Throughout the play Willy Russell conveys the truths using Shirley’s conversations with the wall and the rock. “Hello wall” and voice-overs. This helps the audience understand Shirley’s character and what she is thinking.
Willy Russell successfully illustrates the truth during the play “Shirley Valentine” that marriage and relationships are very complex and often difficult but true love lasts. When Shirley and Joe are first married the audience is sees their affection for each other as in the paint fight. “I’m not kissing you like that… Go on… Nay all right.” Shirley and Joe also “bath together” The paint fight is conveyed using visual humour. But as they spend more time together they start to take advantage of each other. “It’s nearly six o’clock, get on with getting’ my tea.” Although the romance goes from their marriage and Shirley has an affair Jo is still “prepared to forgive” and wants Shirley home “you belong back here.” Willy Russell uses the plays structure to convey this. The use of Shirley’s flashbacks to the paint fight reinforces what Shirley says. The scene is in complete contrast to the scene before and the scene after it. The scene before depicts shows Shirley talking to the wall, this shows she feels isolated and lonely. The following scene shows Joe being ill tempered towards Shirley. This contrasts with the affection Joe and Shirley showed towards each other in the early years of their marriage.
Willy Russell successfully expresses the idea that we often idolise people and believe that their lives are better than our own. Shirley idolises Marjorie throughout her school years “I wanted to be like you”. But Marjorie who was predicted to go far in life is just a “top class hooker”, has no children and isn’t married. “And all that money your mother spent on elocution lessons” Shirley says ironically. Russell develops the situation by using situation comedy. Shirley is put in an embarrassing situation after incorrectly announcing that Marjorie is an airhostess. The flash backs to her school years are used to show how Shirley acted towards Marjorie. Willy Russell also uses the huge contrast in character between Shirley and Marjorie. Marjorie’s well-spoken accent against Shirley’s Liverpudlian accent is used to exaggerate this contrast. During the play Shirley also discovers that Gillian, a neighbour admires her “I think you’re marvellous.” Shirley didn’t know this and was very shocked to discover it, “She really believes” that Shirley could have a lover. This is shown using verbal humour.
Willy Russell examines the reality of the generation gap between parents and their children. Shirley had two children Brian and Millandra. In Shirley’s flash back to a visit to the wine bar she made with Millandra, Millandra tells Shirley “everybody drinks wine now… but I like rum and coke… Rum an’ coke went out with the Ark.” This shows the difference between Shirley and her daughter. Shirley refers to her daughter’s generation as the “clitoris kids.” Shirley obviously thinks there is a generation difference. She also states “I’d been the same if I’d been born into their generation… it was different in my day.” This is conveyed using verbal humour. The conversation between Shirley and Millandra is amusing and on a subject which many readers would relate to. Likewise Brian’s aspirations to become a poet cause her amusement.
Willy Russell illustrates the fact that your childhood and education have a significant impact on later life. Shirley’s teachers labelled her as being unintelligent “You couldn’t possibly know the answer” whilst they favoured other pupils like Marjorie Majors “You report is excellent my dear- as usual.” This caused Shirley to become disenchanted and bored with her education. Shirley therefore left school with low expectations of herself “you will not go far in life.” Shirley’s life lacked opportunities to excel herself so she could not follow her dreams to become an airhostess. Willy Russell uses the play structure to help convey this. Shirley has flashbacks to her school years that show her childhood.
Another truth that is conveyed during Willy Russell’s play “Shirley Valentine” is that although we know we shouldn’t judge people on stereotypes we often do. In the first scene of the play the audience is encouraged to come to the conclusion that Shirley is a stereotypical housewife. During the main film titles fifteen drawings of Shirley Valentine are shown. She is performing various domestic activities including cleaning, making beds, gardening and shopping. Later in the play we discover that Shirley is definitely not a regular housewife but her negative experiences at school colour the rest of her life and prevent her from taking advantage of opportunities that could have allowed her to create and improve herself and follow her dreams. Later in the play Willy Russell uses the caricature of stereotypical tourists, Dougie, Jeanette, Sydney and Thelma are all two-dimensional stereotyped tourists. They won’t eat Greek food and would rather eat English food although they came on holiday to Greece “It don’t look much like fish to me.” Satire is used to help convey this, it is ridiculous that they come on holiday and refuse to experience the culture of Greece.
Through the medium of comedy Willy Russell successfully teaches us various truths about human nature. He portrays a ordinary person like Shirley Valentine and shows us her inner most dreams. We see her confidence shattered by her childhood experiences at school and the impact of this on her later life. But Shirley does not give up and finds the courage to go on. In her monologues we observe her learning from her experiences and eventually finding her true self.
