The women in Willy Russell's plays

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Sabrina Bagria

                          Year 10 First coursework unit:

                    The women in Willy Russell’s plays

I have studied three of Willy Russell’s plays these are Blood Brothers, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. The women in Willy Russell’s plays are strong characters and they all know what they want in life. In the three plays I will be comparing and contrasting Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnston from blood brothers, Rita from Educating Rita and Shirley from Shirley Valentine. The three plays are set in Liverpool this could be because Willy Russell is from Liverpool.

The characters have high hopes and ambitions and want to achieve something in life. Mrs Lyons main ambition is to have a child of her own but unluckily, she and her husband are unable to have children. This leads her to become more and desperate to have a child. So when Mrs Johnston finds out that she is expecting twins she can’t afford to look after two more children. Mrs Lyons persuades her to give one of the children to her. Eventually, when Mrs Lyons actually gets the child she becomes paranoid and overprotective because she is afraid that Eddie will find out that he is not her child. Or Mrs Johnston will tell Eddie that he is her child and belongs to her. Mrs Lyons becomes obsessed with the situation and moves away from Mrs Johnston. Unfortunately, for Mrs Lyons, Mrs Johnston wants a fresh start and is re-housed to the same place.

Mrs Johnston’s ambition is to provide for her children and to have a life without debt. However hard Mrs Johnston tries to provide a good life for her children she is stopped by numerous bills and her children getting into trouble with the police for example, Sam goes down for robbing. So, when Mrs Lyons gives Mrs Johnston a chance to supply a good life for one of the twins she takes it. One of the agreements is that Mrs Johnston can see the child whenever she pleases but when she is sacked, she realizes it is an idealistic promise. Mrs Johnston is unable to do anything about the circumstances.

Rita’s ambition is to get an education and find independence, so therefore wants to escape from her life. She wants to have freedom and be more involved she wants to be more like students at the college. She doesn’t want to be a mum and have a baby yet she wants an education first. Rita doesn’t want to be what other people want her to b and do she wants to be her own person and wants to do what she didn’t do before. 

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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 ...

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