“Blood Brothers is a play that could be played like a tennis match with every scene showing first the working-class situation and then a parallel scene showing the middle-class side of it. The only time I allowed myself to do that was in the scene with the policeman. I thought for that tiny scene, if I did it only once, it would be very effective.”- Willy Russell.
The policeman scene (Page 37 & 38) shows just once the complete contrast between the two classes. As Russell says, doing that just the once gives maximum effect, as oppose to repeating it throughout the play. This scene shows us how being a different social status affects how you treated in society. The policemen judges Mickey due to his class, and assumes that Eddie’s action are his doing, and that he is a criminal. “He was about to commit a serious crime……you don’t wanna end up in court again, do’y?”- Page 37. To Mrs J the policeman makes the situation very serious and threatens Mrs J about keeping control of her children. The fact that the policeman makes the assumption about Mickey is ironic, as it is actually Eddie who has the stone in his hand and is poised ready to launch it through a window. The way the policeman treats Mr Lyons is very different to the way he does Mrs Johnstone. It is immediately obvious from the stage directions and dialogue, used that he has a lot more respect for Mr Lyons. ‘The policeman has removed his helmet’- Page 38. He speaks more politely describing the incident and acts as though it were nothing more than a prank- “As I say, it was more as a prank……I’d just dock his pocket money if I was you. (Laughs.”)- Page 38.
Russell here shows the audience an easy contrast between the classes, and how they are judged due to their position in the social class system. He shows the audience how hard it to break- free from the social class, and how that once you are in the lower class, you are stuck in rut. He explains to us through Blood Brothers how every one of us judges people in their everyday lives, due to the way they speak, the clothes they wear, and the language they use.
We see throughout the play, how Mrs Lyons gets a lot more respect shown towards her than Mrs Johnstone. We often tend to believe, that because she is of an upper class, she is a better person, maybe more honest and truthful. We see Mrs J fall for her tricks, and Russell shows us that our judgement is an assumption and how we couldn’t be more wrong. Our perception of Mrs Lyons changes throughout the play, as she becomes a more and more deluded character. At the beginning we feel sympathy for her as she cannot bore any children that she so desperately has wanted. When she then manipulates Mrs J into giving her one of her twins, we see what Mrs L is really like. “Surely it’s better to give one child to me.” – Page 11. We see how Mrs J at the beginning of the play is naive of the fact the higher class you are, the better person you are. She trusts Mrs Lyons even though she’s not sure about giving her baby away (Page 13). Mrs J is oblivious to the fact that Mrs Lyons has played on her superstitions and uses the Bible to make a ‘binding agreement’. She knows that Mrs Johnstone will feel that she can’t go back on swearing on the Bible and therefore will definitely give her baby away. Russell puts Mrs Lyons across as a very patronizing character, who is very intimidating and persuasive.
Russell shows us how ignorant we are of the issues other classes face daily. He does this by showing us how Mrs Johnstone struggles with trying to pay for milk and other everyday items, whereas Mrs Lyons takes these things for granted.
When Mickey and Eddie are introduced into the play (Page 22) we immediately see the different effect of class on their lives as the age of seven. The first way Russell brings us to this difference is their dialogue. Mickey uses Non- Standard English “’Gis a sweet.” (Page 22) whereas Eddie uses Standard English “my mummy doesn’t allow...” This is one the obvious ways to distinguish between classes. Eddie also doesn’t know any swear words and this shows the audience the upbringing he has had compared to Mickey. The boys are a contrast to each other because Mickey has no manners, misbehaves and speaks with a Liverpudlian dialect and Non- Standard English whereas Eddie speaks Standard English, is well mannered and is very well behaved. When Mickey teaches Eddie swear words and we see how he has never been open to this kind of language in the kind of environment he has brought up in. Even when Mickey teaches Eddie the swear words, he does not how to use them in a sentence because he has never been around people who have said them, and never heard them used before. When he gets annoyed with Mrs Lyons he says-“You’re…you’re a fuckoff!” (Page 29) which just shows how good an upbringing he has had as he uses it in the complete wrong context.
Another thing Russell shows us in Blood Brothers is the way that people in a certain class treat other people. After Eddie has been out with Mickey and Linda, Mrs Lyons tells him- “You see, you see why I don’t want you mixing with boys like that!” This shows prejudice between the classes. Another example of this the other way round is when Sammy says- “He’s a friggin’ poshy.” (Page 25). Another instance of this is when
Mrs Lyons is also worried about Mrs Johnstone holding her baby, because she looks down at her and does not want to really mix. Mrs Lyons gives us the impression that she thinks she is unclean and not worthy of holding or being near her baby- “I don’t want the baby to catch anything” (Page 17). Mrs Lyons does not want Eddie mixing with the lower class people and makes him believe he is better than them, and should not be seen with them. While Eddie’s out with Mickey and Linda, he does things he wouldn’t normally do, which is due to the fact that he with them. He is not used to doing things that they do and is a bit scared to start with but Mickey and Linda tell him that they always do it, so he doesn’t want to miss out, and seem like a wimp. Edward: “But Mickey…I mean…suppose we get…caught…by a policeman.”
Mickey: “Aah….take no notice. We’ve been caught loads of times by a policeman…haven’t we Linda?”
Linda: “Oh, my God, yeh. Hundreds of times. More than that.”
Later on in the play, when both families have moved away from their original settings, the difference between Mickey and Eddie becomes very obvious once again. We meet them again when they are fourteen and both at school. The boys both receive very different education and this emphasizes their class again. Mickey goes to the local comprehensive school with Linda, and then goes on to work doing a very physical, probably labour job. Eddie goes to a private school, which is a lot stricter and then goes to a very good university. When Mickey loses his job he is yet again another stereotypical character because he has to go on the dole. Eddie is living in a ‘bubble’ because he cannot see how others live and what they have to put up with. Mickey knows the reality of not having enough money, but Eddie does not realise because he has never been in that situation. Eddie offers Mickey money but Mickey feels too ashamed to take it from him so goes without because he wants to support his family on his own “Look, look money lots of it, have some.”
Mickey - ‘No I don’t want your money, stuff it.’
Eddie doesn’t understand the situation that Mickey is in; he has had a good education, and always had money when he needed it and not had to work for a penny of it. Mickey has had to work hard for the little money he has had, as he had a lower class job, due to his education.
Their friendship starts to disintegrate as they become older and stars to disappear as they become so different. Class differences bring barriers into their friendship. Mickey also starts to feel that Linda would prefer a life with Eddie because he has lots of money but Linda actually loves Mickey and however much money Eddie has, he cannot buy Linda’s love. Both classes realise towards the end of the musical, money cannot solve everything, because it cannot buy love and Eddie cannot buy Linda’s love. Even though Mrs Lyons does get a child in the end, she does not feel like it’s her child because they do not love each other whereas Mrs Johnstone does not have a lot of money, but loves her children and her children feel the same back.
However much Mickey and Eddie do not get on with each other towards the end of the musical, they still wanted to be each other in some ways. Mickey wanted Eddie’s money because he thought it would make him happier and make Linda be happier with him and it would make things easier. Eddie wanted to be more like Mickey, because he wanted to have a loving family and he also wanted Linda. This shows that both classes are not happy with what they have got and want what each other have got and what they do not have.
The audience are made to feel sympathy for both Eddie and Mickey because Mickey is poor and cannot look after his family, and because Eddie is naive to Mickey’s problems and thinks money can solve all his problems. Mickey doesn’t realise that Eddie thinks money can solve everything and therefore dislikes him because they sometimes do not understand each other. Right from the beginning we learn a lot about Mickey and feel we know a lot more about him as he grows up, whereas we do not know as much about Eddie. Again we feel more sympathy for Mickey when his heart is broken and when he is suffering with problems and depression.
In this musical the class the characters are in determines the sort of partner they end up with and their lifestyle. This is shown when Linda falls in love with Mickey, but she also has feelings for Eddie. Eddie knows that because Mickey and Linda have been together for a long time, that he should encourage Mickey to ask Linda to marry him, even though he likes her but he does the sensible thing. Mrs Lyons also plays a part in the relationship because she feels that Linda is not good enough for Eddie because she is lower class, so tries to split them up by telling Mickey about them. Linda likes Eddie but feels because she and Mickey are in the same class, and have had the same upbringing; she should stay with him, which suits Mrs Lyons perfectly.
In the musical, the narrator plays a major part the whole way through. On stage he is always somewhere, whether it be in the centre of the stage or hidden at the back. His presence shows the dark and sinister side to the whole story and whenever it seems to be okay, he highlights the dark side of whatever is happening. He is dressed smartly and is very serious. Whenever a major event is about to occur, he will make an entrance to the main focal point of the stage at the time. He has a powerful presence and almost seems to hold the whole musical together, tying up all the loose ends. Throughout the musical he also asks some relevant rhetorical questions at crucial moments to make the audience really think about what is happening. He makes the audience judge the characters and makes us realise that the English social class system is a problem.
To conclude the whole musical, I feel that Russell emphasizes every minor detail about the class system which is different from one class to another to make us realise the differences. He uses the narrator to make us think about the different characters and our opinions of them, and he uses the different powers people have in their class to make us feel sympathy for others. He emphasizes every line and scenery on stage to get across his message to the audience that the difference in the class system is a major problem that we have to deal with. I think that Russell feels that the class system will always remain with us, however much it is pointed out and however much it is talked about not everyone can be completely equal, because of the society we live in. We just have to get on and live with the problems, consequences of the class system.
