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Summary of Howard Brenton’s "Weapons of Happiness":
J(caps)osef Frank, an ex-convict from Czechoslovakia, migrates to live and work in a factory in London. He meets Ralph, Janice, Billy, Ken, Alf, Lizy, and Stanley who all migrated to work in London factory. They contend with London’s harsh socio-economic system of overworked and underpaid manual job environment and the prejudice, unemployment, and discrimination against foreigners. Each of the migrants struggles to survive and discusses with friends on how to cope with the ordeals and police harassment whilst they keep abreast of the news back in their home countries.
The situation they find themselves in is demeaning and critical. Ralph Makepeace walks in, meets Josef Frank who has been discussing the general condition of London immigrants, including the difficult, unethical working conditions, starvation, sleeplessness, and homelessness. They discuss how they have been trying to cope with their conditions of living. Suddenly, some young London rascals appear, attack and injure Ralph Makepeace. The gangsters seize his car keys, and one of the gangs orders, “Flash away with his flashy car.” Miller, a police inspector, is invited to the scene of crime. He asks Josef Frank to write a statement on his previous attack. The police officer suspects Frank’s co-workers and decides to interrogate workers in the factory where the victim works, but the victim declines. Inspector Miller insists, “All I need is a simple statement. Tell what happened. I will write it down. You can read it through in your own good time and make any amendments” (p. 15).
The victim agrees but consoles himself over the pain and the injuries he sustained from the previous attack, “a blow healed with time.” The police officer, a queer, slippery, and crafty fellow, quickly accuses Frank of being a criminal and spy. Frank recalls the bitter experience of police detention, the starvation, handcuffs, blindfold, with sandwich only as food, and the possibility of being beaten against the wall. Inspector Miller is not comfortable with Frank being a foreigner. Miller questions the workers, “who really attacked Makepeace?” Frank and Clement discuss the social and economic aspect of the trade agreement between Soviet Russia in London, with foodstuffs and grains to be exchanged for steel and iron. Frank gets frustrated, compares the world to a filthy, empty room from which all humanity flee for safety; whereas there is really nowhere that is safe in the world where people kill at will. Through the discussion between Frank and Janice, we get to know that the former had been imprisoned at the age of fourteen for twenty-five years when the Russian government found a communist leaflet under his bed. Janice then reveals the wickedness and insensitivity of communist government when she says the first book she read about communism was called ‘The Evil that was Lenin’.
The play focuses on the individual character’s experiences back in their countries and in London. We become aware through Ken that Stanley, a foreman in the factory, lost a finger to a manual machine. With the general social unrest, insecurity, and economic hardship, the factory workers consider a strike action. The conditions make them get involved in questionable lifestyles. Janice is into prostitution, confesses that Billy, though a writer and poet, is promiscuous. She admits, “He’s going to screw us, throw us away like we were nothing, you understand. That’s why we got away…” The London setting of the playwright is characterized by various abuses, bribery, and corruption, rape, drunkenness, prostitution, robbery, racism. When Stanley reports to Sylvia that the factory is broken into the previous night, she suggests they inform the police; but she is indifferent when she remembers police corruption and the death of some of her friends in detention. Frank advises Janice not to get pregnant, but she confesses that she is divorced. At last, the various characters end without realizing their desired dreams, only trying to cope with the challenges of life in London, while still in search of the weapons of happiness.
3.2. Themes in Howard Brenton’s "Weapons of Happiness"
Below are some of the themes identified in the play:
3.2.1 Hatred for London Immigrants
London immigrants are discriminated against not only for reason of color but for other reasons. Foreigners in London are attacked or denied employment for trivial reasons. Ralph Makepeace is attacked and injured by the young London rascals who also made away with his car because of the hatred they have for aliens who have come to work in London. The young woman among the rascals exclaims, describing him humorously as “foreign gift”.
3.2.2 Survival Instinct
Every foreigner in London is armed with survival instincts due to the terrible conditions of work. They are overworked and underpaid, and job insecurity is a great problem to the immigrant workers. Stanley has worked for years in the manual factory where he rises to the position of a foreman. He loses a finger to a machine in the factory. Frank says, “work is work”: Ralph supports his view, “what? Ah yes”.
3.2.3 Unemployment
This arises principally from the immigrants’ illusion that the streets of London are paved with money, gold, and jobs. On arrival, they are soon disillusioned as no jobs are available in the streets. They are soon frustrated by the non-availability of jobs. Ralph recalls that “my father always made a point of sprinkling the work force with foreigners, foreign people. And disabled… disabled people. We get by, don’t you think?”
3.2.4 Complacency
Many of the characters are contented with their socio-economic conditions of life. They hardly nurse any ambition greater than working in a manual London factory. It appears they are satisfied with their conditions of existence. For instance, Frank refuses to pick up an appointment to teach history at Cambridge University, London; Janice never nurses the ambition of getting married. Frank and Ralph are contented with their working conditions in the London factory and are proud of it. Although Frank hopes to work in a place of “reasonable height” he does not pursue his goals as he merely speculates.
3.2.5 Police Corruption and Brutality
The play reveals the very corrupt and harsh London Police. Inspector Miller subjects Frank, an alien, to a vigorous interrogation because he is a foreigner. He even volunteers to help him write a statement and make possible changes. The Metropolitan Police often maltreat, blindfold, feed criminals with sandwiches or get them starved and beaten against the wall. The police ignore the young London criminals who “flashed away” with the car of Ralph Makepeace. Instead, they prefer to question his co-workers whom they suspect for the attack.
3.3 Style
Below are some of the stylistic features of the play:
The playwright deliberately mixes Standard English diction with London street language or jargons so as to capture the speech suitable for his characters. He lets his characters themselves speak their own language. This confirms the character’s plausibility. With this style, Brenton avoids tedious narration in often unrealistic language. For example, Miller, the Police Inspector, uses the appropriate language of expression: He says, “All I need is a simple statement; tell me what happened. I will write it down. You can read it through in your own good time and make any amendments” (p. 11).
The police question Ralph further, “Are you a registered alien sir, or do you hold a British passport?” The young London hoodlums use a language that suits their lawless behavior. When they came to rob Ralph, the first man orders, “flash away in his flashy car”. The second young man employs invectives on their victim, “case we wan, idiot”. The woman among them uses a coded expression to hasten them away from the scene of crime: “split let’s split”.
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