The visual images at the beginning show cartoons images of Shirley doing domestic chores like cooking and cleaning. The 17 cartoon images help establish Shirley’s character. The song be played during the cartoon images is called ‘The girl who used to be used to be free’. The song played helps us know from the beginning, that she has changed to a woman doing domestic chores. This also implies that Shirley has made a terrible change/ mistake in their life and wants to have her freedom back and go back to living how she used to be before they made this mistake. Shirley is presented at the beginning of the film wearing a baggy jumper and long skirt returning from shopping in a dull cloudy day. The first interior scene is of a normal house Shirley entering the kitchen and saying “hello wall”. This would surprise the audience because she is talking to the wall. The first exterior scene is out side a dull cloudy day and the street is quiet. This will show the audience that it is always quiet (there is no children or barking) and the whether is always dark and dull. Therefore, from the start we can tell that Shirley’s life is boring and depressing.
One of the main techniques used by Russell is flashbacks let us see an insight into Shirley Valentine. The flashbacks help us understand why Shirley is dissatisfied with her life. The flashbacks help us by showing recent events of her life. They help us understand how she has changed by seen clips of her recent events, from misbehaving and disrespecting before to becoming married to Joe and being a housewife. It makes things easier to understand, for example her relationship with Joe used to be romantic and loving now there is no more of that. The Flashback shows they used to kiss and be romantic. This reveals Shirley’s romantic side which you would not guess at. This flashback reveals how the marriage changed and how Shirley is tenser and bored with her life .The flashback of her school days shows her bullying Marjorie. This reveals the reaction he had when first seeing Marjorie again. This explains Shirley’s reaction and also tells us what Shirley use to get up to in her school days, a big bully disobeying the school rules. You wouldn’t have thought of it Shirley misbehaving, not paying attention in class and bullying a student .The flashback, when arriving to the Greece airport. This flashback shows Jane’s betrayal for not doing what they planned and running of with a man.
Shirley’s encounters with minor characters reveal and twist for the audience. In Liverpool she never really met new or different people so when talking to the tourists in Greece she is saying rude things towards them in her voice overs. Russell’s use of minor characters mainly comes into the play in Greece. Shirley dislikes the way holidaymakers are talking about the Greeks; this is probably because she is angry at them for “saving” her from loneliness. The way she just steps up and says, who made the wheel and Jacuzzi. This is from school and it is from her anger towards the holidaymakers. The minor characters show the humour in Shirley. The humour side also reveals Shirley’s thoughts as well as the laughter. The encounters in Greece show that Shirley is becoming more confident and more like she used to be.
Dramatic monologue helps the audience understand Shirley by talking to the audience personally. The audience understand what Shirley is feeling and helps us with what going on in the play; you can describe her as her own narrator. For example in Scene Two where Shirley tells the audience “it’s Thursday it has to be steak”, this is updating us with what she is doing .The way she says it also shows us how she feels about it. Scene 58, when she tells us that the ‘rock’ is her new friend, this makes it seem like her regular updates through the film. The voice overs help the audience to see Shirley in a different perspective; it slows the pace of the film. Voice overs seem to sound she is talking to us when so when talking the audience hear the change when she says them to us. The main effect of voice overs how ever is to reveal Shirley’s true thoughts and to get the audience on her side.
The setting in Liverpool is dull and boring in comparison to the setting in Greece which is colourful and more cheerful. The weather change defiantly changes Shirley in terms of clothes, from wearing baggy jumpers and long skirts to wearing a bikini. The camera shots in Liverpool were close up shots that help us understand Shirley’s facial features and in Greece it is more focused on the surrounding. The setting in Greece in more exterior shots from Liverpool’s interior shots this has shown us that Shirley does go out and does not stay in one place. Therefore we can see that the difference in cinematography also reflect the changes in Shirley. Whereas she was bored, depressed and lonely in Liverpool, now she has become confident, joyful and relaxed.
The play is divided into scenes; every new scene the setting changes or even if there is a flashback the scene. A flashback as a separate scene helps the audience read it easier and clearly. The division helps the audience as they think as if they are with Shirley through the changes. The way Russell has added the flashbacks helps the audience in understanding how she used to be and how she has become. Like when Shirley was talking about the wheel to the holidaymakers, this helped us know where she got this information from. Russell’s use of dramatic techniques helps the audience understand Shirley when she is leaving Joe. Russell putting the argument with Joe straight after the conversation with Marjorie helps the audience see the change in Shirley. Russell puts the argument with Joe, which is tense right after the fun and laughter with Marjorie this empathies the audience and puts them in Shirley shoes.
My final impression of Shirley is a changed, a Shirley who would happy and a think that the change to Greece has helped her to see more of the world. She and Joe will more like they were at the beginning of there marriage. Shirley’s character at the end opposite to her character because she is more confident and telling Joe who she is. By the end of the play she discovered her true self by being ready to met Joe again.
The dramatic techniques help us to understand Shirley’s transformations, because they show us her recent events and what she used to be like in the past. The flashbacks helps the audience know what she used to be like. Without the flashbacks I would have thought that she was always like this but the flashbacks helped me understand more clearly. Shirley has transformed from a misbehaving child to a middle aged housewife doing domestic chores to a loving wife to her husband. Without the transformation the audience would not even really understood Shirley’s character as well as do now. We can notice the transformation, because in Greece she has freedom and does what she likes, unlike in Liverpool. The dramatic techniques show us the transformation in Shirley, from being a person doing routine chores to becoming a person free and doing what she likes. We know her transformation after her break in Greece and understand that she is know confident and knows what she wants.
