Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

Although Billy Liar is called a comedy, there are parts about it which are from comic

Billy Liar is widely regarded as a comedy yet behind it lies a far darker side. This “side” can be divided into three sections: death; human relations and half fulfilment of life.
Billy Fisher is a boy who dreams of a better life but is not quite capable of gaining it. These dreams stem largely from the fact that he lacks intellectual stimulus ...
...by Billy to get him out of a bad situation is that a relative has had a limb off, although this appears humorous, it displays a rather morbid aspect to his character. Thus brining in a prominent feature of the play, death
Strictly speaking, a comedy should be defined as a celebration of life and therefore it is ironic that the opposite is very much present. Florence, Billy’s grandmother dies towards the end of the play and when he sets off ... more

Although Billy Liar is called a comedy, there are parts about it which are from comic

Billy Liar is widely regarded as a comedy yet behind it lies a far darker side. This “side” can be divided into three sections: death; human relations and half fulfilment of life.
Billy Fisher is a boy who dreams of a better life but is not quite capable of gaining it. These dreams stem largely from the fact that he lacks intellectual stimulus and often lands him in trouble. A common excuse used by Billy to get him out of a bad situation is that a relative has had a limb off, although this appears humorous, it displays a rather morbid aspect to his character. Thus brining in a prominent feature of the play, death
Strictly speaking, a comedy should be defined as a celebration of life and therefore it is ironic that the opposite is very much present. Florence, Billy’s grandmother dies towards the end of the play and when he sets off for London, the sad thing is that Alice Fisher, his mother, is left childless and parentless. Unfortunately, Alice leads a life of worry, misery and death. Billy works in a funeral parlour and this choice of job again underlines the morbidity of the play. The play could very aptly have been named “Three engagements and a funeral” due to its anti-life conclusion. At the end of Act II, a great juxtaposition in the space of two lines, sums up life and more importantly the play. Waterhouse places together the engagement ring and the announcement of Florence’s death. This portrays the continuation of life and the ending of life. Yet none of the engagements ever occur, introducing the second section, half fulfilment of life.
Billy won a scholarship to a grammar school but left early. The text does not say why but he may have left because he was tired of his fathers demand of him being grateful. Certainly “being grateful” is an issue that the father deals with a lot and something that Billy hates to dwell on. Anyway, Billy was left half educated and with only half a view of what life could be like. As stated in the first paragraph, Billy is fighting to break out of his dull background and become part of a different, new life. An example of this individual breaking out against society is when he has an argument with his mother over the growing of a beard. Alice has non revolution ingrained into her and struggles to cope with life.
One of the principle tragedies of the play is when Billy gets offered a chance by Liz to go to London with her and get married. Billy fails to seize this opportunity, again not managing to fulfil an ambition. The opposite to comedy is tragedy and this in itself proves the title.
Billy is a member of a very insecure family creating a lack of communication between Billy and his family. Serious domestic violence, mostly verbal leaving him ashamed of his parents. Barbara spots this and Billy obviously denies it. In one of his fantasies Billy exaggerates his grandmother’s funeral with descriptions such as “Lady of the lamp” and “The inventor of Penicillin”. However Billy remains very similar to his grandmother, in that they are both living in different times. Billy is living the future, Florence is living in the past and neither can bear the present.
These poor family relationships are in my opinion one of the key factors in differentiating this play from a comedy. Ironically the only real comedy in the play derives from human relations in the meeting of Barbara and Rita.
Aside from these three sections there is Billy struggling to cope with physical objects. They represent something that he can’t grasp and examples are the engagement ring, the petty cash, the calenders and some brass nameplates stolen from coffins, again, worryingly gothic.
 

...less