Representations of the Welfare State Policies in Post-war Britain in John Arden’s Live Like Pigs and The Workhouse Donkey

Abstract

Due to the consequences of World War II, the socio-economic condition of Britain during the post-war period was devastating for the British people. The welfare state policies were initiated to improve the socio-economic situation of the country in theory, but they proved to be inefficient in practice. Accordingly, this thesis discusses that John Arden (1930-2012), as a left-wing oriented playwright, criticises the failures in the implementation of the welfare state policies in Live Like Pigs (1958) and The Workhouse Donkey (1963) through representations of housing, social security, education and the National Health Service policies. The introduction part of this study provides the historical context of the post-World War II period in Britain with a specific focus on the Labour Party’s welfare state policies, which is essential to an analysis of the political, economic and cultural aspects of Arden’s two mentioned plays. The first main chapter focuses on Arden’s criticism of the failures in the implementation of the welfare state policies, which are housing, education, social security and the National Health Service, respectively in Live Like Pigs. The second chapter, which is on The Workhouse Donkey, explores the different aspects of the failures of the welfare state policies, related to health and education, due to the corruption of public servants. Finally, in the conclusion part, emphasising Arden’s objective approach to the characters and/or policies, it is underlined that the failures in the welfare system are caused mainly by corruption, oppression and/or inertia of people. Also by touching upon some of the fundamental epic elements in the plays, such as episodic structure, song, narrator and direct addressing to the audience, the effect of the formal elements on the content are presented.

Due to the consequences of World War II, the socio-economic condition of Britain during the post-war period was devastating for the British people. The welfare state policies were initiated to improve the socio-economic situation of the country in theory, but they proved to be inefficient in practice. Accordingly, this thesis discusses that John Arden (1930-2012), as a left-wing oriented playwright, criticises the failures in the implementation of the welfare state policies in Live Like Pigs (1958) and The Workhouse Donkey (1963) through representations of housing, social security, education and the National Health Service policies. The introduction part of this study provides the historical context of the post-World War II period in Britain with a specific focus on the Labour Party’s welfare state policies, which is essential to an analysis of the political, economic and cultural aspects of Arden’s two mentioned plays. The first main chapter focuses on Arden’s criticism of the failures in the implementation of the welfare state policies, which are housing, education, social security and the National Health Service, respectively in Live Like Pigs. The second chapter, which is on The Workhouse Donkey, explores the different aspects of the failures of the welfare state policies, related to health and education, due to the corruption of public servants. Finally, in the conclusion part, emphasising Arden’s objective approach to the characters and/or policies, it is underlined that the failures in the welfare system are caused mainly by corruption, oppression and/or inertia of people. Also by touching upon some of the fundamental epic elements in the plays, such as episodic structure, song, narrator and direct addressing to the audience, the effect of the formal elements on the content are presented.