characters’ experiences, and how they interact with each other, A Taste of Honey depicts casual racism, sexism, and homophobia. 

Paired quotations

Meaning and context

• Jo’s Black boyfriend (referred to in the play as “Boy”) asks Jo if the reason she does not want to kiss him is because she objects to the touch of a lusty “Moor”:

  • He quotes a line from Shakespeare’s Othello, which raises themes of racism

  • A “Moor” is someone of North African descent with a dark skin colour

• Later, when Jo declines Geof’s proposal, he makes a sarcastic comment about the Boy:

  • He describes him as like an animal (a “beast”), another reference to Othello

Analysis

• Delaney refers to a Shakespearean play that raises themes of racial discrimination

• When the Boy refers to himself as a “lascivious Moor” he is teasing Jo, although he shows an awareness of discrimination against him

• Geof’s comment is spoken with bitterness: 

  • He implies the Boy is animalistic

  • His reference to the Boy being a “prince” reveals Geof’s jealousy and perhaps insecurity

Meaning and context

• Geof is bitter about Jo’s reference to his sexuality:

  • She asks about “people like” him and says she will not “snigger” (laugh at him)

• He says that people who mock others are, in fact, easier to mock

Analysis

• Delaney suggests through Geof’s extreme distaste for people who mock others that he feels resentful about discrimination

• He is presented as empathetic: 

  • He is upset about “other people” being laughed at which implies he is not just angry about his own experiences

Meaning and context

• When Peter meets Helen’s daughter Jo, he says that this immediately ages Helen

• He implies that she may have told him she was younger than she was

Analysis

• Delaney shows Peter’s sexist attitudes as he comments negatively on Helen’s age once he knows she is a mother

• That Helen may have told him she was younger, and through negative comments about Helen’s age (even by Jo), Delaney illustrates discriminatory attitudes to gender:

  • Peter’s comment, that it adds “ten years” either to the age he thinks she is or the age she said she was, implies young women are seen to be superior to older women

A Taste of Honey: Key quotations: Independence and marriage

Independence and marriage

Shelagh Delaney’s play depicts the struggles of a young woman, Jo. Her challenging life with her mother leads to a desperate need for independence. Delaney illustrates how this makes Jo rush into adult situations. 

Meaning and context

• When Jo tries to get a job, Helen tells her to “ruin” her life if she wants to  

• Jo replies bitterly that her mother has tried hard to ruin her life herself

Analysis

• Delaney’s character Jo struggles to exert any sense of independence while living with her mother:

  • She believes Helen’s life choices have affected her future negatively

• Delaney presents Jo as a resilient daughter, determined to live life differently to her mother:

  • She often uses her mother’s words against her, creating dark humour

Paired quotations

Meaning and context

• When Jo complains about the new flat and her mother’s parenting, Helen says sarcastically that she will soon be able to move out and live her own life

• When Jo does get her own flat and her mother visits, she tells her that she is happy being independent because it boosts her self-esteem

Analysis

• Delaney shows the damaging effects of neglect and verbal abuse on Jo’s self-esteem:

  • Under her mother’s care, Jo is belittled and insulted constantly 

• Her independence, although she struggles financially and has little support, empowers her

• The metaphor “whole world” highlights Jo’s increased capacity for caring once she is on her own