This question is based on John Osborne's Look Back in Anger Jimmy's first love, who is ten years older than him, is

Analyze the question: The question asks who Jimmy Porter's first love was, and says she is ten years older than him.

Concept (background from the play): In Look Back in Anger, Jimmy Porter talks about the women in his life:

• Alison is his wife, the daughter of Colonel Redfern. She is not his first love.
• Helena Charles is Alison's friend. She stays with the Porters and later becomes Jimmy's lover.
• Miss Drury is Alison's mother. She is not really a character in the play, and the name appears here as a distractor. (Alison's mother is Mrs. Redfern.)
• Madeline is the older woman Jimmy had a romance with. In his speech to Alison in Act II, he recalls that she was about ten years older than him and that he was a young man of about twenty when they were together. He calls the affair his first real experience of love and passion. She was a wealthy, cultured woman who treated him as a lover and gave him a taste of life.

Solution:

1. Alison is his wife, so we eliminate C.
2. Helena is Alison's friend and comes later, so we eliminate B.
3. Miss Drury is not his first love, so we eliminate A.
4. Madeline fits the description of an older woman who was Jimmy's first love, so D is correct.

Answer: D. Madeline

Tip: In Look Back in Anger, remember the women by their relationship to Jimmy:

• Alison is the wife.
• Helena is the friend who becomes the lover.
• Madeline is the older first love.

Exam questions often test this sequence.