How Does Willy Russell Maintain The Audiences Interest Throughout Blood Brothers When We Are Told The Ending In The Prologue?

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Robert Minks        Page         5/10/2007

How Does Willy Russell Maintain The Audiences Interest Throughout Blood Brothers When We Are Told The Ending In The Prologue?

"Blood Brothers" is set in Liverpool in the early eighties. The play follows the life of two main characters: Eddie Lyons and Mickey Johnstone. In this play the two main characters are biological twin brothers, who are separated at birth due to the fact that their mother, Mrs Johnstone, cannot afford to bring them both up since she already has seven children and can barely support her family. So Mrs Lyons offers that she adopt one to her because she is too infertile to have her own, and she desperately wants a child. Reluctantly Mrs Johnstone agrees and when they are born one is passed over to Mrs Lyons, bearing in mind that her husband is away for nine months and does not know she is adopting. He disagrees with this approach because he feels the child is not his own. So Mrs Lyons pretends to be pregnant and when he returns says that it is theirs. The boys grow up, one in a working class family the other in a middle class, Eddie is considerably more well off than Mickey. Though the boys have very different upbringings and personalities they both yearn to be like one another, this is shown in the song “My Friend.” There is a bond between the boys yet they are unaware of it. Their lives are quite parallel, the same events are happening at relatively the same time. The boys grow up and become friends, each unaware of whom the other is. As children their lives are carefree and innocent but, as they grow into adults, they recognise that their social statuses are pulling them in very different directions. The play has proved extremely popular with audiences of all ages. In this essay I aim to discuss how Willy Russell maintains the audiences interest even though they discover the ending of the play in the prologue.

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In “Blood Brothers” the characters fall into two stereotypical groups: the working class Johnstones and their associates, and the middle class Lyons. The first noticeable differences between the families is the way they speak, for example Mrs Johnstone speaks in a regional dialect:

“Well y’ might still be able to.”

Whereas Mrs Lyons speaks Standard English. It seems ironic that although the Johnstone family live on the breadline they start off cheerfully, compared to the Lyons who never seem content. This makes the audience wonder what is wrong in the lives of both families and creates interest. Both brothers ...

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