Shirley Valentine

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The play Shirley Valentine was set in the 80's. The main character is a woman named Shirley Valentine. She is a housewife that lives in Liverpool. She gets married; this marriage turns bad over the years. Shirley seeks a better life and goes to Greece. She has an affair and Joe comes over to speak to Shirley.

My scene is at the end of the play. It is set by the sea, outside Costas's taverna. My extra scene is about Joe speaking to Shirley, explaining that he has changed. Shirley says something that sparks Joe off. Joe gets in a rage, Shirley is angry and storms off. Joe is left crying on the table.

In my extra scenes, the themes from earlier in the play that I am focusing are, 'marriage', 'the grass is greener syndrome' and 'the way in which men communicate'. These are relevant to my scene because the whole scene is about Shirley and Joe's marriage. The theme 'marriage' and 'the way in which men communicate' are demonstrated in the play when Shirley and Joe's marriage starts off as a good marriage where they are both pleasant to each other and Joe is speaking in a admirable way. This is demonstrated in the play when Shirley has a flashback of her early marriage years, when she and Joe are decorating the house and they end up in the bath together. Joe says:

"I love you . . . Shirley Valentine." (16)

This shows that Joe was kind and loving towards Shirley at the beginning of their marriage. This is what Joe is trying to do in my extra scene when he uses words from his early marriage. Joe says:

"You little bugger." (133)&(15)

This shows that Joe is using his head to try to get Shirley to come back. He is using the good times of his marriage to remind Shirley, at first she gets taken in by Joe's deceiving. Shirley says:

"Do you remember when you first called me that." (133)

She says this while laughing, so Joe could be thinking that he has made a good move in mentioning that. He is mistaken because Shirley realises that Joe is just using this as a devious way of trying to get her back. Joe says:

"It could be like that again, couldn't it." Then Shirley says: (133)

"If only it could Joe, if only it could." (133)

This shows that Shirley is letting Joe down by saying that life will never be the same as before.

Over the years of marriage Shirley and Joe's relationship gets to a stage where Joe is the boss and he expects Shirley to do everything he says. This is shown in the scene where Joe wants his steak and chips but Shirley only gives him egg and chips. Joe says:

"Where' my steak?" (38)

This shows that their relationship has changed over the years. I think that this is one of the turning points of the play because it makes Shirley realise that Joe is controlling her life. This is demonstrated in my scene when Joe is being nice to Shirley at the beginning of it, Joe says:

"But Shirley, I've changed as a man and as a husband. I've lasted two weeks without you and I've realised that I've been making you do to much." (133)

This shows that Joe is trying to win Shirley over by telling her that he has realised his faults and he is willing to put them right again, but Shirley does not believe in him fully. Shirley says:
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"It's nice you have realised that Joe, but if I came back with you then I would be put back into the day to day routine that I was in before. If not straight away, then eventually I would." (133)

This shows that Shirley knows Joe well enough to realise that she would be again forced into a routine with Joe setting all of the rules. When Joe finds out that Shirley is definitely not coming back, he goes mad and makes Shirley realise for sure that she doesn't need Joe in her life. Joe says:

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