Shirley valentin

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Antony Shawcross 11YP

English

No-one thought she had the nerve, the courage or the lingerie. Does this accurately reflect the character of Shirley Valentine?

The play Shirley Valentine is written by Willy Russell and it is about her path to self-discovery. Shirley Bradshaw, who was known as Shirley Valentine, is a bored middle-aged housewife living in Liverpool in a small semi-detached house. Shirley who lives with her husband Joe is now in her early forties, with her children having now left her, she feels unhappy and unfulfilled. By the end of the play we see Shirley has changed and she is no longer bore, that her life is full of excitement as she has gone to Greece and met a man.

All throughout the play we see Willy Russell use different dramatic techniques. At the start we see her talking to herself, to us the audience. He does this to show us what Shirley is thinking and feeling, which is that she is very lonely even though she has a husband.

At the beginning of the play we see Shirley first talk; we see her talking to the wall, “Hello Wall”. This shows us that she is so bored out of her mind that she resorts to talking to the wall. As she is talking to the wall this shows the audience that she is very lonely and this makes the audience sympathetic to Shirley. Another technique that the author uses in the play is that as this play is a monolog it is only herself talking and there is no-one else, just like in her life, she is telling the audience things but she is directing it at the wall, “Don’t I wall?”

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The author use the time this play is set in and gives her the accent of the place that she’s in and the time, he does this by not making her words full and he makes them abbreviated, “Y’ know” and “hours an’ all’s y’d hear” the author does this to show that Shirley is a normal woman who is in no higher class than anyone else. This shows the audience that the play is as if she knows you are there and is talking to you as a friend and doesn’t have to put anything fake on. Another way ...

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