Guy Sweetman
At the start of the play, the narrator asks the audience to Judge Mrs Johnston’s crime for themselves. By the end of the play, does the audience believe that Mrs Johnston has a stone in place of a heart or has Willy Russell persuaded us otherwise?
The play write make us feel sympathetic towards Mrs Johnston from the very beginning. The first time we see her in the play she is singing a song of her life story. She makes her life sound sad and makes out that she is disappointed with the way it has turned out. Mrs Johnston talks about the way her husband always puts her down and makes her feel unwanted. We see this when it says ‘my husband wouldn’t go with a wife twice the size of Marilyn Monroe’. Judging by the way she talks about herself it sounds that she was once very good looking, like Marilyn Monroe, but when she got married and had children, she totally changed. This is shown when she says ‘By the time I was twenty five I looked like forty two’.
Later on in the play when Mrs Lyons is persuading Mrs Johnston to give her one of the twins she doesn’t want to let go of the baby but when Mrs Lyons gets the Bible she breaks down and just gives up. This is because Mrs J is too kind hearted and probably also religious. It is as if Mrs Lyons has been observing Mrs J to find out her weaknesses and use them on her to get her own way. We can see the difference between the two characters, for example, when Mrs Lyons offers money for the baby Mrs Johnston throws it on the floor to show that she loves the baby and doesn’t want to give it away. This also has the affect of showing that Mrs J knows there is more to life than money.
As Mrs Lyons enters the play, she seems to be a normal happy person. When she mentions about her not being able to have children and her husband won’t let her adopt the audience feel sorry for her. This is because all she wants is a few children but she can’t have any.
When she finds out that Mrs J is pregnant with twins it is as if she clicks and becomes obsessed with getting her own way. Mrs L is very persuasive against Mrs J. This shows that she is a very forceful and powerful person. Later on she mentions to Mrs J that if she has two more children the social workers will take them away into a care home because she doesn’t have enough money to care for them.
The audience’s attitude towards Mrs Lyons has now changed because they think she is manipulative and forceful to weaken Mrs J until she gives up one of her babies.
In act 1, scene 8 Mrs L turns up to see Mrs J, she finds out that the twins have been born and suddenly turns nasty. “There born? You notify me!” she says this in an aggressive manor. This makes the audience feel even more sympathetic towards Mrs Johnston because all she wants is a little time with both of the babies but Mrs Lyons is just trying to snatch one from her to make sure she has her own way.
In act 2, scene 11 and act 3, scene 2 Mrs Lyons shifts once more from being nasty to more of a mad old women. She is terrified that her adopted son will find out that she is not really his mother. The reason she has become like this is because of all the guilt building up in her mind about lying to her husband.
This is shown when she says to Eddie, “She’s trying to make me tell you.” This once again changes the way that the audience think about her. Now they think that she has gone insane with guilt and mad because of her obsessions.
Guy Sweetman
At the start of the play, the narrator asks the audience to Judge Mrs Johnston’s crime for themselves. By the end of the play, does the audience believe that Mrs Johnston has a stone in place of a heart or has Willy Russell persuaded us otherwise?
In act 5, scene8 Mrs Lyons tries to shoot Mickey because of superstition. She thinks that Mrs Johnston will tell them that they are brothers and so if Mickey is already dead Eddie, the other twin, will not die.
From the audiences point of view Mrs L is to blame because if it wasn’t for her greed and selfishness she wouldn’t have persuaded Mrs J to give her one of the twins. On the over hand some people would argue and say that she went insane because she couldn’t have her own children, she wasn’t a loud to adopt, her power and money went to her head and her guilt of lying toped it all up.
As well as feeling sympathetic to the characters, Russell draws our attention to their money. In act 1, scene 2 we see Mrs Johnston is so dependent on money that she has none herself because her family is too big. She owes the milkman money and if she doesn’t pay then the milk won’t get delivered. This would mean that she couldn’t feed her children or herself. At the end of the scene, Mrs J sings a short song about her new job. It describes that Mrs J is really struggling for money to keep the family from starving and bills rising but she always has a positive attitude towards her new job. The affect this has on the audience is that it makes them feel that there is more to life than money. Also, it encourages people to see how you must never give up no matter what the problem is because something good will always turn up eventually.
On the overhand Mrs Lyons attitude towards money is totally different. She sees money as leaves on a tree so tries to use it to persuade Mrs J to give her one of the twins. Mrs J sees it as an insult though and throws it on the floor. She knows that there are better things in life than money.
As Edward has grown up with Mrs Lyons and her husband, he has inherited their way of life and their views on money.
In act 4, scene 2 Edward offers Mickey some money when he is hard up but Mickey refuses it, as his mother did he threw it on the floor.
By making a contrast Russell has achieved to show that even though Mrs J and Mickey are poor they are still good people with feelings. Rich people like Mrs L and Eddie are naive because they use their money to get what they want, not caring about anyone else. Russell has tried to say that the rich and the poor are like magnets, repel instead of getting along.
In act 2, scene 7 the policewomen treats Mrs Johnston as is she were just a piece of dirt on the road, she was supposed to report Mickey’s prank, which she did, after she had done this though she started to call the whole family a bunch of criminals just because they were poor.
Whereas when the policewoman is talking to Mrs L, she says that Edward shouldn’t be punished. The attitude of the officer has now changed from mean to kind and treats the Lyons family like royalty.
Guy Sweetman
At the start of the play, the narrator asks the audience to Judge Mrs Johnston’s crime for themselves. By the end of the play, does the audience believe that Mrs Johnston has a stone in place of a heart or has Willy Russell persuaded us otherwise?
Willie Russell wanted the audience to see tat just because Mrs Lyons has money she gets treated with respect from local services. Whereas Mrs Johnston has very little money so gets treated like a criminal with absolutely no respect.
In act 4, scene 2 the different class backgrounds affected the twins. Eddie is still mentally youthful, fun well educated and can have a laugh without having to worry about money. On the other hand Mickey has grown up, become very serious, has little education and no job. The twins have taken two completely different paths. Since Eddie was taken from his biological mother, he has been bought up to take over a factory, have a big house and everything he wanted. Mickey is struggling to live after a childhood of his mother being in debt.
To confirm my view Mickey says”Christmas? I’ve had enough of that already and it isn’t even here yet. See, there’s very little to celebrate Eddie. Since you left I’ve been walking around all day, every day, looking for a job.”
Russell is trying to make it seem like there are two different types of people and they should be bought together to be equal.
Marilyn Monroe started her life as Norma Jeane Baker. She was fostered in 1933 by a close friend, Grace Mckee. On July 23, 1946 Marilyn signed her first 20th century Fox studios contract. Marilyn tragically died at the age of 35, suspected of a drug over dose. Marilyn Monroe is interesting in this play because she acts as a sort of idol for Mrs Johnston. They were both good looking but they went to waist because of stupid accidents. For Mrs J it was getting married and having lots of children, for Monroe it was taking drugs.
By the end of the play I don’t think that Russell intended the audience to blame Mrs Johnston for the tragedy, which occurred. The purpose of getting the narrator to suggest that she had committed a terrible crime was to get the audience thinking from different points of view. This is so that they understand how two different minds work, he rich and the poor.
I think that Russell was successful in this play because it shows one story but two different ways of looking at it. For example a criminal is in court for doing something wrong so the judges are only looking at the case from the victim’s point of view. Whereas the criminals view may be totally different because he may of done what he did for a good reason.
Guy Sweetman