Mrs Lyons uses the fact that Mrs Johnstone is religious to weaken her, because Mrs Johnstone swore on the bible to give one of he twins to Mrs Lyons, Mrs Lyons says “they say if either twin learns that they once were a pair, they shall both immediately die.” She says this so that Mrs Johnstone would not tell the twins that they are twins because she would be scared of loosing the twins.
Mrs Lyons comes to a conclusion of sacking Mrs Johnstone, She does this because she it frightened of Mrs Johnstone becoming too attached to Edward.
We are introduced to Mickey during a song, he is banging on his own door after his mother, Mrs Johnstone, had locked herself in the house during the song. We are told this when the narrator says “ during the song Mrs Johnstone has gone to her house and locked herself in” she does this because the song is going on about “the devil” and the rent man is after her for her rent. Mrs Johnstone finally realises that it is not the rent man knocking on the door but her son, Mickey. We recognise this when Mickey says “mother … will you open the bleedin’ door or what?” He says this because Mrs Johnstone is not aware of his presence and thinks it’s the rent man, after she realises it is Mickey, she opens the door, grabs Mickey and hugs him, Mickey then says to her “why was the door bolted? Did you think it was the rent man?” Mrs Johnstone then laughs and looks at him, she does this to try and hide the fact that she is afraid of the rent man coming after her, it is obvious that Mickey is used to the rent man coming around. During the play, Russell uses the dramatic device of humour to show the contrast in Mickey and Edwards lives. We see this when Mickey says to Edward “if our Sammy gives y’ a sweet he’s usually wee’d on it first” we see it here because that is how Mickeys lifestyle is where as Edward has a very high quality lifestyle.
There is a large difference between the use of language between Mickey and Edward, this is because Mickey has been brought up around a family that is struggling with most payments where as Edward has been brought up with good education. We see this when Mickey says to Edward “do you know the ‘F’ word?” Edward is puzzled and says “pardon?” this shows that Edward doesn’t know any ‘naughty’ words where as Mickey knows just about every bad word in the book.
The difference in the quality of language between the two also shows the difference in the quality of education they have had, we see this quite a lot through out the play because Mickey will use slang, this shows a poor quality of education where as Edward uses a quality of language which is very formal, this shows he has gone to a very good school or possibly even private school.
We see Mickey using ‘slang’ most of the way through play, an example of this is when he says “cos me mam says” where as Edward would of said something along the lines of “because my mummy / mother says” this shows that Mickey is very informal in the use of his language.
In the play Russell makes the two twins become ‘Blood Brothers’, this creates dramatic irony amongst the audience because we know that they really are brothers, we see this when Mickey introduces Eddie to his mother, Mickey says “Mam…Mam this is my brother.” Mrs Johnstone is very stunned by the fact that this has come up, so to try and avoid the twins knowing shes says “what” Mickey thens replies to that “my blood brother, Eddie”. This shows that Mrs Lyons telling Mrs Johnstone that ‘if the twins find out they were once brothers, they will die’ has worked because she acts dull when Mickey says Edward is his brother.
During the play we see that Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons get treated differently by members of the authority, such as a police man. We see this when the policeman goes and confronts Mrs Johnstone about her sons behaviour, we see this when the police man says “he was about to commit a serious crime, love. Now do y’ understand that? You don’t wanna end up in court again do y’?” We see in this quote that the policeman is threatening her about going to court ‘again’, he is patronising her and talks down to her.
When the policeman goes to confront Mrs Lyons, he removes his helmet and holds a glass of scotch, the glass of scotch indicates wealth within the Lyons family. The police man then says to Mrs Lyons “An’ er, as I say, it was more of a prank, really, Mrs Lyons. I’d just dock his pocket money if I was you.” He then laughs to make a bit of a joke out of it. The pocket money shows the Lyons family can afford to give their kids pocket money. The police man then says “But, one thing I would say, if y’ don’t mind me sayin’, is well, I’m not sure if I’d let him mix with the likes of them in the future. The fact that he says “if y’ don’t mind me sayin” shows he has a lot more respect for the Lyons family.
As the police man is about to leave he says “he’s a good lad, aren’t you Adolph?” this shows great respect and is a polite thing to say, he’s even ‘enjoying’ the joke that Eddie started.
As the two twins get older, their lives change a lot, they grew apart from each other, we see this when Edward goes to university and Mickey has to work. Edward becomes a lot more care free, he is having more fun, we see this in many different ways through out the play, we see this when he says “you can do exactly as you choose sir. You can take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut! But you shall not take my locket!” This results in Edward getting suspended from the university, this shows that he doesn’t care as much anymore. Edward also says “I haven’t been to so many parties in my life, this shows that during his time at university he has become a typical teenager who parties a lot. Where as Mickey is a lot more responsible now that he is working. We see this in many ways including when he says “I’ll have to go home and get some money” this shows that now he is working he has money. We see Mickey has become more responsible when Edward says to him “why is a job so important? If I couldn’t get a job I’d just say sod it and draw up a dole, tilt my hat towards the world and say ‘screw you’. Mickey says “you don’t understand anythin’ do y’? I don’t wear a hat and tilt it at the world.” this shows that beside Edwards attempts to tempt Mickey into going on the dole, Mickey has basically said no, this shows that he is more responsible and thinking about his family, this is like role reversal, Mickey is now the sensible one.
We see during the play that the cycle of poverty and lack of money suffered by Mrs Johnstone is continued when Mickey and Linda are together, we see this in many different ways but one way is when Mickey takes up Sammy’s offer to do a little job for an extra £50, on the one hand this shows desperation for some extra money but on the other hand this shows that he is thinking about Linda because he tells her to be ready by eight o’ clock so they can go out dancing and have a slap up meal.
During the play, Mickey and Linda’s relationship can become quite confusing at times, we see this when Mickey boss’s her about by saying “look, stop arguing” he also says “now shut up” this can be quite annoying and intimidating when in a relationship because you feel as if you don’t have a say.
We realise that Mickey and Linda’s relationship becomes full of arguments, they are always arguing about petty little things and this makes the relationship quite un-successful, we see this when Mickey and Linda are arguing about Mickey’s tablets, we also see it when Mickey mentally abandon’s Linda, she feels as if she is being blocked out of Mickey’s life.
The relationship between Mickey and Linda seems to be slowly breaking down, we see this when they both drift away from each over, we see this hen Linda wants to meet up with Edward to talk, they eventually kiss and walk off together hand in hand, this shows that Linda thinks just as much about Edward as she does about Mickey.
I think Willy Russell has done very well to present two contrasting worlds, he shows us the many difference’s between the two family’s. We see this in many ways and Russell has used many effective terms to make us recognise this. The many effective terms he has used has provoked many different thoughts into our heads and he has made his style of writing very catchy.
I think his style of writing is very successful because as we are reading the story we can almost visualise what is happening in the story.
