How is the character 'Mrs Johnstone' portrayed in the play 'Blood Brothers'?

How is the character 'Mrs Johnstone' portrayed in the play 'Blood Brothers'? In this essay, I am going to explain how the character 'Mrs Johnstone' is portrayed in the play 'Blood Brothers'. At the start of the play the audience are told that she is only twenty-five years old and already has had seven children. This suggests that she is naturally a maternal character, embracing new life and showing her caring personality. William Russell (Russell) may also be hinting at religious rulings against contraception in her life, therefore implying that she is a Catholic. The character 'Mrs Johnstone' is also portrayed as an extremely poor woman. I know this because at the end of the play she says to Mickey (before shooting Edward) 'I couldn't afford to keep both of you'. This shows the readers that she is trapped by poverty and reinforces the idea that it is difficult for her to take care for her children and is ultimately the reason why she gave Edward away to the middle-class 'Mrs Lyons'. Russell suggests that she is 'old before her time'. This indicates that she had to sacrifice any youthful enjoyment and financial security to care for her children - she cannot gain financial security because she is unable to get a full-time job, due to her having to care for the children and the decline in the economy. 'Mrs Johnstone' is also uneducated and Russell implies this through a

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HOW DOES WILLY RUSSEL BUILD UP DRAMATIC TENSION AT THE END OF THE PLAY 'BLOOD BROTHERS'

HOW DOES WILLY RUSSEL BUILD UP DRAMATIC TENSION AT THE END OF THE PLAY 'BLOOD BROTHERS'? The play Blood Brothers was set in Liverpool in 1950's. There was a huge difference between rich and poor on those days. Most people were facing poverty in those days. This play is all about a women called Mrs Johnstone and her children. She had twins. She couldn't afford to look after both of them so she gave one away to her employer Mrs Lyons. The play shows the lives of the boys when they grow up and the consequences of the mother's actions. In this essay we will be focusing and analysing 'how tension is created at the end of the play which ends in tragedy. The narrator gives us clues about what is going to happen, which increases tension for the audience. The tension is stretched to the limit when Mrs Lyons shows Edward and Linda to Mickey. This event spurs Mickey on to seek revenge against Edward because he feels betrayed by him and Linda. Mickey reacted by ''comb the town, breaking through groups of people, looking, searching........ going to do''. It shows that he is out of control and he is counting to kill Edward. This is evident when the writer uses the words like searching, looking, desperate.....''. He doesn't even know that what is he looking for or what to do further. The words that the writer uses to show Mickey's agitated mood, heightens tension to the

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Blood Brothers

"Blood Brothers" is a musical by Willy Russell. It is one of the longest-running works of musical theatre in history. The musical has a contemporary nature vs. nurture plot, revolving around fraternal twins who were separated at birth. The twins' different backgrounds take them to opposite ends of the social spectrum, one becoming an Oxbridge-graduated councilor and the other unemployed and imprisoned. Both fall in love with the same girl, with tragic consequences. The play writer, Willy Russell was born a scout in Liverpool. He grew up in a working class family. After leaving school with one O-level in English, he first became a ladies hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also writing songs which were performed in local folk clubs. He also contributed songs and sketches to local radio programmes. At 20 years old, he returned to college and became a teacher in the Toxteth area of Liverpool. Around this time he met his wife, Annie, and became interested in writing drama. As Willly Russell was brought up in the working class its not surprising that he left school with just one O - level. Also it's not surprising that he wrote a play write showing the digression of growing up in the working class. "Class" is central to the story as it is a theme that exists throughout the play. Willy Russell has shown the class affects people's lives by

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Compare how Willy Russell portrays the two families in 'Blood Brothers' and account for the different reactions of the audience to the Johnstones and Lyons' throughout the play.

Compare how Willy Russell portrays the two families in 'Blood Brothers' and account for the different reactions of the audience to the Johnstones and Lyons' throughout the play. Blood Brothers by Willy Russell is set in Liverpool. The play was first written in the early 1980s and performed to a secondary school in 1982. The play is about two twin brothers who were separated at birth. Mickey stayed with his birth mother, Mrs Johnstone, and Mrs Lyons picked Edward. Seven years later they meet up and perform a blood brothers ritual. When they reach the age of 18 Mickey and Linda are expecting a baby and get married. Edward still likes Linda. Mickey does a job for Sammy and gets put away for seven years; Edward helps and gets Mickey a house and job. Mickey and Edward fall out and it ends with a bloody end. Willy Russell shows that families are very different by small details that you cant pick out but know that they are there. You can see the differences between the two families throughout the play. From the very beginning of the play we can see that the mothers are very different. You can really tell that Mrs Johnstone is a working class lady and she has aged a lot since her first child, people used to say she looked like Marilyn Monroe, 'they said the bride looked lovelier than Marilyn Monroe'. Mrs Johnstone has to work hard to feed all of her seven children, 'It's

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"And do we blame superstition for what came to pass? Or could it be what we, the English, have came to know as class?" Which do you think is more responsible for the deaths of Mickey and Edward in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers.

Sam Plackett "And do we blame superstition for what came to pass? Or could it be what we, the English, have came to know as class?" Which do you think is more responsible for the deaths of Mickey and Edward? Blood Brothers is a play set in Liverpool, Willy Russell wrote it in 1983. Willy Russell has wrote plays based in Liverpool because this is where he was brought up as a kid in a working class family, Blood Brothers relates to this and aspects of class that he would have experienced when he lived there. Willy Russell grew up just outside Liverpool, he left school when he was only 15 to become a hairdresser, it was in his early twenties when he decided to go back to school and take his O levels. His plays were about everyday circumstances and his portrayal of life then. In this essay I intend to find out the reason for Mickey and Edward's deaths, whether it was superstition or class, I will evaluate both of the possible causes and how they are used within the play, then I will have to make a conclusion to which side of the argument proves to be the correct one. The main sources of superstition revolve around Mrs Johnstone because she is the character who believes that when certain things happen consequences will unfold due to this. Willy Russell points these superstitious events out to the audience, by using one of the characters to mention this or a song will be used

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"Blood Brothers" is set in Liverpool in the early eighties.

"Blood Brothers" is set in Liverpool in the early eighties. The play follows the life of two main characters: Eddie Lyons and Mickey Johnstone. The play has proved extremely popular with audiences of all ages. In this essay I aim to consider all the dramatic qualities of the play and how Willy Russell uses them to promote the dramatic effectiveness of the play. In "Blood Brothers" the characters fall into two stereotypical groups: the working class Johnstones and their associates, and the middle class Lyons. It seems ironic that although the Johnstone family live on the breadline they start off cheerfully, compared to the Lyons who never seem content. This makes the audience what is wrong in the lives of both families and created dramatic tension. The main characters, Eddie and Mickey are people that we can relate to: we feel pathos with them as they face the trials and tribulations of life. Russell uses pathos to involve the audience so they feel pity when Mickey loses his job, fear at the end of the play when the shooting scene takes place, and experience childhood joy when Eddie and Mickey share jokes. Humour, in its various forms, plays a large part in æBlood BrothersÆ. It keeps the audience interested and balances out the conflict and sadness in the play. Throughout the play we experience different types of humour such as the use of a pun when Mickey and Eddie are

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"Blood Brothers", a play by Willy Russell, was set in the late sixties/early seventies and was written in 1981

DRAFT COPY OF BLOOD BROTHERS ESSAY "Blood Brothers", a play by Willy Russell, was set in the late sixties/early seventies and was written in 1981. It is a Liverpudlian West Side Story about twin brothers being separated at birth because their mother cannot afford to keep them. She gives one of them away to a wealthy woman who longs for a child. The two children grow up as friends in very different environments, not bothered about the old tale about a curse that states that if twins are separated at birth, they will die if brought back together during their lives. But a quarrel between the two boys soon brings trouble. Russell uses the play, including the scene that I am going to be focusing on, to put across views about 20th century society and to show the importance of class and life in Liverpool in the late sixties and early seventies. He also highlights the importance of environment and the way society, at the time, regarded single mothers. Single mothers were thought of as lower class characters that have many children born of different fathers. At the time that "Blood Brothers" was set, politics would've been really bad. The government probably wouldn't have cared or been bothered about the poor living conditions that some of the weaker families were living in. This would've had a large effect on those weaker families, such as the Johnstones, because of lack of money

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Blood Brothers

> "Well how come you got everything...and I got nothing". This quote by Mickey highlights the relationship between class and opportunity which is what this essay is going to be focusing on. Willy Russell is a modern playwright but throughout history these themes have appeared in literature, for example world war one often revels the fact that men of a more lower class were sent to the front line whereas men from a wealthy class made all the decisions. The playwright uses a number of techniques to make the message accessible to the audience. Some of these include dramatic devices, language and the overall content of the play. The relationship between class and opportunity is that the opportunities you receive is based upon the class you are represented by. > Blood Brothers is a powerful illustration of how divisions in social class can affect the opportunity an individual has in life. It is a tragic musical written by the fantastic writer Willy Russell. Mrs Johnstone, a lonely woman whose husband has abandoned her and a houseful of mouths to feed, learns she is expecting AGAIN, however what she doesn't learn till later on is that she is having twins which adds to the life problems that her life comes to struggle with. She works for Mrs Lyons who is desperate for kid s but isn't able to have any her self, when she finds out about Mrs Johnstone's pregnancy she uses it to her

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Blood Brothers interview with Willy Russell

Mr. Russell, welcome to our program, Writers' Question Time. Could you briefly tell us what your play is about? Thank you for inviting me to the show. "Blood Brothers" is about the story of twin brothers separated at birth. The twins' working-class mother - Mrs. Johnston - is too poor to keep both twins, so gives one to her very rich employer Mrs. Lyons, who cannot have children of her own. Mrs. Johnston is extremely superstitious, and Mrs. Lyons discovers this early on when Mrs. Johnston finds shoes on the table. Mrs. Lyons takes advantage of this, and tells Mrs. Johnston 'that if either twin learns he was one of a pair they shall both die immediately!' Until the twins are about eight years of age, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Johnston have no problem keeping their secret shut away. They then find that the twins have met, and have become very good friends without realising they are related to each other. Mrs. Lyons persuades her husband to move the family away from the city to the countryside. Later in the play, Mrs. Johnston and her children get moved from the slums, closer to the house of Mrs Lyons. As the twins discover each other once again, Mrs. Lyons' mental health begins to deteriorate, and paranoia starts to kick in. With Mrs. Johnston, anxious as ever that her secret will slip out, the general mood of the play becomes more sinister, and the ending is tragic. Mr. Russell,

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Who is to blame for the tragic deaths of the twins in Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'?

Who is to blame for the tragic deaths of the twins in Willy Russell's 'Blood Brothers'? Blood Brothers, a story of twins separated at birth, growing up in completely different environments, but with the same genetic composition, "never knowing that they shared one name, 'till the day they died, when a mother cried, my own dear sons lie slain", is a compelling story of which we will discuss in detail, of who is to blame for their tragic deaths. There are many character in 'Blood Brothers', which can be blamed for the tragic deaths; Mrs.Lyons, the rich, devious woman, Mrs.Johnstone, the under-privileged mother of eight, Sammy, Mickey's brother and his influence, and even superstition and fate. First of all, we will discuss the case of Mrs.Lyons, a vindictive, manipulative woman who has a caring side to her, for the desperation of the love for a child. Indeed she did start all of this deception, by offering to take one of Mrs. Johnstone's baby's and lying to Mrs.Johnstone that she could see her child everyday. She also lied to her husband that the child was theirs and not an adopted baby (as Mr.Lyons hated the fact of adopting children). Mrs.Lyons decided to take it upon herself to have the child as her own, "He need never guess" was her response to Mrs.Johnstone, about the deceit...could this be the story of the twins' deaths; being cruelly separated at birth by Mrs.Lyons, not

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  • Subject: English
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