A Taste of Honey: Character Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

Jo

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Get out of your sight” 

What the quotation means:

Jo tells her mother that as soon as she has a job she will move out to get away from her.

Theme: 

Motherhood and family 

• Delaney presents a dysfunctional relationship between a mother and daughter:

  • The phrase “Get out of your sight” implies Jo feels like a burden to Helen and plans to avoid contact when she leaves home

  • Dialogue between Helen and Jo is bitter and extreme throughout the play, which reflects their unhappy life and sense of powerlessness

Jo

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Never been too familiar with it”

What the quotation means:

When Geof asks Jo if she loved the Boy (Jimmie), she tells Geof that she is not sure as she does not know how to recognise love.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• Delaney presents a young woman who begins her adult life struggling with relationships as a result of emotional abandonment and physical neglect:

  • Her mother has never provided a good model of what a loving relationship should look like

  • The strong negative adverb of time, “never”, implies an extreme response

• Jo’s inability to recognise love in her relationships with men leaves her vulnerable, like her mother, which presents a cycle of trauma:

  • The struggle for independence is presented through Helen’s desire to marry, and Jo’s desire to avoid it in order to find autonomy 

Jo

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“I can do anything” and “set my mind to it”

What the quotation means:

Jo tells Geof that she is determined to succeed and be self-reliant.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• When Jo moves away from her mother, she stands by her promise not ever to marry, and, at times, she feels empowered by her independence

• Despite her pregnancy and lack of support, she decides not to marry Geof:

  • This shows Jo behaving differently to her mother (who places herself at risk by repeatedly using marriage for financial security)  

• Delaney illustrates Jo’s resilience when she starts her life alone, which represents  a gradual societal change in terms of female independence:

  • The repeated first-person pronouns (“I”, “my”) emphasise this empowerment

Helen

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Never have dared talk to my mother like that”

What the quotation means:

Helen comments to the audience about Jo’s rudeness to her.

Theme: 

Motherhood and family 

• Delaney breaks the fourth wall here: 

  • Helen speaks directly to the audience

  • This increases audience involvement and builds empathy for Helen and Jo

• Helen comments on the changes in family dynamics over time

• The line is ironic (opens in a new tab): 

  • Helen’s own rude language to Jo has taught her daughter to react similarly 

Helen

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Bloody little pansy”

What the quotation means:

Helen refers to Geof with a derogatory and homophobic term when she asks how long he plans to stay at Jo’s flat.

Theme: 

Discrimination 

• Delaney reveals Helen’s casual discrimination against Geof:

  • Prefacing the derogatory term for homosexual men (“pansy”) with “Bloody” and “little” disguises her homophobia as a light-hearted comment

• Helen’s intolerance means that, despite Geof’s caring nature and support for the pregnant Jo, she shows disdain simply because he is homosexual:

  • Her bitter and mean attitude casts a negative light on Helen and builds sympathy for Geof, which becomes a wider criticism of homophobia 

Helen

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Like a man with no arms”

What the quotation means:

Helen implies that Peter was not generous with his money.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• Delaney shows Helen’s disillusionment about her relationship with Peter through a simile (opens in a new tab) that humorously compares his generosity to a “man with no arms”

• The comparison reveals the underlying problems of relationships based on money:

  • Helen’s desire for financial security leaves her dependent and repeatedly let down

Peter

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“An honest woman”

What the quotation means:

Peter tells Helen she should marry him so that she will be perceived as a good woman.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• Delaney’s character Peter reveals sexist attitudes in postwar Britain, that a woman’s reputation is based on marital status:

  • Peter implies that, as an unmarried woman, Helen is not “honest”

  • The comment illustrates Helen’s vulnerable position as a single woman

  • This line is made all the more poignant as Peter has just insulted Helen

  • Delaney suggests that women may be desperate to marry in order to be respected

Peter

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Could throw you out tomorrow” 

What the quotation means:

When Peter tells Helen that Jo cannot stay at their house, she replies that the house half belongs to her, with which he disagrees and goes on to threaten her.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• Delaney presents Peter as controlling and verbally abusive:

  • He repeatedly uses threats to assert power over Helen

• Delaney uses Peter to illustrate Helen’s vulnerable position as a result of her marriage:

  • This is revealed in the modal verb “could”

  • Even after getting married, Helen’s security depends totally on her husband

• Helen’s attempt at autonomy, when she invites her pregnant daughter to stay, is in vain as Peter holds financial power over her

Peter

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Game old bird” and “on the beat”

What the quotation means:

Peter insults Helen by implying she is an old prostitute, but still good enough for sex.

Theme: 

Discrimination  

• Delaney reveals sexist attitudes through Peter’s disrespectful treatment of Helen

• The adjective “game” describes Helen as promiscuous:

  • He implies that she is not valuable anymore now that she is “old” and “worn out”

  • That she has a “few good strokes left” implies she can still be used for sex

  • Peter’s attitude to promiscuous women is revealed through idiom (opens in a new tab), such as “on the beat” which describes someone working on the street

Geof

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“I’ll stay here” and “a proper meal”

What the quotation means:

Geof offers to help Jo during her pregnancy.

Theme: 

Motherhood and family 

• Delaney illustrates Geof’s genuine kindness towards Jo as she faces life and her pregnancy alone:

  • Geof’s comment alludes to Jo’s financial insecurity

  • That she needs a “proper” meal is evidence of her struggles to survive on her own

• As a homosexual man, Jo feels safe with him

  • Geof offers her help without any sexual or romantic expectations 

• They form an unconventional family unit, illustrating non-conformist attitudes about family

Geof

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Inhuman“ 

What the quotation means:

Geof is frustrated with Jo’s self-pity and callous comments about motherhood, so he tells her to stop putting on a facade.

Theme: 

Motherhood and family 

• Delaney characterises Geof as the opposite of Helen to present an alternative to traditional ideas of family:

  • He appears to know Jo well: “It doesn’t suit you”

• He is presented as wise and insightful:

  • He sees that her childhood has left her with a resilience that makes her hard and tough when she says she hates the idea of “motherhood”

  • The word “inhuman” implies that Geof thinks humans are meant to be caring and that motherhood is something to take seriously 

Geof

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“People in it aren’t rotten“ and “dazzling white house”

What the quotation means:

Geof tells Peter that although the area where he and Jo live is disadvantaged, the people are not corrupted, and that Jo is happier away from a fake life in a better house.

Theme: 

Discrimination  

• Delaney’s play illustrates attitudes to class

• Peter’s snobbish comments about the rough neighbourhood receives a sharp response from Geof:

  • He suggests that Peter, and the rest of the middle class, is corrupted by the “dazzling white” of their houses

  • He implies that working-class people are more genuine

• Delaney presents Geof as a tolerant, kind character to give his ideas credibility  

The Boy (Jimmie)

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Trapped” and “barbaric cult”

What the quotation means:

When Jo and Jimmie plan to marry, he makes a joke about joining a cult and implies he will be imprisoned.

Theme: 

Independence and marriage 

• Delaney illustrates negative attitudes to marriage when the Boy proposes to Jo:

  • He says he used to be happy and free but is forced into a “barbaric” institution (marriage) that will trap him

  • The adjective “barbaric” emphasises his beliefs that marriage is savage and cruel

• The reference to a “cult” alludes to groupthink, which implies married people do not think independently

• Through Jimmie’s playful sarcasm, Delaney highlights youthful scepticism about marriage

The Boy (Jimmie)

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“Disappointed” and “tom-tom”

What the quotation means:

When Jo asks Jimmie if his ancestors were from Africa, he says that they were from Wales, and that this information will be disappointing if she was hoping for him to be African.

Theme: 

Discrimination 

• Delaney shows how Jo’s casual racism is influenced by her environment:

  • Her boyfriend, Jimmie, alludes to this when he suggests she is with him simply as a form of rebellion

• He implies that he is seen as an “African”, despite his British identity:

  • His sarcastic reference to ‘tom-tom’ drums plays on crude racist stereotypes of Africa, exposing the casual racism of the time

The Boy (Jimmie)

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“See a coloured boy”

What the quotation means:

Jo’s boyfriend tells her that when he meets her mother she will not notice anything about him except for his skin colour.

Theme: 

Discrimination  

• Delaney illustrates how discrimination impacts Jimmie’s perception of himself:

  • When he immediately assumes Helen is racist, she suggests he has grown accustomed to prejudice 

  • The short sentence creates a tone of resigned acceptance 

• The tragic irony of this comment is that he is correct:

  • Helen does indeed react with racist attitudes when she learns that Jo’s baby will be mixed-race