How Does Willy Russell Invite us to Fell Sympathy towards Shirley Valentine

A 1983 hit screenplay ‘Shirley Valentine’ by Willy Russell who was raised in a house full of woman, his father worked at 4 jobs to support his family so that Russell did get an education in English. This meant at home he could only talk to woman which he found fascinating, learning about their lives and dreams’, being brought up in a working class family it was not surprising he’d be in working class when he grew older. He became a hair dresser for a while before realising that he should take what he learnt and write books. Once he learned their apathy and how antonym their views were on class, politics, education, language, society and stereotypes, he wrote kitchen sink drama screenplays, like ‘Shirley Valentine’ and ‘Educating Rita’ . He uses dramatic devices, character and language to help us feel moved towards Shirley Valentine. Shirley Valentine is about a woman who was once a complete anarchist who turned into a tedious middle aged housewife and mother. She then after being used and taken for granted by her family and friends goes to Greece and falls in love with something she had lost but it isn’t too soon until she is used and taken for granted even on holiday.

Russell invites us to feel sympathy for Shirley by making us her confidantes seeing through the eyes of the camera and being painted pictures by Shirley describing her past. Allowing us to feel sympathy towards her. Chronologically the earliest flash back was of high school when she was discriminated against for being working class, for example once the head mistress said “oh do put your hand down Shirley you could not possibly know the answer” which was clear discrimination of her originating from a working class background. That quote indicated the unfairness of Shirley’s school life of being mistreated and outcast by people who have not even met her. This school incident was because of the way society looked at the working class as not intelligent and misbehaviours. I can prove this because Marjory who took elocution lessons to learn how to behave and talk was being overestimated so much that when she got an answer wrong in the hall you could tell the amount of disappointment on the headmistresses face. While when Shirley answered the question correctly you could tell from the headmistress of the shock that someone in working class could get an answer right. After that flashback ended you could see the how Russell invited us to feel sympathy to Shirley in this kitchen sink drama, the same look on her face as when she was 14 told you that she still felt bad about that. The voice over’s Russell used showed that when she spoke while doing a voice over “after that I really didn’t care about school” this illustrates that she became a rebel who started breaking rules such as wearing promiscuous skirts, smoking, putting knifes into cakes and being free. Which in the end of the screenplay she does anyway but before this happened we explored Shirley’s school life a bit more and found out she was actually envois of Marjorie and sadly hated herself. This was discovered in the playground in a flashback “I hate the world, It’s crap and I hate everything it’s all garbage. It’s last. It’s crap and I hate it. But in the voice over the elder Shirley said “But I didn’t hate anything. The only thing I hated was myself” This demonstrates that she took the hit from the headmistress hard as it gloomed over her 28 years going on. This makes us feel sorry for Shirley because she never really did anything bad at the start it was stereotypes that made the headmistress underrate Shirley and that is what ruined her entire education. This is a very important section of the play because it was probably the most outstanding piece of evidence of her belittling herself. Russell may have used this in his writing from his own life; he was surrounded by females and learnt how to act from them also. He welcomes us to pity her with that line; socially she was outcast for hating everything when she should have been outcast for hating herself.

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In Russell’s own life he may have hated himself as a hairdresser because that was not what he wanted to do, like Shirley who did not want to be pictured dumb or as a trouble maker. She did want to be an air hostess but because of the headmistresses bad judgement she could not have it her way. Russell has Shirley encounter Marjory once more this time when she was in a voice over in her mind, Marjory’s car slugged water at Shirley, when Marjory went out to help her they did recognise each other. When Shirley was recognised by her, she denied it. This is proof that she still hated herself even 28 years later as adults. This was very humiliating for Shirley to see someone she bullied to be so successful while she was a tedious, forlorn guise, since she alleged Marjory to be something important like an air hostess but Marjory said “I’m a hooker” Shirley then felt equilibrium with Marjory. This develops us to understand that both were just ordinary people who were equal even though one was of a higher education, class and richer they were both people. They were both woman, they were both educated to a point and both lived in England. I think Russell used this `coincidence` to point out education institution to underscore even the best student can turn into something unrespectable to some like the headmistress who definitely would not approve of that while on the other hand some people like Shirley could admire that, someone who strived and achieved something societies majority would condemn her possibly Russell made that point why she went to Greece even though the majority (Joe, Millandra, and even Shirley at a point) would not agree on going to Greece while Jillian admired that about Shirley. This could relate back to Russell because he was once a hairdresser, to realise he wanted to become a writer he would have to overcome classes and social rejection. We could also link what happened between Shirley and Marjory with Russell to Russell’s education, maybe he was not given a fair opportunity, if he was he may have never become a hairdresser.

Willy Russell invites us to feel sympathy towards Shirley from her reactions and the ways she’s treated from a variety of different Characters. We see how her own relatives treat her like a utensil to make their lives easier by taking advantage of her. This is shown by her family members, mainly Joe who has branded Shirley as a housewife with nothing else to do but to be a cordon bleu, cleaner and servicer to him. This is shown by the lack of respect and empathy given to Shirley. Willy Russell uses Joe to show us how narrow minded the male mind was in the 1980’s, but Russell contradicted himself when Millandra is just as narrow minded as her father so Russell did not exactly make it so that only males are narrow minded because intact there are more females who jumped to conclusions on how Shirley should behave than men. I can prove this because Jillian said “well I expect they’re quite nice for your Millandra” so you can’t just stereotype that only the men in the play were narrow minded because Jillian could not believe those panties which Shirley was buying for herself, were thought to be intended for Millandra by Jillian’s postulations. I think Russell might have put this in his play to point out that even other house wives of the same class are can be just as naïve as those who would be in a higher social standard as a normal housewife. In this kitchen sink drama Russell uses a variety of characters, one of the most important would be Millandra who definitely does not respect or see her own mother Shirley as an equal human being bossy and prissy towards her. She dominates by decreeing orders to Shirley and never being told no she has been treated like a princess. this kind of confused me because they were all working class so no one should have been brought up like that, maybe Russell is trying to show that we should feel sympathy for Shirley because she was treated so badly even though she shouldn’t have.

Russell invites us to feel moved in this kitchen sink drama by the usage of language. For example rhetorical questions are used to appeal us into feeling empathy for Shirley. Like when she was talking to the wall “Don’t I wall? Don’t I like a glass of whine when preparing the evening meal? This reveals to us that she is talking to the wall and not wanting an answer, we feel sorry for her here because she is talking to a wall on how she’s going to do her tasks. This from the start shows us how lonely Shirley is. An extra language device Russell used in his play was past tense, this made us feel bad for Shirley because she is always looking back instead of walking in the future thinking of all the if’s and buts she should’ve changed along the way “And there I was” this exposes that she was happy then with choices but that all faded away and her freedom had forsaken her so all she could do is reminisce. I think Russell use this piece to show us that she did have dreams and the stride to achieve them but this did not work out. Maybe Russell used this as a metaphor for himself maybe he did not want to become a hairdresser or a novelist. Additionally Russell used emotive language to interest us into feeling sympathy for Shirley “beated and battered and half-dead” is emotive language because it stands out from its surrounding words with the use of onomatopoeia and alliteration. It makes us realise even in writing there’s emotions put in and through those words that touches the audience attracting sympathy to go to Shirley. A more personal device to me s direct address because it makes the audience the confidants which links us closer with Shirley and Russell like when she’s talking to Marjorie “I’ll write it down for you” this makes the audience feel more interaction in this kitchen sink drama.

Russell invites us to feel sympathy for Shirley by using dramatic devices, characters and language to make us realise that the character of Shirley is a metaphor of Russell. Whatever feelings he put in himself weather it was self pity, stereotypes on him or anything else he wanted people to acknowledge that people should influence themselves into giving him sympathy. He wants us to feel sympathy for Shirley by using her family and friends to take advantage of her and make her life feel insignificant; as if she died tomorrow no one would shed a tear. It did not really affect me because I’m kind of an emo and a story without any aliens or robots would not interest me. But the thing that did interest me into feeling sympathy for Shirley was when Joe was being a baby and sent the dish full of chips and egg into Shirley’s lap, I think it was uncalled for domestic violence. Overall I think Russell’s plays aren’t meant for me because I'm in the wrong target audience group.

By Krutik Patel 1,946 words.