How does Willy Russell invite the audience to sympathise with Shirley?

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Name: Ehssan Al-Thamir

Forum: 10N

Teacher: Mr Robson

Shirley Valentine (Course Work), Ehssan Al-Thamir

How does Willy Russell invite the audience to sympathise with Shirley?

Willy Russell presents the screen play Shirley Valentine as a drama to express family relationships and emotional feelings among different family members. Willy Russell chose the characters and dramatic devices in a way to show those expressive moods. Willy Russell utilized flashbacks as remarkable techniques for the audience to understand Shirley Valentine’s preceding life.

Willy Russell was born in Liverpool and left school at the age of sixteen similar to Shirley. He went into hairdressing but always dreamed of being a writer. The story is based on the term 'kitchen-sink drama which usually ends unhappily and has a more realistic representation of a social life. First scenes of the film show different water-colour, mainly blue, drawings of Shirley at different times, which may perhaps represent hopelessness and grief. Most of the sketches show Shirley doing housework, very bored and lonely housewife.

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Willy Russell employed many dramatic devices to present Shirley Valentine as a very ordinary, working class middle aged housewife. Dramatic devices such as the deliberate choice of the Liverpool accent and the monologue when Shirley talks to the wall were selected intentionally to highlight her utter loneliness and maybe even lack of confidence and personality. This is pointed out when she says " I like a glass of wine when I'm doin' the cookin'. Don't I wall? Don't I like a glass of wine when I'm preparing the evening meal?"

Moreover, in order to show that Shirley is ...

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