Key Quote
“"You're nothing to me. I feel sorry for you"”
Jo (to Helen) · Act Two
Focus: “nothing”
Jo's devastating dismissal of her mother reverses the usual parent-child dynamic — the daughter pities the mother, claiming emotional superiority through detachment rather than through affection.
Technique 1 — DECLARATIVE ABSOLUTE / EMOTIONAL INVERSION
The first sentence — 'You're nothing to me' — is an absolute declaration: no qualification, no softening, no possibility of compromise. The word 'nothing' is total erasure — Helen is not 'less important' or 'disappointing' but NOTHING. This verbal annihilation mirrors the emotional death of the mother-daughter bond. The second sentence — 'I feel sorry for you' — performs an emotional inversion: the child expresses pity for the parent, reversing the expected power dynamic.
The juxtaposition of 'nothing' (emotional void) and 'sorry' (emotional response) creates a paradox: if Helen is truly nothing, Jo should feel nothing — not even pity. By feeling sorry, Jo reveals that Helen is NOT nothing but is still capable of causing pain. The pity is a defence mechanism — it allows Jo to occupy a position of superiority while concealing the hurt that remains.
Key Words
RAD — PROGRESS
Jo's dismissal represents a form of progress — she has learned to protect herself emotionally from a mother who consistently disappoints. This is not warm, happy progress but survival progress: the development of emotional armour that allows Jo to function despite inadequate parenting. Her coldness is not cruelty but competence — the skill of a child who has learned to parent herself.
Key Words
Technique 2 — MONOSYLLABIC POWER
Both sentences use predominantly monosyllabic (one-syllable) words: 'You're,' 'nothing,' 'to,' 'me,' 'I,' 'feel,' 'sorry,' 'for,' 'you.' This monosyllabic delivery creates a blunt, punching rhythm — each word lands like a short, sharp blow. Complex vocabulary would soften the impact; Jo's simple words are her sharpest weapons.
The shift from 'me' to 'you' across the two sentences charts a movement of power: 'You're nothing to ME' places Jo at the centre; 'I feel sorry for YOU' pushes Helen to the periphery. Jo occupies the grammatical centre of both sentences — she is either the recipient ('to me') or the actor ('I feel'). Helen is either nothing or an object of pity. Jo controls the grammar as she controls the relationship.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
ABSENT MOTHERS
Helen is an absent mother — present physically but emotionally unavailable, more interested in men and drink than in Jo's welfare. Delaney presents a mother-figure who violates every expectation of maternal devotion, challenging the idealised Victorian/Edwardian image of motherhood.
ANGRY YOUNG WOMEN
While the 'Angry Young Men' (Osborne, Sillitoe) dominated 1950s cultural rebellion, Delaney was an 'Angry Young Woman' — her anger was specifically gendered, directed at the double burdens of class AND gender that constrained working-class women's lives.
Key Words
WOW — THE ABJECT MOTHER (Kristeva)
Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection — the process by which we define ourselves by rejecting what we do not want to be — illuminates Jo's relationship with Helen. Kristeva argues that the mother is the primary figure of abjection: the child must separate from the mother to become a self, and this separation involves rejecting, even despising, the maternal body. Jo's 'You're nothing to me' is an act of abjection: she casts Helen out of her emotional life to establish her own independent identity. But Kristeva warns that abjection is never complete — the abject always returns, always threatens to dissolve the boundaries we have constructed. Helen's periodic reappearances in Jo's life — unwanted but impossible to permanently exclude — demonstrate this dynamic: the mother can be rejected but never fully expelled. Jo's pity ('I feel sorry for you') is the moment where abjection falters: despite declaring Helen 'nothing,' Jo still FEELS something, revealing that the boundary is permeable.
Key Words