Shirley delivers her first words of the play, “Hi’ya Wall,” dispensed in a strong Liverpudlian, shows us that although she is lonely, she is not wallowing in self-pity. This can also be evidence that she is a bit unconventional because she is not worried about going crazy but laughs at it. This peculiar side to Shirley that we instantly are revealed to also shows capability of change. Willy Russell and Shirley connect because of their backgrounds. Russell uses his knowledge of how life is in poorer parts of the country to precisely illustrate to the audience what Shirley must go through before her change.
Another thing they both use is accent. Throughout the play, we can learn a great deal about Shirley’s change from her accent. The bulky accent she uses doesn’t change throughout the play. Although we see Shirley change vastly, her accent doesn’t change. Shirley is being true to her background and origins. This emphasises Shirley’s character and how she wants to start a fresh life but doesn’t want to erase what she has already lived.
This is shown in full effect when she is on the boat with Costas and says “Shirley Valentine is loop the fuckin’ loop!” This is when we see that Shirley has gone through a change and become as daring and audacious as she was when she was young. Nevertheless she is still using working-class language to express herself. This does show us that she doesn’t want to amend what she has formerly been through as it is a trademark of her life lived.
The minor characters in the play also are used successfully to outline Shirley’s change. The way she relates with these characters depicts to us how they respect her and what this means for the new Shirley. Before the Greece trip, we see that Shirley was not appreciated by her friends and family and was treated like a servant. A good example if this is when Joe says “I – am – not – eating – this – shite.” At the beginning, for about half of the play, we see Shirley slaving away making Joe his dinner and when Joe arrives, we see how ill-mannered he is towards Shirley. Shirley also feels neglected by Joe. This is proven when she says “With a bit o’luck he won’t even notice I’m not here.” This shows how exactly she feels about the way she is treated by Joe. This may be a bit of an exaggeration about the point she is trying to make but it is useful to show the audience and to get them to sympathise with her.
Another family member that mistreats her is her daughter, Millandra. First we see that Millandra comes and immediately leaves suitcases for her mother to bring up the stairs. The importance that Millandra continues to talk while her mother is carrying out these tasks for her shows that she is not being acknowledged. Millandra is also judgemental of her mother. “Two middle-aged women goin’ to Greece on their own. It’s disgusting!” Before Shirley gets a chance to explain why she is going Millandra is critical of her mother’s ways. But because Millandra places this judgement on Shirley we can assume that she does care enough to question where exactly she is going and for what reason.
We also see the way she is looked down upon by the Headmistress. The Headmistress treats her like she is brainless. When the Headmistress says “Oh, Shirley, do put your hand down. You couldn’t possibly know the answer,” we realise that this is a real blow for Shirley’s self-esteem and that this phrase leads to her living the life that she does now. But after the Headmistress puts her down, she still says “But Miss.” This is good evidence for us to see that Shirley doesn’t take these comments to heart and is determined to prove her Headmistress wrong. However, despite her persistence she is still left down-hearted and we witness the first lifestyle change in Shirley and she becomes wayward.
This all changes when she meets up with her previous arch-nemesis, Marjorie Majors. Marjorie shows her some affection. This situation only arises because Marjorie and Shirley share their life stories. We know that Shirley only picked on Marjorie because she was jealous of her and had dreams of becoming an air-hostess, supposedly like Marjorie. When Marjorie reveals the truth that she is a hooker and she in fact was also jealous of Shirley. This is quite heart-rending because suddenly we realise both these woman are unsatisfied in life because they believed that others were better then them. This fact accompanied with the affection shown by Marjorie, that Shirley misses in her day to day life, makes her ponder whether her life is heading up the right path or not. This becomes Shirley’s lowest point of the play. This is also shown by the weather. The rain is falling and when we see her heading home, her silhouette is all we see of her and the footsteps are all we hear. Because we can only hear her footsteps, this shows that she is alone and there is no-one around her. However, this part of the play and film can also be identified as the turning point for Shirley’s life.
