Explore how the theme of different social worlds is presented in "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell. What comments might Russell be making about his twins
Explore how the theme of different social worlds is presented in "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell. What comments might Russell be making about his twins You should write about * Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons * Edward and Mickey * The Policeman * The Narrator This essay is about the play Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. I will be discussing the two main female characters in the play, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons and how they take part in the important events of the play. I am also going to look at other aspects, like their social statuses and how each receive different treatment altogether from others surrounding them. This will help me evaluate how Willy Russell has presented different social worlds to the audience, and how they are seen. Also I am going to be seeing how Willy Russell's background could possibly affect his views. Blood Brothers is the tale of two twin brothers who are secretly separated at birth and are forced to live very different lives apart from each other. Upon growing up these two brothers, upon chance, meet each other and strike up a friendship together, while all along being totally ignorant to their fraternity. This can only end in tragedy, as this terrible secret being kept from them cannot stay hidden for ever, so in the end both brothers end up dying together in an inevitable blood bath, upon finding out about the hidden secret. Because the
Discuss The Stage Techniques Used By Willy Russell To Keep The Audiences Attention In His Play
Discuss The Stage Techniques Used By Willy Russell To Keep The Audiences Attention In His Play "Blood Brothers" There are many ways in which Willy Russell keeps the attention of the audience in "Blood Brothers". Willy Russell wrote "Blood Brothers" shortly before its first performance in 1981. The first way in which he does this is when the narrator speaks in a normal local accent rather than a posh accent. The narrator also outlines a little bit of what will happen in the next act in his opening speech. This play has no set, just props. This will keep the attention of the audience, as they won't have to wait between set changes. The way the audience knows where the characters are is by what the characters are holding, or using, or saying. The absence of a set would also help the audience pay full attention to the characters. The production doesn't have a very big cast and at one point they even make a joke about people doubling up. The milkman becomes the gynecologist and he jokes about changing professions. In certain parts of the play the characters use the audience as another member of the cast. Linda and Mrs. Johnston act as if they are talking to the housing officer and then pause and answer afterwards. After the pause they answer the housing officers questions by kind of repeating what the officer says, Willy Russell has strong views on the classes in society. His
"Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell.
"Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell "Blood Brothers" is the story of twin brothers who are separated at birth. The play starts at the end, then goes back and tells the events that led to that situation. The story pivots around one character, Mrs Johnstone, she (the birth mother) finds out she is pregnant - again - her husband leaves her for someone who looks like Marilyn Monroe, she agrees with her boss, Mrs Lyons, whose house she cleans, that she can have one of the twins she is expecting. They both agree that it should be their secret and no one else shall ever know the truth. Mickey stayed with his mum, and Eddie went off with his new rich mother and father. The Johnstons are a "problem family" with little money and many mouths to feed, where as the Lyons have plenty of money to lavish on their "son". We follow the brothers, Mickey and Eddie, through their lives and see how their mother's decision to give Eddie away causes tragedy. The comedy of the early years of the boy's lives as we see them playing in the streets only makes the climax of the play more shocking and effective. The set was simple and related to the themes of class and money. The stage had a row of houses on either side of the stage, the "poor" neighbourhood on the left, and the wealthy houses on the right. The upper floors of the houses were used to house the musicians. Although the play is
Hoe does Russell create a sense of tension and conflict for the audience between Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone in the play 'Blood Brothers' ?
BLOOD BROTHERS COURSEWORK Hoe does Russell create a sense of tension and conflict for the audience between Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone in the play 'Blood Brothers' ? Willy Russell creates a sense of tension and conflict between the two main female characters in the play which are Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons. Russell uses many different techniques to do this. Willy Russell creates a sense of tension and conflict for Mrs Johnstone immediately because she is a mother with a lot of children, no husband, very little money and she is pregnant. This creates a sense of tension and conflict because she is a single mother that has to take care of her children with very little money and she is in debt which she can't pay off: 'Next week, next week. Next week never arrives around here, I'd be a rich man if next week ever came' this was said by the milkman. This explains that she owes money to people and she can't pay them off, she keeps coming up with excuses. Mrs Johnstone gets a lot of tension and conflict in her life which affects her children: 'mam, how come I'm on free dinners? All the other kids laugh at me'. This quote explains that because Mrs Johnstone is quite poor her children have to have free dinners and her children don't like that. Mrs Johnstone has conflict and tension because she cant feed her children properly: 'ey mother I'm starving an there's nothing in.
Authors of short stories have to pay attention to structure, atmosphere, social background and language, comment in detail on the way your attention is sustained by 'the Half Brothers' by Elizabeth Gaskell.
To make the content effective and to sustain the attention of the reader, authors of short stories have to pay attention to structure, atmosphere, social background and language, comment in detail on the way your attention is sustained by 'the Half Brothers' by Elizabeth Gaskell. During the industrial revolution, short stories became very popular and 'The Half Brothers' is an example of a short story. However, it does not always conform to the usual characteristics of a short story. 'The Half Brothers' is the story of two half brothers that are alienated from each other after their mother dies. Many years later, the younger brother's life is saved by his older half brother (Gregory), who dies trying to save his younger brother's life. Elizabeth Gaskell uses structure a lot to maintain the reader's attention. 'The Half Brothers' has a very long and detailed background that helps the reader to understand and begin to care about the characters and their lives so far, thus sustaining their attention. This is unusual for a short story as it is traditional for short stories to have no background or scene settings. A further outcome of this detailed background is that Gaskell's characters are developed. This is important in prolonging the reader's attention as otherwise the reader would not be interested in the main climax of the story which is when the Gregory dies. 'The Half
How does Willy Russell create sympathy for the Johnston family in "Blood Brothers"?
Blood Brothers Essay How does Willy Russell create sympathy for the Johnston family in "blood Brothers"? Blood brothers is a tragic tale about two twins who were parted at birth and as a result, led different lives according to the family classes they were incidentally put in. The author, Willy Russell portrays the circumstances in which the twins were conceived, born and parted and also gives us an insight into how society has the influence of shaping individuals according to the classes they are in. We, the audience are made to sympathize with Mrs. Johnston on many occasions varying from the beginning of the play, even before the twins are born to the end of the play, when we learn about their unfortunate death. We, the audience also see how superstition is used to separate the two classes. In the play blood brothers we see the upbringing of two so called blood brothers, Eddie and Mickey who are bought up in two different lifestyles. Mrs. Johnston is the mother of seven children and is already on the way of expecting twins, that were to be parted soon after. This is told to us via the author, who states, that the mother "stood and watched brother parted from brother". Willy Russell uses various techniques to create sympathy for the Johnston family. The play starts of by describing Mrs. Johnston's life and her marriage. The author quotes "that I was six weeks overdue"
Blood Brothers Coursework The theme of hardship
Blood Brothers The definition of hardship is "that which has to bear, suffering, privation" which basically means when a person goes through a hard time due to a split up or a person dying often leading to a series of unfortunate events. Willy Russell's music interests started at about the age of 13 when he would leave school for lunchtime sessions at the cavern and during that time discovered the Beatles. He made an early movie script called 'Wings' written for Paul McCartney although it was never made, Russell said that he wasn't sad about it as he said 'there was no hope of making a movie when the script had been specifically written around the notion of an already existing band. At the time Blood Brothers was written there was unparalleled turmoil within the Tory government as 'Thatcherism' ruled everyone. The chaos spread and elevated as many public sector workers were laid off in an effort to thwart inflation however in doing this Margaret Thatcher made the unemployment rates skyrocket. Many think that Russell wrote his play in order to lash out at Thatcher in order to send some sort of subliminal message to her. Blood Brothers is a story of hardship, struggle and emotions amongst the economic decline of Liverpool from the 1950s to the1970s. Its views are believable and moving and has been keeping theatres full for many, many years. The story revolves around twins
Directing Blood Brothers
Imagine you are directing "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell from Act two. "Mrs Lyons enters and goes to Mickey" to the end of the play. Blood Brothers is a play written by Willy Russell set in Liverpool in the early 1980s. I feel this play highlights the contrast between social classes and the effect it has on their lives. This is exposed in quite a deliberate way by showing the obvious differences between the two families. This play is about Mrs Johnstone who has seven children and is expecting twins. She is wanting to give one of them away. Mrs Lyons is the woman who employs Mrs Johnstone. She is desperate for a child and willing to take one of Mrs Johnstone's twin sons. The two young boys, Mickey and Edward grow up to become friends at a young age. This is not a good idea so their mothers try with a number of failed attempts, to move away from each other. However of course their secret is always going to come out and it leaves us with a tragic ending. I feel that this scene is important as it is the main one and a lot seems to occur here. This scene, with all the action completes the play by ending with the long awaited tragedy. Edward and Linda had an affair and Mrs Lyons told Mickey about this. Mickey is in total frustration over this and knows he needs to step in. "There's a man gone mad in the town tonight, he's gonna shoot somebody down." This implies that the
Blood Brothers - In this assignment I will discuss how fate and superstition contribute to the final Tragedy. I will also consider other elements in the play, such as social class, education, poverty, and coincidence, which are highly significant to the s
Madeline Kennedy Introduction In this assignment I will discuss how fate and superstition contribute to the final Tragedy. I will also consider other elements in the play, such as social class, education, poverty, and coincidence, which are highly significant to the story. GCSE Assignment: Blood Brothers In the play there are many references to the devil and the bogeyman, both figures representing evil and control. Most of the characters are strongly influenced by these; the "kids," who believe in the bogey man, and incorporate him into their games, "will he get me mummy?" and their mothers, who are influenced by the devil. The Narrator, who plays an integral part in the play, can be interpreted as the devil or bogeyman, following Mickey Eddie and Linda around and taunting their mothers, "Now you know the devils got your number" in this manner controlling the main characters and making the events (stated in the prologue) come to pass. The Narrator adapts the roles of many minor characters reinforcing the idea that the narrator is in control, because he is featured in all the significant turning points of the story, taking the parts of the milkman, gynaecologist, bus driver and the police man. The narrator is an ambiguous character, so he can also be portrayed as neutral, just telling and observing the story, or someone understanding and sympathetic, watching the
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?
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 'Blood Brothers' is set in Liverpool during the 1960's, 70's and 80's period. Willy Russell, the author, was born on the outskirts of Liverpool in 1947. At the age of five, he moved o a place called Knowsley. His father owned a chip shop and his mother worked in a warehouse. Russell was a failure at school but it was during English silent reading lessons he realised that he wanted to be a writer. He left school with an English language O level as his only qualification to work as a hairdresser for six years. Russell then took English evening classes and when he passed that decided to go to college for a year. Among his other plays Russell has wrote 'John Paul, George and Bert, Our Day Out' and 'Educating Rita'. Russell tends to write plays based on real life situations around the Liverpool area. The plays often deal with the issues of choice and escape, for example in 'Blood Brothers' it's mainly based on the choice issue where Mrs Johnston is stopped from having her choice of keeping the baby or getting ride of it, Mrs Lyons makes the decisions for her in a very forceful manor. Russell uses his humour to make serious