‘A taste of honey’ and ‘My mother said I never should’ Essay

The two drama texts we have studied are ‘A taste of honey’ and ‘My mother said I never should’. These two texts have similar themes and issues. They both deal with growing up, single parenthood, leaving home, friendship, family relationships including conflict between daughters, parents and the attitude toward different class behaviour. In this essay I shall be exploring the similarities and differences between the two texts. I shall start with an analysis of ‘A taste of honey’ and compare this with ‘my mother said I never should’. ‘A taste of honey’ is set in the 1960’s in a scrubby little worn-down flat. It deals with the life of a young girl called Jo and her mother called Helen. In this drama text, Jo and Geof do not get on well with Helen. They are in conflict with each other all the time. We know this because the text illustrates lots of aggressive language like â€Å"oh, go to hell†. Helen has a boyfriend called peter she leaves Jo to live with him, but when she finds out that Jo is pregnant she returns to the flat. When she returns she finds that Jo is living with a young man called Geof. He is a homosexual and peter is quite homophobic so he insults him constantly. We know this because he calls him a pansy. Jo is similar to Jackie in ‘My mother said I never should’ because they are both young single mothers that have dropped out of college however, they are slightly different too because Jackie, Margaret and her family are middle/upper class opposed to Jo’s and Helen’s family which are lower/working class. ‘A taste of honey’ we see Helen come back to look after her daughter, but she runs out on her Jo and her new baby. In ‘My mother said I never should, the daughter is required to give up her role as a mother to return to art college. Jo never has this option and this is another difference between the texts. ‘My mother said I never should’ has many themes that are the same as ‘A taste of honey’ for example both deals with young mothers. In this play, there are four different generations of women. The characters names are Jackie, Margaret, Doris and the baby is called Rosie. Attitude to sex and having children has changed through the play form generation to generation as the different characters reflect this. For instant, Jackie is a young child, Margaret is pregnant, we know this because the play goes back in time to a scene in the garden where Margaret tell Doris how she feels about her miscarriage. Margaret says, â€Å"I thought I didn’t want it, till I lost it†. Doris, Margaret’s mother tells Margaret that she shouldn’t have worked while she was pregnant. She seems to think that working was the reason that Margaret lost the baby. This shows that in the 1960’s women were supposed to stay at home in bed, resting and not working. Margaret thinks that this idea is very sexist. Later in the characters’ lives Jackie challenges her mothers attitudes to sex before marriage. We learn that Jackie is already sexually active. We know this because the text states that Jackie slept with her boyfriend at his parents house Jackie say, â€Å"It was a relief to get it over with†. Her mother is not particularly happy about it as she says, â€Å"oh you can wound me sometimes, Jackie†. She is unhappy about the fact that Jackie could possible be pregnant. Later in the play we see Jackie with little baby Rosie. They are living in a run down council flat, which shows that the area is lower class. We also learn that the father is not there to help look after Rosie so Jackie is therefore a single mother. Her mother comes to visit and we learn that Jackie’s mother is pressuring Jackie into giving up the baby and return to art college. As we learn from the text, Jackie is not happy about this as Jackie mother says, â€Å"Jackie, we can’t go over this again †¦ you know as well as I do, it would be impossible† and Jackie replies by saying † I don’t believe you†. Margaret and her husband are ashamed by single parents. We know that her father is unhappy about Jackie and Rosie because he won’t go into the house however Margaret is more relaxed about the situation that Jackie and Rosie are in. she comes to pick up Rosie and Rosie’s clothes as she will be her new mother. Jackie is reluctant in giving Rosie to Margaret. Jackie is now free to go to Art College again. This reflects that attitudes towards working mothers have changed from one generation to the next. In conclusion I think both are similar in most of their themes however they differ when it comes to how the mothers react and why they react to the situation. For example Helen wanted Jo to move in with her because she thinks she cant cope and Margaret want Jackie to give the baby to her so she can go back to art college because Margaret is from an upper class family and a young single mother is shamed upon and she also wants to have a better life.