What is the link between the title 'The Pressure Cooker' and the central character, Andrea? Explore the methods used by the playwrights throughout the play t show her increasing mental and emotional instability.

In scene three, Andrea is at school after not going to Dawn’s party. Graham is being horrible to her and  bullying  her for letting her mother decide what she can and can’t do. When Andrea asked questions about the party, Graham wouldn’t fully answer them. Dawn comes by and says to Graham, ‘See you tonight then, Graham?’ At this, Graham looks sheepish and Andrea realises that he and Dawn got together at the party. Graham then begins to bully Andrea again. By saying that she doesn’t care about anyone but herself. This builds up more pressure on Andrea as she feels unwanted and unloved. Her friends are supposed to be the people whom she can rely on, but they keep adding more pressure onto her.

In scene four, Andrea is reading a magazine when Dawn and Graham enter the fifth form room. Graham snatches the magazine and reads the problem page that Andrea was reading. He begins to read the questions and talks of how stupid they are. Dawn and Graham begin to play around and read problems to each other so that they can each answer them. Graham then reads the star letter and Andrea becomes very agitated and begins to loose control. While Graham is reading, Dawn realises that the reason  Andrea is upset is that she had written the letter. Andrea snatches the magazine and Graham finally realises what had happened. Dawn feels really bad and thinks about seeing Andrea, but Graham wants to see a film so that took priority. This builds pressure on Andrea she has fallen out with her friends and they now know her secrets. This letter proves how unstable Andrea is becoming, she is desperate for help and the letter is directly saying how she feels. This is another method used by the playwrights, as it shows that as Andrea gets no support from the people in her life, she has to write a letter to a stranger for support. After Andrea has ran off Dawn says ‘Poor Andrea. The look on her face. Bit of a laugh though, wasn’t it?’ this proves that not even her best friend supports her.

In Scene five, Dawn goes to Andrea’s house and Ian answers the door, Dawn is invited into the house. Ian asks Dawn if Andrea was a bit upset, she tells him everything that has been going on between her and Andrea over the last few days. And how sorry she is, Ian tells Dawn that Andrea is in hospital after attempting suicide and says ‘Bit late to be sorry now isn’t it?’ This is an obvious hint that he is blaming Dawn for Andrea’s fatal decision. During their conversation the pressure cooker had been whistling and Ian notices it has stopped. He says to Dawn ‘that means the pressure is back to normal. Unless the safety-valve’s got blocked. I’ve heard of that happening. Then you could be in dead trouble. You can’t always tell, can you?’. This is summing up what has happened to Andrea, she has become increasingly pressurised and was unable to let out steam. She felt completely clogged with her emotional turmoil and didn’t know how to end it. Andrea left a note explaining why she tried to commit suicide, this is another method the playwrights have used by showing that Andrea has to take things to extremes to get attention.

None of the characters in the play give Andrea the help and support she needs.

Her mother, the person she should be able to talk too, constantly seems to be too busy to pay any real attention to her daughter. She puts a lot of pressure on Andrea by being rather callous and trying to mould Andrea’s life into how she wants her daughter to be. Her Mum doesn’t seem to have any real feelings for Andrea and always scrutinises everything that Andrea does. Nothing Andrea does is good enough for her mother.

        Andrea’s friends are creating extra tension by constantly teasing her and making her feel unwanted. She has a boyfriend to try and make herself feel normal, i.e. she is trying to escape from her mother and the continuous pressure she puts on her. Her best friend is supposed to offer comfort and support, but she goes behind Andrea’s back by going out with her boyfriend, and not helping her in any way.

Neither of her friends seem to really care about Andrea as they always push her aside and leave her out.

        Her brother Ian is very clever and at university. Andrea feels pressured by him to do well academically. She is under constant scrutiny from her mother to perform as well as Ian did in his exams. Andrea is compared to her brother regularly and is fed up of being seen by her mother as underachieving.  

Andrea’s mental and emotional instability is caused by all the people in her life. She has nowhere to escape when everything goes wrong. She feels as though her world has completely fallen apart and she is unable to pick up the pieces. The pressure cooker describes exactly how she is feeling, she is constantly trying to let off pressure but it keeps building up until it can’t take anymore. The audience would be able to relate to this as there are many metaphorical descriptions of how Andrea is really feeling. I.e. the pressure cooker, and the letter in the magazine. You can tell from the title what the play is going to contain as it creates images of stress and tension in your mind.