Mickey: “When’s your birthday?”
Eddie: “December 12th”.
Mickey: “So is mine.”
It does not give any specific images of any of their appearances but you would expect Eddie to have a side parting, clean face and may be chubbier that Mickey due to a better diet and he would have been more knowledgeable about hygiene. Mickey would probably be quite a grubby boy and perhaps not as tall as Eddie but he will probably be stronger that Eddie because of the amount of time spent outside playing. Eddie would probably have watched the TV or played on a computer because it was available to him.
Their language, accent and ability to use language contrasts greatly. Mickey appears to have a posh accent, or just a lot more posh than Mickey’s. When they first meet the language differences are highlighted.
Mickey: …..”because I’m pissed off”.
Eddie (awed) “Pissed off! You say smashing things, don’t you?”
Mickey says things like pissed off and he later says ‘the F word’. He doesn’t know what they mean but has probably heard them being said around the house or estate by older people who he wants to be like. Eddie obviously hasn’t heard words like this before as he was brought up in a well-spoken family and environment and compared to Mickey has had very little taste of the outside world. He also says words like smashing which you would never hear Mickey say. He’d probably say something like great or any much simpler word and when he’s older he would probably swear somewhere in the sentence. Their accent obviously isn’t heard but it is extremely likely that Mickey has a broad Scouse accent whereas Eddie probably has a normal slightly posh accent.
Mickey is a lot less educated than Eddie is. This has much to do with the wealth of their parents and the time that they have for their child. Mickey is the last of 8 children in total, so he will have had a lot less time with his mum in a single parent family. “With seven hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due.” Eddie looks up words that he doesn’t know in a dictionary. Just after Mickey tells him the F word he says “Fantastic. When I get home I shall look that up in the dictionary”. Mickey responds with “In the what?” This highlights the difference in intelligence between them. Eddie knows what a dictionary is and also how to use it and Mickey doesn’t know either. Eddie is also very polite to most people, especially Mickey’s mum, and doesn’t tend to do as many bad things as Mickey. For example Mickey talked about how he dealt with policemen and Eddie appears to have never spoken to one, or at least respects them and the law a lot more.
Later on in their lives, Eddie achieves a lot more financially that Mickey does. This is almost purely due to do with his family because he takes over the job from his dad. Mickey later finds out that the job that he has at the moment is only his because Eddie got it for him, otherwise he would probably be unemployed. However, Mickey is married and has lot more friends that Eddie. For example when they are talking in the factory:
Eddie: …..”What’s wrong?”
Mickey: “Look it’s …… its the other lads …. They’re looking”.
Here, Mickey doesn’t want to be seen with Eddie because he’s the boss and his friends don’t like him talking to him.
Generally, Willy Russell puts over his views about the nature/nurture debate very clearly. Mickey has a poor upbringing and becomes poor whereas Eddie has a good upbringing and becomes very successful.