Willy Russell creates more conflict and tension in the play for Mrs Johnstone because she has already got so many problems and she cant feed her children properly, then she hears that she is having twins, that creates tension and conflict immediately for her : “with one more baby we could have managed but not with two. The welfare have already been on me they say incapable of controllin the kids I already got. They say I should put some of them in care, but I wont, I love the bones of every one of them, but like they say in welfare kids cant live on love alone.” This proves that Mrs Johnstone loves her children very much and she is threatened by welfare and she could not manage with one more mouth to feed let alone two, so that creates tension and conflict immediately in Mrs Johnstone’s life. Mrs Johnstone got so many childrens because her husband was a womaniser.
Willy Russell creates a sense of tension for Mrs Lyons because she is the complete opposite of Mrs Johnstone, she is a lone woman with no children although she has got money and a husband. Mrs Lyons has a big house to her self in which she passes time alone while her husband is always away for several months on business. This creates a sense of tension and conflict for Mrs Lyons because she bought a big house for her future children which she doesn’t have: ‘actually Mrs Johnstone we bought such a large house for the- for the children. We thought children would came along’. This quote proves that Mrs Lyons wants a child it is the emptiness she feels in her life. Mrs Lyons always dreamed about having a child of her own: ‘each day I look out from this window, I see him with his friends, I hear him call, I rush down but as I fold my arms around him, he’s gone. Was he ever there at all?’
Willy Russell creates more tension and conflict in the play when Mrs Lyons and Mrs Johnstone get together. Mrs Lyons creates a sense of tension and conflict for Mrs Johnstone immediately when she hears Mrs Johnstone is having twins. She asks Mrs Johnstone to give her one of the twins, she forces and sorts of persuades her by using excuses like “ already you’re being threatened by the welfare people. Mrs Johnstone With two more children how can you possibly avoid some of them being put into care? At least if the child is with me you’d be able to see him every day as you come to work; Because of her excuses, Mrs Johnstone gives one of the twins away when they are born. Mrs Lyons creates more tension and conflict for Mrs Johnstone when she informs Mrs Johnstone that she has to leave her employment and she says she cant see her baby any more and she uses superstition “They…… They say that if either twin learns that he once was a pair, they shall both immediately die. They shall be raised apart and never told what was once the truth”. When Mrs Johnstone hears that she gets scared and that creates tension and conflict in Mrs Johnstone’s life.
Mrs Johnstone creates a sense of tension and conflict for Mrs Lyons also because when the two brothers starts to grow up, they start becoming friends and then they become “blood brothers”, this creates tension and conflict for Mrs Lyons because she is trying to stop them finding out that they are real brothers and that Mrs Johnstone is the birth mother. Mrs Lyons' son starts to get in trouble staying with Mickey who is Mrs Johnstone’s son Mrs Johnstone creates more tension and conflict for Mrs Lyons when Mrs Lyons moves houses and goes away from Mrs Johnstone willing not to see them again, but Mrs Johnstone moves houses as well after some time then they find out that they’re in the some place living near to each other again and both of the brothers are growing up together.
Finally to end this essay I think Willy Russell used both tension and conflict . He did this by making Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons like real life characters. Some of the problems they go through are similar to what people in real life would go through.
