“You’ve got some real bright sparks here, Mrs. Kay a right bunch,”
And when he and Mrs. Kay are talking in the castle during scene31 he accuses Mrs. Kay of been on the children’s side “You are on their side aren’t you?” which makes it completely obvious that he sees the children as a different species of people who don’t deserve his respect.
Mrs. Kay, on the other hand, is a kind person who likes the children. She has
unusual teaching methods and to Mr. Briggs “She always reminds me of a mother hen rather than a teacher.” This is quite a good way to describe Mrs. Kay. The children love Mrs. Kay because she does act more like a mother than a teacher and as she sees it at the end of the day the children cant be educated so she might as well make a few years fun for them.
“Teach them? Teach them what? You’ll never teach them because nobody knows what to do with them.”
Although we haven’t met all of the members of staff at the school in the play we get the impression that only Mr. Briggs and the head teacher don’t agree with Mrs. Kay’s teaching methods. Her methods do work, though, and we have proof with Reilly and Digga, two of the characters, who were once in the Progress Class.
“Miss...miss, can we come wit’ y’? Can we?”
“Oh Brian! You know it’s a trip for the Progress Class”
“Agh, ay, miss, we used t’ be in the Progress Class though.”
The members of staff on the trip, and the children, come to terms with Mr. Briggs by scene 31 but his attitude changes.
“Now either you take control of the children in your charge or ill be forced to abandon this visit and order everyone home.”
This is replied with:
“If you want to abandon this visit then you’d better start walking because we’re not going home. We’re going to the beach.”
That upsets Mr. Briggs as he thought he could take control of this trip but with that response he isn’t impressed as we see in scene 32 when the party arrives at the beach Mr. Briggs goes to ‘sulk’ on a rock alone.
“Briggs sits on a rock away from the main group.”
That is when Mr. Briggs attitude changes.
Throughout the play Reilly has been hinting to Susan that he fancies her and that he is more of a man than Colin and in scene 34 Susan puts him to the test.
“ Susan continues to walk slowly, provocatively, determinedly, towards him. As Susan stares straight at him, Reilly smiles bravely. Reilly’s smile gradually disappears as she gets closer. She steps straight up to him-almost against him. Reilly looks anywhere but at her.” This gives Mr. Briggs the fuel he needs and when they discover that Carol has disappeared Mr. Briggs turns against them.
“And you listen sonny. Don’t try telling me a word because you haven’t earnt the right. Don’t worry, when we get back to school, your number’s up. As well as hers (He motions to Mrs. Kay) And you ( to Susan), I saw what was going on back there between you and Reilly. When we get back, I’ll have the lot of you!”
That speech shows Mr. Briggs true colours and from that we can tell that he isn’t joking. This brings a lot of tension to scene 35.
In scene 32 the trip arrives at the beach and Mrs. Kay is walking around with Carol. Carol is a pathetic girl who has, by the way she speaks, obviously had a neglected child hood. Carol doesn’t like it in Liverpool and keeps asking the question
“When do we have’t go home?”
“ I don’t wanna go home. I wanna stay here:”
Just when they are about ready to go back to Liverpool Mrs. Kay notices that Carol is missing
“Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Carol. She went to look for you”
“we haven’t seen her.”
Mr. Briggs steps in and goes to find her with the other teachers. Carol is discovered by Mr. Briggs on top of the cliff which immediately adds tension with the name of the scene-the cliff- as a cliff is seen as a very dangerous place and one slip and you could fall and die.
Scene 35 starts with a very dramatic stage direction which adds to the tension before either one of them speaks.
“Below the cliff-top, the sea is breaking on rocks in a cave mouth. In the distance, Mrs. Kay is shouting ‘Carol, Carol’, and Colin is searching the far end of the beach.”
The stage direction then gives us a feeling of tranquility:
“Carol is standing on the top of the cliff watching the waves below. She looks out over the sea. Alone on the cliff-top, she is at peace with the warm sun and a small breeze upon her-a fleeting moment of tranquility.”
Mr. Briggs breaks this silence and, of course, makes the situation worse.
Carol Chandler is a pathetic girl who, from the way she speaks, has had a neglected child hood. She is very sad and doesn’t want to go home. She changes a lot in this scene. Mr. Briggs is ignored by Carol for most of the scene.
“Who gave you permission to come up here?”
Carol dismisses him, as it says in the stage direction, and answers him with
“No one!”
And then completely ignores him. This is the first stage of development that Carol goes through as she changes from poor pathetic Carol to a Carol who stands her ground and doesn’t care if it is Mr. Briggs she is talking to. Mr. Briggs also goes through stages of development in this scene. Mr. Briggs begins with the teacher role in which he will stop her by shouting, if only it was that simple.
“Just get yourself moving and let’s get down to the beach.”
Carol dismisses him a few more times until Mr. Briggs reaches a second phase in his development into the negotiator:
“Just what are you trying to do to me?”
After she dismisses him again with the line
“I wanna stay here. Where it’s nice.”
Mr. Briggs replies with the original line
“Stay here? How could you stay here? What would you do? Where would you live?”
Carol then adds more tension by telling Mr. Briggs that he doesn’t care, which of course is true in one aspect but in another aspect he does.
“What do you worry for, eh? Eh? You don’t care, do y’? Do y’?”
“What? About you? Listen … if I didn’t care, why am I here, now, trying to stop you doing something stupid.”
Carol can tell that at first he is only there to make sure nothing happens so that the school doesn’t look bad. Mr. Briggs is thinking this but comes round to Carol and starts to really worry.
“Look… Carol … you’re talking as though you’ve given up on life already. You sound as though life for you is ending, instead of beginning. Now why can’t, I mean, if it’s what you want, what’s to stop you working hard at school from now on, getting a good job and then moving out here when you’re old enough? Eh?”
Which Carol knows won’t happen and as it says in the book
“She turns slowly to face him with a look of contempt. Don’t be friggin’ stupid.”
Which is her way of saying ‘do you think I’m thick enough to believe that?’ This is another stage of development for Carol as she stands up to Mr. Briggs rather than just ignoring him. Carol then moves closer to the edge but Mr. Briggs is unable to do anything. We know this by the stage directions. Carol then reaches her final stage of development when she says
“Sir, sir, y’ know if you’d been my old feller, I woulda been all right, wouldn’t I?”
Which tells us that she knows that if she'd had the right parents she would have been alright. That changes Mr. Briggs once more and he decides that he will not tell anyone back at school what she did. That lets the tension drop but it is soon built up again with the final stage direction of that scene:
“She turn and looks down at the drop then back at Briggs’s outstretched arm. Carol lifts her hand to his. She slips. Briggs grabs out quickly and manages to pull her to him. Briggs wraps his arms around you her.”
Mr. Briggs then decides to take the trip to the fair.
The language in this scene makes a real difference as it helped to create and build up the tension as well as let it drop.
Scene 35 is very important and the language as well as the setting brings a great amount of tension to the play.
To conclude I feel that without the scene the play would be an anti climax which would have no point. Willy Russell writes this part of the play excellently and helps us to understand that this is important for us to get to know the real Carol Chandler. If it had happened earlier on in the play it wouldn’t have hade the same effect.