Compare how Willy Russell portrays the two families in 'Blood Brothers' and account for the different reactions of the audience to the Johnstones and Lyons' throughout the play.

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English Coursework

Post 1914 Drama

Compare how Willy Russell portrays the two families in ‘Blood Brothers’ and account for the different reactions of the audience to the Johnstones and Lyons’ throughout the play.

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell is set in Liverpool.  The play was first written in the early 1980s and performed to a secondary school in 1982.

The play is about two twin brothers who were separated at birth.  Mickey stayed with his birth mother, Mrs Johnstone, and Mrs Lyons picked Edward.  Seven years later they meet up and perform a blood brothers ritual. When they reach the age of 18 Mickey and Linda are expecting a baby and get married.  Edward still likes Linda.  Mickey does a job for Sammy and gets put away for seven years; Edward helps and gets Mickey a house and job.  Mickey and Edward fall out and it ends with a bloody end.  

Willy Russell shows that families are very different by small details that you cant pick out but know that they are there. You can see the differences between the two families throughout the play.

From the very beginning of the play we can see that the mothers are very different.  You can really tell that Mrs Johnstone is a working class lady and she has aged a lot since her first child, people used to say she looked like Marilyn Monroe, ‘they said the bride looked lovelier than Marilyn Monroe’. Mrs Johnstone has to work hard to feed all of her seven children, ‘It’s such a lovely house and it’s a pleasure to clean’. Mrs Johnstone is also in a little bit of debt with her catalogues and milkman, ‘you owe me three pounds, seventeen and fourpence’. Whereas Mrs Lyons is middle class as she is a cleaner and does not have to go out earning as her husband supports the family with his job, ‘mummy will read the story, Edward. I’ve got to go to work for an hour’.  Mrs Lyons doesn’t like Edward to go off for too long as she is scared about what might happen to her precious child, ‘I’ve told you never to go where that boy- where boys like that live.’

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The houses that both families live in are very different as Mrs Johnstone lives in a small council house, ‘We’re moving away.’ Mrs Lyons lives in a large house by the park, she can choose to move or to stay where she is whereas Mrs Johnstone has to wait to be re-housed somewhere different.  Mrs Johnstones home is referred to as ‘down’ whereas Mrs Lyons home is referred to ‘up’.

Both of the brothers speak very different. Edward uses Standard English whereas Mickey has the proper liverpudlian accent.  Mickey tends not to pronounce the whole of the words and ...

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Quality of Writing Spelling and punctuation are both generally good in this essay, and the candidate gives a clear introduction and conclusion. The candidate's style of writing feels too casual to me, but it is unlikely this would lose them marks. However, writing in a controlled and mature style gives a good impression to examiners and may make them look more favourably on your essay, particularly if it is on the borderline of a grade boundary. The use of terms such as "suck up" is not appropriate for an academic essay, even at GCSE level.The candidate also does not integrate quotes into their essay well, often placing them immediately after having made their point.

Level of Analysis The candidate fails to explain the significance of or analyse many of the quotes s/he uses, and sometimes it appears that quotes are irrelevant, although a link could be made between the idea and the quotation used as evidence, the candidate's failure to identify or clarify this link to readers makes for a less successful essay. Too often the candidate is merely describing the play, instead of commenting on it, and if they worked on this, then the essay would immediately go up by one or two grade boundaries.

Response to Question The candidate begins his/her answer with a brief summary of the play. I feel it's important to remind all students that this is in no way necessary. It will not gain you any more marks, so it is not worth spending time writing it, when the time could be put to use more constructively. Aside from that, the candidate's response is average. Lots of comparisons are made between the two central families, and an extensive description of the portrayal of the Lyons and the Johnstones is given, but there is little to no recognition of the second part of the question - account for the different reactions of the audience to the Johnstones and Lyons - which is a flaw of this essay.