Can Willy Russell be accused of using stereotypes as a means of putting his opinions forward?

Asha Greaves

Assessed Coursework

Throughout the play; ‘Our Day Out’, written by Willy Russell, there is a constant use of stereotypes portrayed in the characters. Stereotypes are standardised characters or a fixed idea of something. Willy Russell used stereotyping as an effective way of putting his opinions forward because he could develop his initial ideas for characters to raise awareness of what Liverpool was like in the 1970s. In my opinion Willy Russell wanted to show the general life of many children in Liverpool in the 1970s and also to show that stereotypes create false views of certain people and are harmful in general.

In the text, the main characters are children and teachers in 1970S Liverpool. Teachers are often stereotyped anyway; people presume that they are strict and disliked or the opposite. This contrast is shown with the two characters Mr Briggs, who is rather strict and Mrs Kay who is not. In the play Mr Briggs is often shouting at the children or telling them off: “Never mind what for, just do what you’re told, lad.” This emphasises the point that he is stern. There are no points in the text where Mrs Kay has this attitude directly towards the children.

The children in the play are also stereotyped because they live in a rough area and don’t have many opportunities- because of the fact that they live in Liverpool. In the play the children swear and steal, suggesting that they are somewhat deprived; they break the law and are impolite as they don’t know any better and have been brought up in a way which it is natural to do so. They are underprivileged as when they encounter animals at the zoo they are thrilled. “They’re great, aren’t they?” The child, Ronson, seems to feel honoured at holding a rabbit suggesting that the children don’t get many opportunities like this. Therefore Willy Russell can be accused of using Stereotypes to put his opinions forward because he makes his characters over exaggerated and in a way slightly unrealistic.

In the play there is a trip to Wales and the coach load of children stop at a café on the way. The shopkeepers in Wales are also stereotyped, and prove that children and Liverpool are stereotyped because when the shopkeeper sees the children she closes the shop. “I only ever did it once, take a Liverpool coach load. I tell you not one word of a lie Miss Powell, they’d rob your eyes if you wasn’t lookin’.” This suggests that she not only presumes that they steal because they are children but also because they come from Liverpool. ...

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Willy Russell not only shows other characters’ opinions of Liverpool children but he also proves the point that they steal later in the text, so therefore succumbing to stereotype himself. The coach stops at another show and the children run riot and steal all of the sweets. This also shows a stereotype of people from Wales, as these shopkeepers obviously didn’t expect this to happen and therefore were not used to this type of behaviour. “The thievin’ little bastards!” This shows the shopkeepers shocked reaction to the event.

In certain parts of the text, Willy Russell indirectly addresses the audience about his opinions of society at the time through dialogue about the physical state of Liverpool, for example when Mrs Kay asks Carol if there are trees on her road and Carol replies; “We did till last bommy night- the kids chopped ‘em all down and burnt them all.” From this we get Willy Russell’s own opinions and see how he perceives things. This could suggest that he uses stereotypes to make it clear what he thought and why his views are important.

In parts of the play we experience sympathy towards the characters, like in scene 35- the Cliff, where Carol threatens to commit suicide as she feels no one cares. “You don’t care do y’? Do y’?” This shows that the children in the play do have valid feelings and are obviously not unintelligent as they are stereotyped to be, suggesting that they are actually stereotyped but the stereotypes are not completely typical.

In spite of this, we have to understand that Willy Russell was writing a play and so it is harder to describe characters than in a novel because there is no place for describing the characters or the scene except by visual descriptions. We also have to accept that Willy Russell is just a normal person and it is just natural to use stereotypes. Therefore he may not have purposely used stereotypes to put his opinions forward, and surely if he was set on using stereotypes for this purpose he would have stereotyped all of his characters and not made certain characters unpredictable- like Carol for example. Also, characters like Briggs change too often for Willy Russell to have purposely used stereotypes to give him an advantage.

In the play, the language used is typical for the 1970s in Liverpool at the time. The children’s characters use slang and dialect through their speech, which makes them seem more genuine. “Go on… gis a ciggy.” The children are often using slang like this and it is natural to their everyday speech. However, if they were not using slang words and instead Standard English we would find that most of the characters speak in a literary manner and are grammatically correct, like when Ronson is talking about the animals in captivity in the zoo; “It kills them cos they’re cruel to it. They keep it in a pit so when it gets out it’s bound to be mad an’ wanna kill people. Don’t you see?” This shows us that the children can back up their points with their own knowledge.

The teachers in the play speak in Standard English right the way through the play. “Brian… little boys shouldn’t try to act like men. The day might come when they are put to the test!” Susan, a teacher, and all of the other teachers always use language like this. Willy Russell has made the teachers and children speak in different styles to show the assumed intellectual difference between the children in the play and the teachers. We also need to take into consideration the intended audience of the play; does Willy Russell use stereotypes to make it easier for a certain age to understand? He may have decided that they play would be more clear and interesting if he used stereotypes.

In the play, the main characters are Mrs Kay, Mr Briggs, Carol and some of the other children. These characters seem to be more stereotyped than the others. Mrs Kay is a laidback teacher who wants the children to enjoy life. She feels that they have not got any future and so there is no point trying to make them learn. “It’s too late for them. Most of them were rejects on the day they were born.” This shows Mrs Kay’s harsher side and how she doesn’t really care about the children if she doesn’t care about their futures. It could also suggest that she isn’t a stereotypical teacher and has two sides to her personality.

During the play, Mr Briggs’ attitude and personality changes from harsh to caring and back to harsh. At the beginning of the play he is forever telling children off, then after the trip to the beach he wants to treat the children; “…you can’t come all the way to the seaside and not pay a visit to the fair.” However when the class return to Liverpool Mr Briggs reverts back to telling children off. “But Linda, don’t let me catch you dressing like that in the future, though.” Both Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs’ characters were created from real people that Willy Russell worked with in the 1970s and change frequently suggesting that Willy Russell didn’t use stereotypes, he was just recreating real people.

The way in which Willy Russell uses stereotypes as a means of putting his opinions forward could have been influenced by his own background and personal experiences. Willy Russell grew up in Knowsely, just outside Liverpool. He attended Woolfall secondary school and described it as ‘chaotic, badly run’, and Rainford secondary where he left at the age of 15 with no formal qualifications. This suggests that Willy Russell exaggerated his own experiences and used them to make his characters in ‘Our Day Out’ more personal to himself.

Another way in which Willy Russell uses his personal experiences to present characters could be from when he taught at Shorefields Comprehensive School. His own experiences there are clearly reproduced in the play; for example the trip to Conwy Castle and the trip to the zoo. On these trips there way even a last minute decision for a strict teacher- maybe like Briggs?- to go along on the trip. This is definitely used as a basis for the text.

Although many of the characters and incidents in the play are based on real people and experiences involving Willy Russell, it is still clear that most of the characters in the text are stereotyped. Conclusively, in my opinion, Willy Russell can be accused of using stereotypes as a means of putting his opinions forward. There are numerous occasions is the play ‘Our Day Out’ where children, teachers, shopkeepers and various other groups of people are presented to the audience in a certain way. Some of Willy Russell’s characters don’t seem typically stereotyped because their personalities change, but they are still strong in their stereotype at different points of their personalities. For example when Mr Briggs is harsh he is very harsh but when he is caring he is very caring. I feel that Willy Russell uses stereotypes as a means of putting his opinions forward because stereotypes are so powerful and would make his opinions clear without directly linking them to him. They also make the text more understandable for the reader and intended audience.

As a final point, I feel that Willy Russell uses stereotypes to no only make his opinions known but also to show that stereotypes are very powerful and maybe even deter people from using them as they can limit a persons mind, if, for example a child had been told they wouldn’t get a good job it may stop them from trying. Therefore Willy Russell does use stereotypes to put forward his opinions and may also use them to make people think carefully before they make presumptions about someone because of their age, race, job, wealth, beliefs or even their background.

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