How does Willy Russell make is sympathise for Shirley Valentine?

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How does Willy Russell make is sympathise for Shirley Valentine

Willy Russell’s big hit screenplay, ‘Shirley Valentine’, we examine the life of this middle-aged house wife and her struggles with her boring life. From the very beginning of her Secondary School times till now, Shirley’s life was wasteful. No one listened to her opinions; no one really cared about her. Now she is a lonely, low classed person. This sympathetic connection between Shirley and the audience is illustrated in many ways, using a variety of dramatic techniques such as flashbacks. Flashbacks have revealed Shirley’s past, it shows the reasons to why Shirley has become her lonely self. Then one of her closest friend Jane tells Shirley that she won tickets to Greece and Shirley is coming. After arriving at Greece, Shirley met a man called Costas, they go onto a boat and Shirley has an affair. After an affair and some happy moments in Greece she had at last fulfilled her life. She has found her inner self and has fallen in love with the idea of living.  This whole story is linked to the writer of this play Willy Russell’s past. There are many similarities such as Willy Russell was born in Liverpool and the story of Shirley Valentine is based in Liverpool. On top of this Willy Russell grew up in a materialistic atmosphere, this taught him to view the world for many women during the 1980’s.  This story portrays Willy Russell’s life except it’s in a more entertaining way.

Will Russels uses many characters in the Shirley Valentine to make us sympathise for Shirley.  One of the main characters is Millandra, Millandra treats her mother Shirley with a lack of respect, she expects her mother to do all the work for her. Proof of this is when she makes Shirley do work for her; “Mother, can you get the TV for me, playschool is coming on in a minute.” This represents to us the lack of respect Millandra has and it also sympathizes us the readers. It makes us feel bad that Shirley’s own daughter expects Shirley to pamper her. Also, when Shirley tells Millandra that she is going Greece, Millandra is disgusted and says, “2 middle aged women going to Greece, it’s disgusting”  This illustrates to us that Millandra thinks Shirley is only going to Greece for the sex but it could also mean Millandra made that excuse up because she needs Shirley to pamper her.

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Another character similar to Millandra is Joe, Shirley’s husbands. Joe is a key to understand how Shirley feels. He has lost his humour during marriage and now he treats his wife like a slave. Joe demands food from Shirley and if he does not get what he wants, he goes into an aggressive nature and goes violent. This make us feel bad for Shirley because of the way she is treated by her own husband who is meant to love her . When Joe says, “I get my tea at 6.” This represents the lack of respect that Joe has ...

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