Jo is also self – centred and cheeky to her mom.
Jo – “drink, drink, drink that’s all your good for.”
This shows that Jo is cheeky to Helen and Jo Wants to be the only thing in her mothers life.
Helen does not listen to Jo.
Jo – “you can afford something better than this old ruin.”
Helen – “when you can start earning, you can stat moaning.”
Jo has no understanding of how much things cost and has high expectations.
Helen and Jo are poor.
Helen – “when I find somewhere for us to live I have to consider something far more important than your feelings……….the rent. It’s all I can afford.”
This shows that Helen does not care what Jo thinks as long as they have somewhere to live.
Helen and Jo are bickering with each other regularly.
Jo – “where are they?”
Helen – “I don’t know.”
Jo – “you packed them.”
In those days youth were finding money, this results in job increase.
Helen – “are you still set on leaving school at Christmas?”
Jo – “yes.”
Helen – “what are you going to do?”
Jo – “get out of your sight as soon as I can get a bit of money in my pocket.”
Jo is saying that she does not want to live with here mom no more, she wants her own place.
Jo is the most dominant character because she argues with her mom and gets her own way.
Jo thinks that she does not have to do what her mom tells her.
Helen – “pass me that bottle it is, in the carriers.”
Jo – “why should I run around after you?”
A possible reason for Jo getting her own way is that Jo has been independent from a young age.
I think the writer of this play Shelagh Delaney was trying to show how the years were moving on e.g. black people being with white people, people finding work at an early age, leaving home at an young age.
By Chris Wilkes