Shelagh Delaney was born November 25, 1939, in Salford, Lancashire,

England. Her father, a bus inspector, and her mother were part of the
English
working class, the social group that informs of her writing.

race, illegitimacy, homosexuality

Delaney felt that

she could write a better play, with more realistic dialogue, than the plays
that were
currently being staged. A Taste of Honey became an unexpected hit,
winning
several awards both as a play and later as a film..
???
In many cases, her characters were
praised for their honest, realistic voices. The play was also singled out for
its
accurate depictions of working class lives. Delaney believed in social
protest and has not been afraid to speak out on the need
for a more realistic theatre, one that depicts the working class
environment of many
British citizens.
Angry young men (whose work expressed bitterness and
disillusionment with Postwar English society.) , she was not a part of them
but many critics saw her work as a protest against working class poverty
and the social conditions of her time
A Taste of Honey is referred to as a Kitchen sink drama because it
portrays the
lives of working class people, living in a deprived inner city environment,
struggling to
overcome practical and personal problems.

We can get an idea of how the society in this play is at the beginning when
Helen and Jo, mother and daughter, move into a comfortless, old ruin
where there is no heating and everything in it is falling apart, the roof is
leaking. Helen mentions that they share a bathroom with the community
and that they have a view of the gasworks and a slaughterhouse, where
we can see that they live in a working class neighbourhood which also
smells. They both have to share a bedroom because there is no place in
the flat and this is the only thing they can afford.

They live in a tenement, which is a substandard multi-family dwelling in

the urban core, usually old and occupied by the poor. Tenement houses
were either adapted or built for the working class as cities industrialized,
[4]
and came to be contrasted with middle-class apartment houses, which
started to become fashionable later in the 19th century. Late 19th-century
social reformers in the U.S. were hostile to both tenements (for fostering
disease, and immorality in the young) and apartment houses (for fostering
"sexual immorality, sloth, and divorce.").
Some tenement apartments even housed more than one family at a time
just so the people could work and earn a living.
Helen has only her immoral earnings which she gets from her lovers and
spends it all on alcohol because she likes to drink a lot of whisky.
Helen says that she drinks because it consoles her about the life.
Helen and Jo can't stand eachother, they are always quarreling and there
is no mother daughter love between them. Helen has never cared much
about her daughter and she does not care, she says: I know, I'm a cruel,
wicked woman. Jo is sick of her mother because she made her life a
misery and she wants to quit school and start working so she can get
enough money to get away from her.
When Jo complains about her life and the flat they live in, Helen tells her:
Don't worry, you'll soon be an independent working woman and free to go
where you please.
When they have settled in their new home, there comes Peter, a man
Helen has probably had intercourse with before, and asks her to marry
him. He is a young, good-looking and well set up guy who offers her a
better life than she has now. It seems as if she will not agree to marry him,
but later on in act one, scene two she reveals that they are getting
married. When Jo asks Helen why she is marrying him she says: He's got
a wallet full of reasons.
Unlike her mother, Jo does not care about those things:
Jo: Did it cost very much?
Boy: You shouldn't ask questions like that. I got it from Woolworths!
Jo: Woolworth's best! I don't care. I'm not proud. It's the thought that
counts...
In scene two, Jo is with her coloured naval rating boyfriend and he asks her
to marry him and she accepts. Now they have to save up money to get
married: Honey, you've got to stop eating. No more food, no more makeup, no more fancy clothes; we're saving up to get married.
She thinks that her mother isn't prejudiced against colour, but she is, also
against sexual orientation:
Helen: Well, he certainly knows how to put stars in your eyes.
Jo: What makes you think it's a he?

Helen: Well, I certainly hope it isn't a she who makes you walk
around in this state.
When Jo tells Helen that she has met a sailor who was a male nurse
before, all she thinks about is taking advantage of it and making a use of it
and she asks: Does he ever get any free samples? We could do with a few
contacts for things like that.
HOMOSEXUAL AND PREGNANT WOMAN WITHOUT A FATHER, Blacks
Peter: I'm not having that bloody slut at our place, I'll tell you that for
nothing.
... And don't bring that little fruitcake parcel either. I can't stand the sight
of him. Can't stand 'em at any price.
When Jo tells Helen that the baby will be black because Jimmie, the sailor
who made the baby, was black, she is shocked and says that she has to
have a drink and then she says that she will drown the baby.
When Helen asks Jo to come and live with them in their big white house,
she says to Jo that she can't live any longer in that dump and that the
whole district is rotten.
Then Geof says: There's one thing about this district, the people in it aren't
rotten. Anyway, I think she is happier here with me than in that dazzling
white house you're supposed to be so...
In the end her rich husband throws her out and replaces her with a
younger and more attractive woman. She has experienced the high life
and has seen that it isn't as great as she thought and now she is back in
the dump with her daughter and acts like she is the best mother and that
she cares about her. She went to a better place and now everything is
dirty to her which didn't bother her before.