“Hello, Mrs. Johnston. How are you? How are you enjoying the job?”
“Oh it’s, it’s smashing thank you, Mrs. Lyons. It’s such a lovely house it’s a pleasure to clean it”
“Yes, it’s a pretty house isn’t it? It’s a pity it’s so big. I’m finding it rather large at present”
When Mrs. Johnston confides in her employer of her problem after she finds out she is going to have twins Mrs. Lyons uses the situation to her advantage and persuades Mrs. Johnston to give her one of the twins at birth and makes her take an oath on the bible that she will never tell anyone of the adoption as Mr. Lyons is against it. She tells Mrs. Johnston that when twins fid out that they’re brothers that die. When the twins are born Mrs. Lyons comes to claim her child and Mrs. Johnston is forced to give one of her children away on the condition that she will be able to keep her job and see her son everyday. We see from here how social class causes Mrs. Johnston to take such drastic actions but when she goes to work Mrs. Lyons thinks she is going to break her promise and take her child back and becomes overprotective therefore she sacks Mrs. Johnstone when she goes to protest Mrs. Lyons gives her a lot of money and accuses her of selling her baby which is why Mrs. Johnston refuses to take the money. She doesn’t want the blame for selling her baby.
Mickey uses slang and a lot of swear words because the environment he lives in does not allow him to learn formal speech. He is deprived from the right to get an education because his mother cannot afford him going to a school
“Fantastic. When I get home I shall look it up in the dictionary.”
“In the what?”
“In the dictionary. Don’t you know what a dictionary is?”
“’Course I do. It’s a thingy isn’t it.”
He also has to share his toys with all his brothers and sisters.
“Mam our Sammy’s robbed me other gun and that was me best one. Why does he rob all me things off me?”
The police woman talks to Mickey as though he is a criminal and treats Eddie like as if he is innocent, even though Eddie is the one who gives her cheek.
(police woman to Mrs. Johnston) “and he was about to commit a serious crime, love, a serious crime. Now do you understand that? …”
(police woman to Mrs. Lyons) “As I say it was more of a prank really, Mrs. Lyons. I’d just dock his pocket money if I was you. But one thing I would like to say, and excuse me if I’m interfering, but I’d not let him mix with the like of them in future. …”
He has a sense of pride probably at the fact that everything he does he does it himself without the help of others even though he’s not rich. Mickey and Eddie’s well-developed friendship starts rolling down hill as Mickey starts understanding life better and as his responsibilities grow. He says he had to grow up whilst no one looked and Eddie could stay a kid. By this he basically means you’ve had it laid on a plate for you all your life when I had to work and gain or lose everything. Mickey starts to feel as though people own him because he thought everything he did he did himself when he realizes this is not true he feels betrayed and feels he owes everything he is to someone else. All the struggle and all the suffering Mickey goes through at the end affects Linda as she is his wife and doesn’t get any attention from her husband because his mind is else where all the time.
Mrs. Lyons is a selfish woman who took a baby away from its mother. She said the children would die if they found out they were twins because they had been separated at birth, this was a made up superstition, because she knew from a previous incident in act 1 scene 8 that Mrs. Johnston was a very superstitious person.
“Oh God. Never put new shoes on a table, Mrs. Lyons. You never know what’ll happen.”
“Oh, you mean it’s a superstition. You’re superstitious are you?”
I think she is just showing of for how much dosh she has. Even though she promises that she would let Mrs. Johnston keep in close contact with the baby as it grows she becomes possessive and sacks her from her job. She thinks that Mrs. Johnston will tell someone and her husband would get angry, as he also doesn’t know the truth. Later on she becomes paranoid of Mrs. Johnston, and starts thinking that the superstition she made up is actually true. After trying to keep her son away from Mickey, in the usual manner, saying he’s a bad influence, threatening, forbidding, etc she decides to move away to a far off area where she thinks Mrs. Johnston would not be able to follow. When Mrs. Johnston gets a house by the council near to where Mrs. Lyons lives, Mrs. Lyons fears are confirmed she starts thinking Mrs. Johnston has put a curse on her. She looks after Eddie well and treats him like her own son so no one suspects anything throughout. In the end she kills both boys due to her mental state.
Eddie is given a great childhood he lives in a big house gets the love of his parents and goes to school to get educated. His mother is the only person to know that he is Mrs. Johnston’s child, however she is determined to keep that a secret and keep ‘her’ child away from the Johnston family. He is a member of a rich family therefore is taught to speak in a posh accent and will kind of show off.
“Pissed off! You say smashing things don’t you? Pissed off. Do you know any more words like that?”
It is a good thing that he is educated because he can then have a good job and a very good status further in life. Eddie has money and he doesn’t care where the money goes. He thinks of Mickey as a brother, this is probably because he is an only child and when Mickey tells him they can be blood brothers he is delighted that he will finally have a brother. When he is caught by the police woman he ends up getting his lines mixed giving the play a streak of humour as well as showing how protected he has been during his upbringing.
“… And what do you think you’re doing?”
“Adolf Hitler!”
“What’s your name, son?”
“Waiting for a ninety two bus…”
“He’s not with me…”
He is sent to boarding schools so that he is kept away from Mickey. He doesn’t understand why everyone wants to keep them apart but goes along because he is left no choice. When he comes back from university for Christmas he is surprised to find that his best friend is now also against him, which upsets him greatly. He tries to show that he is not bothered about Mickey being poor, that Mickey’s friendship means more to him than the world by telling him to take all the money he wants but this just makes Mickey feel offended and feel as though he is being presented with charity money or something.
“Look, come on. I’ve got money, lots of it. I’m back, let’s forget about bloody jobs, let’s go and get Linda and celebrate. Look, look, money, lots of it, have some.”
“NO! I don’t want your money. Stuff it. Eddie, do me a favour will you? Piss off.”
“I thought … I thought we always stuck together. I thought we were … blood brothers.”
Even though Mickey stops talking to Eddie and doesn’t want to stay in any form of contact Eddie carries on trying to make there friendship work out. He tries to help Mickey every chance he gets, even if it is only secretly. In the end he finds out they are real brothers. When Mrs. Lyons comes in and goes to shoot Mickey, Eddie sacrifices his life showing he really cared about Mickey.
