Themes used in 'Blood Brothers'

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Dan Crofts

Blood Brothers Essay

Blood Brothers is a hugely popular play and musical written by the well-known author of Educating Rita, Willy Russell. It is fast moving and perceptive, entertaining and thought-provoking, funny yet ultimately tragic. It tells the tale of twin brothers who are born into a large working-class family and what happens when their mother decides to have one of them adopted. Blood Brothers looks at the differences and conflicts of their upbringings, their relationships with each other and with their real and adopted mothers. The play is set in Liverpool, 1962 and continues for around 20 years. Mrs Johnstone and her family live in a poor part of Liverpool in contrast Mr and Mrs Lyons lives a comfortable life in the more comfortable end of town. 

There are many themes used in 'Blood Brothers', the main ones being based on class and superstition. In the country, class effects how people are able to live their lives and the situations they are in. In 'Blood Brothers' Mrs Johnstone lives in a poor end of Liverpool, struggling to bring up eight children on her own and is forced to give one away to keep the others clothed and fed well enough, whereas Mrs Lyons, whom she works for, lives in a large house, very comfortably in a nice part of Liverpool, she wants children but is unable to have any, even though she is rich, unlike Mrs Johnstone.

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Love is a theme, shown by the two women who love their sons but show it in completely different ways, and how Linda’s Close friendship slowly gets replaced with love for Eddie and Mickey. Along with superstition, this is the basis of the whole story and is a theme that continues throughout the whole play, the consequences of most of the happenings can be traced back to superstition. It is also the reason for the tragic end of the play. Superstition also features heavily in some of the songs, the best example of this is the song “Shoes upon the table” that ...

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