Mr Briggs is sent last minute by the head to join the trip. He is the opposite to Mrs Kay, he is more concerned that the trip he had no part organising, be a educational experience for the pupils and is applaud by Mrs Kay’s attitude and her handling of the pupils, this is shown as Briggs is seen looking with disgust on the class and Mrs Kay. The aspects that create the most tension is that of the clashes between the two characters in which each makes it clear what they think of the other and their values. This focuses the audiences attention upon what they think is the most appropriate type of education for the special needs pupils. These characters are therefore deliberately created as opposites to each other to create tension among the play which will lead it into being more dramatic. Briggs is unpopular among the students, this is shown in scene five, where the students “sigh- he is a cloud on the blue horizon.” He is not liked by many people, as even the lollipop man describes him as an “ arrogant get”. However he is seen as a trustworthy man, as this is why the head sends him, to keep order on the trip.
Carol Chandler is a character in the class with whom the audience identifies the most with, she is also the first and last character we meet. During the day out, it is the character Carol who begins to grow an understanding of her predicament; she becomes aware of the fact that she is trapped into her social situation by her background and her abilities. Carol was the character that portrayed the life of this children the most, it was through her that we could see the world that the kids of the progress class were in; dreary, cold and hopeless, this was her main focus during the course of the day and this is why she creates dramatic tension in the climax of the play.
Scene 35 is the climax of the play. In this scene carol is on the cliff hiding from the other characters. She is sitting in the sun looking out over the sea, where she is enjoying “a fleeting moment of tranquillity” she does not want to leave Wales. She is found by Mr Briggs, the not very popular teacher. He tries to order him down, when she threatens to jump and then tells him how he really is perceived by the children. She is caught up in the moment, not in her reality, at this point she knows she has to come down and responds to Mr Briggs kind “please”. And his infrequent smile. While she is up on the cliff she is very perceptive about what life for Mr Briggs children would be like compared to hers.
During Mr Briggs time up on the cliff, he tries to hold his position as a teacher by using all the tearchery Clichés, “I’ll give you five seconds. Just five seconds, one…two…three…four…I’m warning you,five!” he does this to do this to get carol to move from the cliff. This makes the scene tense at first, as it does not give a close and understanding relationship between the two characters. The atmosphere is as tense and exciting as the setting. This is the climax of the play as it’s the scene where Mr Briggs relaxes and becomes more close to his pupil, his image changed from bad to good. The facing up to reality that Mr Briggs does is heightened by the real cliff-hanger taking place here and carols willingness to risk her life rather than leave this wonderful place is made sympathetic rather then pathetic. This is shown as the two characters start to form a relationship, an understanding “ carol lifts her hand to his. She slips. Briggs grabs out quickly and managers to pull her to him. Briggs wraps his arms around hers.”
This scene is the most important scene of the whole play. It is so tense, Willy Russell managers to build up the tension by putting the characters in a very difficult situation; the physical danger that carol is in is a really big aspect as it builds up the tension. The words that he uses show this, “ she moves to the edge of the cliff. Briggs is alarmed but unable to move”, this words builds up the tension as it shows how intense the atmosphere and the situation is, the fact that it says how alarmed Mr Briggs is and that he is unable to move, shows how serious the situation is, resulting to it being more tense and dramatic. The way the character Mr Briggs moves builds the scene to be even more dramatic, “Briggs slowly holds out his hand. She moves to the very edge of the cliff. Briggs is aware of how close she is.” The fact that Briggs moves slowly show just how careful he has to be and how frightened he is of the situation and its possible outcome. He needs to act carefully as the quote explains how she is getting very close to the edge of the cliff.
The characters behaviour changed dramatically in this scene, from where it was sour to begin with to where it came to being close and understanding. At first the characters are ordering each other about, “you go, I’m not coming”, “just come here” then at the ending of the scene the characters start to talk about the situation and why it is taking place, they become relaxed with each other, “carol looks at him and a smile breaks across her face”, “ smiling back at her”, “sir, you should smile more often, y’look great when y’smile.” There are many issues that are created in the scene, one is how carol realises that she is going to go back to the downhill side of life where everything is dull and boring, she wants to stay at the beach, stay were everything is nice and appealing to her “ why can’t I live in one of them nice white houses an’do the garden an’that?” she wants more in her life. Another issue that arises in the play is how Mr Briggs ensures carol that you can achieve what you want, “ what’s to stop you working hard at school from now on, getting a good job and then moving out here when your old enough”. This issue is soon put to a stop as carol realises that none of what’s been said can become true, one of her low ability and two of the society she lives in, she realises that where she lives there are no options open for her. “Don’t be friggin’ stupid ”Another situation created is that Mr Briggs become aware of how the students are feeling and sympathises towards them, he feel sorry for them and this shows his softer side. This is how the scene is resolved, they finally understand each others situation, carol gets to grips with her life in reality and Briggs becomes relaxed as he starts to understand the children and their life and results to him bringing down his barrier towards the kids.
On the play as a whole, I think Willy Russell is trying to tell us how, where you are brought up, in your society can affect your life and dreams as a whole. He wants to get the point across of how some people dreams of the most simplest things and how they realise their social background, and realise they cannot achieve them. He shows how the society you are brought up in can hold you back, and also your ability to do things, “progress class”. We informs the readers about the children from the poorest communities, he makes us sympathise with them, he makes the reader feel sorry for them. It think it was a really good way of showing these facts in a funny, comical way rather then a serious documentary way, this is because the situation is so big, and by portraying it in a comical way, it show a lighter side to it.
The effect of the play and particularly scene 35 on a modern society will be that they will come away thinking that during the olden times there where a lot of obstacles in the way of peoples dreams, and it makes you realise how poor and wasted the children are becoming in their society, to me the play shows how people used to take life a one big joke as they knew that they cannot do anything to change there situation. A modern audience will realise how tough children had it back then and this will make them sympathise with them. The dramatic moments will draw there attention in the play as it will show a more serious side to the funny play. The dramatic moments will make them become aware of the situation in hand, making them realise the life of these characters in the play. Personally this is how the play kept my interest, plus as it was really humorous, it kept me laughing and involved more, the cheeky kids made my interest keep focussed onto the play, and it makes the play become light hearted even though it involves issues that are not. For example, in scene six; leaving the city, when children are smoking and Andrews gets caught, he makes the situation (underage smoking) which is serious, funny, he says that his dad beats him when he gets home, this arises another serious situation; child abuse, the teacher asks is it because you smoke which makes your dad hit you, he replies in a cheeky sense, “sir, no sir, because I won’t give him one”. This is a perfect example in how Willy turns a serious situation become light hearted, and funny. These are the aspects which kept me interested and also how I seemed to find my self feeling sorry for the characters as there life was very chaotic, and badly run. I felt connected with them, and was interested to see how a normal day would be for these characters and how I would compare it to my day, I found its very different seeing to how underprivileged the children are. Its clear to see that Willy’s serious theme arises through humour. The above aspects for me, is how “Our day out” builds ups tension and conflict very convincingly.
