Shirley’s ambition is to escape her life and to be free she wants to be Shirley Valentine and not Mrs Bradshaw. Shirley is a housewife and mother when she meets up with Jane a friend she used to go to school with, she realizes how much she has changed. Shirley resents that she has changed and wants to be the original Shirley that she used to be. When her friend offers the chance to go on holiday to Greece Shirley takes her chance, she leaves her humdrum life as Mrs Bradshaw, and becomes Shirley Valentine again, the confident and exciting person again.
Willy Russell writes his characters with strong personalities and makes them know about what they want to achieve. Mrs Lyons personality is very volatile. She is formal and doesn’t let anyone get too close to her because she’s afraid that she or someone might get hurt. Mrs Lyons gradually becomes very paranoid whereas Mrs Johnston is clearly trusting of herself and others, but when Mrs Lyons sacks her and stops her from being able to see her other son she realizes how manipulative Mrs Lyons can be. Mrs Johnston is the opposite to Mrs Lyons because she is very pleasant and compassionate. Mrs Johnston would do anything for her children she wants to be able to provide them a good life. She is always showing love and affection towards her children. I think this is because she didn’t have this when she was a child so therefore wants to give her children a better life a life that she didn’t have.
At the beginning, Rita has low self-esteem and gradually as the play goes on, she becomes more confident within herself because she feels she has changed for the better. The more educated she gets the happier she is and the higher her self-esteem becomes. The more knowledge Rita gains the more confident she gets in herself. Shirley has two sides to her personality. There is Shirley Valentine the girl wanting to escape and Shirley Bradshaw trapped in the same four walls day in and day out. Shirley Valentine wants to be good but decides it’s more fun and exciting to be bad. Shirley Valentine is chatty and lively. Shirley Bradshaw the housewife and a mother, she’s very motherly towards her children but she starts to resent it and wants to be her own person she begins to realize what she wants.
The women’s lives are different in ways and similar in others. Because Mrs Lyons is different to the others because she is from the upper class, part of Liverpool and money is not an objective for Mrs Lyons. She has a very luxuriant and comfortable life, apart from her husband not being at home as much as she would like. Mrs Lyons loves Eddie as if he was her own son. She wants to have a wonderful life and doesn’t want any distress to occur in her family so the Lyon’s move to the countryside.
Mrs Johnston’s life is the opposite of Mrs Lyons. Mrs Johnston is from a lower class part of Liverpool to Mrs Lyons. Mrs Johnston lives in never ending poverty and debt. She lives through her children so when they get into trouble she is disillusioned but still stands by them and hopes that it won’t happen again. When the day arrives the chance to move to the countryside she takes it, because she thinks that it is her chance to get out of the poverty trap and give a successful life for her children. She doesn’t have anyone to help her all the men she has been with have let her down let her fight and survive on her own. She tries to get a job and when she finally does, it doesn’t go to plan because Mrs Lyons sacks her. The only things she has high hopes for are her children but still they get into trouble.
Rita’s life is boring and typical. Rita is from a lower class part of Liverpool. She is a typical hairdresser and is fed up with her life she wants more out of life. Rita begins to make progress. After coming back from summer school, she is overjoyed at her experience. She feels the need to give her self a personality and her look makeover because in her eyes, the students have a different way of dressing and style. She believes that she has become a brand new person because of her confidence gain and all the knowledge she has gained. She wears more stylish clothes because she feels more accepted, she does not speak slang and her accent is not the same, she has a better job as a waitress (in the B Stroke), she can mix in with the students, has friends who are high-class and reads more books while going to theatres. Because Rita invited herself into a new way of life, she also had to leave her old life behind. Rita discovers this when she is with her family and 'old' folks in the pub when everyone starts to sing. Shirley’s life is boring and repetitive. Shirley has no one to talk to in the daytime so she talks to the walls and objects in the house this emphasises the fact that she doesn’t get out much. Shirley is a typical mother and she will do anything for her children and husband. Shirley is bored rigid of the life she is living through and wants to go back to being Shirley Valentine. Shirley's life in the present is in complete contrast to her life in the past. Her behaviour towards other people and her ability to communicate with people has changed significantly. She keeps her feelings bottled up whereas before she used to face up to them. When she goes on holiday she finds Shirley Valentine, she likes it so much on holiday she doesn’t want to go back home. This causes major difficulties in her marriage and when she has an affair with Costas, she feels that she has got everything that she has been longing for. This is when she decides to stay in Greece and leaves Joe. At the end of the play, Joe goes to Greece and looks for Shirley. He walks straight past her, this shows that he couldn’t even recognize his own wife because she wasn’t Mrs Bradshaw anymore she is more relaxed and has a care-free life in Greece. The characters relationships with men are all different. Mrs Lyons has a secure relationship with her husband. Throughout the play, their relationship never changes. The only thing that Mrs Lyons isn’t happy about in their marriage is that she never gets to see her husband as much as she would like to. She gets very lonely on her own she has no company that’s probably the reason for Mrs Lyons wanting a child. Mrs Lyons is the only one who remains with a marriage.
Mrs Johnston’s relationship with men is a totally unreliable. Men have left her to cope on her own she doesn’t believe in abortion so she keeps all her children. She doesn’t get any money from the men who have left her. Mrs Johnston feels she doesn’t need a relationship because she has her children.
Rita’s relationship with men isn’t very good. Her marriage breaks down she doesn’t have anything in common and would rather concentrate on her studying so she leaves her husband. As the play goes on a relationship begins with Frank the tutor. But nothing serious happens between them.
Shirley’s relationship with men at the start isn’t very good. Her and Joe used to have a laugh, but things changed he changed. Joe's work life is very emotionless making Joe increasingly unable to express his affection towards Shirley, as he gets older. He is the manager of the company (signified by the briefcase) and schedules, times and procedures are very important to him. Work has become everything to him. He has become so involved in managing his company that he uses the same techniques at home, as he does at work, 'managing' his wife. He expects his tea to be on the table at a specific time, and he expects specific meals for each day of the week. Joe has an authority at work that exists all the time when he is there. He has a very authoritarian presence at home. He doesn’t give her freedom to do what she wants to do. She leaves Joe to go on holiday to Greece. When she gets there, she finds she is happier within herself. When she meets Costas who shows an interest in Shirley she takes a chance and goes on a boat trip with him she has an affair with Costas and for the rest of her holiday she spends all of her time round at Costas’ bar. When it’s time to go back home, see wants to stay in Greece and stay as Shirley Valentine. When she goes back to Costas‘, bar she sees him chatting up another lady with the same word he used on her. Despite this instead of being upset, she just laughs and asks if she can have a job. When Joe finds out she isn’t coming back he decides to go find her and make her go back home with him. I learn that all the women are isolated and they all have problems of their own. Mrs Lyons has everything the other characters dreamed of a happy marriage, money and a big house but she doesn’t have a child of her own. Mrs Johnston has a sad life the harder she tries to make her life a success the worse it gets. At the end of the play, she doesn’t even have any of her twin sons. Shirley finally finds herself when she goes to Greece she succeeds in what she wanted to do. She becomes Shirley Valentine again. Rita also succeed in what she wanted to do she gets an education and gains confidence. At the end of the play she has choices, which she didn’t have before. Grade A piece of coursework 9/10