Blood Brothers Essay Example For Students

Blood Brothers Essay The play, Blood Brothers written by Willy Russell was set in Liverpool, Liverpool had been home to one of the highest levels of unemployment within the developed world. The play was set in the 1960s. Russell wrote it at this time because there was low morale and a lot of unemployment. Willy Russell set it at that time because there was a big difference between upper class and the working class. This affects our reading of the play because we feel sorry for the Johnstone family. We feel sorry for mrs Johnstone because she is struggling to keep up with payments for basic needs. At the beginning of the play we are introduced to the character Mrs Johnstone. She is aged thirty but looks more like fifty This illustrates how difficult her life has been. Immediately we, the audience feel sympathy for her. In the song Marilyn Monroe we see how her life was when she young. We realise she has been abandoned by her husband and sympathise that she has, seven hungry mouths to feed and no support from anyone. She is struggling to keep up with payments for basic needs such as milk, we feel sorry for her because the milk man is stubborn and arrogant, we see this when he says no money, no milk This shows us that the milk man has no sympathy and is not being very understanding towards Mrs Johnstones situation. To earn some money Mrs Johnstone the house of Mrs Lyons, she is so desperate to keep the job she makes commitments and says things such as I wont even need to take one day off, I love this job She is just managing to scrape by now that she has the job, this shows that the job means everything to her and she cant afford to lose it. During the fun song Mrs Johnstone acquires a mop and bucket, this shows how her boring job has changed her life. In the play we see that Mrs Johnstones life totally contrasts with Mrs Lyons life, we see this in many different ways during the play, one way is when Mrs Lyons walks through the door with a package in hand, Mrs Lyons walking through the door with a a package highlights the fact that she can afford to buy packages where as Mrs Johnstone cant afford to treat herself or her kids for that matter and struggles to pay for the basics. One of the other ways their lives contrast is when Mrs Johnstone comments on Mrs Lyons large house, this is one of the only ways Mrs Johnstone can get anywhere near such a house, we see this when Mrs Johnstone say Its a great job, Its such a lovely house, its a pleasure to clean it The shows us that she like cleaning the house not only for the money but to be able to be in a large house full of wealth and nicely decorated. Mrs Johnstone is a very religious person and Mrs Lyons uses this in many ways to weaken Mrs Johnstone. An example of Mrs Johnstone being weakened and manipulated is Mrs Lyons saying with two more children how can you possibly avoid some of them going into care? This weakens Mrs Johnstone because it makes her think and she might get very upset about the thought of loosing one of her own children. Mrs Johnstone gets blacked mailed by Mrs Lyons about the welfare of the children, we see this when Mrs Johnstone announces that she will be having twins, Mrs Lyons says Your already being chased by the welfare people this would make Mrs Johnstone think about what she is going to do, Mrs Lyons takes advantage of this situation and quickly says surely its better if you gave on child to me, at least if the child was with me you could see it every day, as you came to work this could put Mrs Johnstone on the spot and make a quick decision. Byre by Norman MacCaig EssayThere was a lot of action in the play, which there needed it to be if it was to be effective, such as when the twins got shot, it wouldnt have been as effective as it was if they had done a stylised scene, also using lots of action made the play easier to relate to, as it is harder to relate to characters if they are in stylised scenes, because too dont get to know their characters on a personal level. The moment in which Eddy and Mickey got shot had a lot of tension build up, but also an element of surprise, as the beginning of the play tells us that the twins will die, but the fact that the policemen came out of the audience and did it was unexpected, which made people jump, so it was more memorable. The play covers a long period of time (about 30 years) in two and a half hours, which would be quite hard to follow if it was done in a different way than Blood Brothers. Blood Brothers tells us the story firstly by the script, secondly by song then thirdly by the narration, doing it like this meant that we were told 3 times what was happening so it was easier to understand. I found that the narrator was the most memorable character as he had a strong voice and added an element of creepiness into the play, though in some parts the characters can see and hear the narrator they dont refer to him in the script, perhaps either because he is the devil in all of us, or maybe a voice in our heads. I think the issues raised in the play are quite taboo, the idea that perhaps generally all bad things happen to the working class and they turn to crime, and the upper class have it good. I thought that all the characters were superb, but especially the narrator and Mrs Johnstone. Overall, I enjoyed the play and thought it was well written and well acted, even if some of the songs werent particularly good.