What makes this show so brilliant is that there are very few main characters. There are the two brothers, Mickey and Eddie, Linda, The Mother and Mrs. Lyons all of which where partly responsible for the deaths in Blood Brothers. However you have to think between the lines when deciding who really was most to blame.
The most miniscule characters even can be responsible for some goings on in the play, Sammy who was known as Mickey’s brother, doesn’t actually say a line throughout the entire play but he told Mickey that he saw Linda with Eddie. Mickey, Linda’s husband, who obviously gets jealous, has an argument with her and finds out that the only reason he has the job and a house is because Eddie made it happen for him. He goes to find Eddie. I don’t think that the audience will blame Sammy for the death of the twins, as you don’t actually get to meet him, he is just an unknown character.
This links in with why Eddie is partly responsible, he aggravates Mickey. He starts to annoy Mickey when he comes back from university. When Eddie asks him what is wrong he replies “You. You’re a dick head.” We realise that he is jealous of the rich life style he leads; Eddie claims that they are blood brothers. Mickey tells him to piss off because it is kids stuff. Eddie makes it worse by getting him a job that he thinks he gets himself, and gives Linda a house but Mickey doesn’t know it’s because of him. When he finds all this out he is fuming. The audience will see that Eddie has irritated Mickey; they might think this was the root of the problem. They will definitely think that he is partly responsible when watching the play.
Linda also has a part to play in the killings of the Mickey and Eddie. Being Mickey’s wife she swore to honour him. She met with Eddie and went behind his back to get him a job and a house. She knew that Eddie fancied her but still went to meet with him to get out of the house. I don’t blame her but when Mickey found out you could imagine how upset he was. Even though I think she is partly to blame for it, I feel the audience will forget the reason why Mickey has gone mad, because there will be so much suspense and they will be on the edge of their seat.
He went and found Eddie, and warned him with a gun. Though this was not why Eddie died. The gun was actually a fake gun. The Mother rushed in and before Mickey could declare it wasn’t a real gun, she told them that they are brothers. Mrs. Lyons comes in. We were told that she has gone mental earlier on in the play. She rushes in, mumbling, “You told them, I knew you would. I’ll still have Edward.” She then points her gun at Mickey but Eddie jumps in the way and gets shot. The next bullet she fires hits Mickey and they are both dead.
Mickey’s anger could be seen by the audience the only reason why this scene happened. His jealousy was so great that it made him react so badly as to even want to kill Eddie. The audience would definitely feel he had a contribution as why him and his brother were murdered
The most obvious person to blame for it is Mrs. Lyons. She was the one that went insane and shot Eddie and Mickey. Not only this, she persuaded The Mother to separate the babies at birth and made up the superstition that started it all “That if either twin learns he was one of a pair they shall both die immediately!” It is a coincidence that she made up the superstition to scare The Mother but in the end she is the one that believes it and goes senile thinking about it. This is what I think lead to the death of the blood brothers.
There is one more character we could blame for the deceases in “Blood Brothers”, that is The Mother. One of the main parts in the play but never actually named. We are introduced to her by the narrator calls her “that woman, with a stone in place of a heart?” This tells me that Willy Russell is implying that she is the reason for their deaths. Although, he is actually asking a question, I think the audience will feel that The Mother is actually a caring mother that does the best for her children. She is only responsible as she tells them that they are both brothers, resulting in Mrs. Lyons reacting to murdering them. There are other things to take into consideration like how Linda actually rang The Mother and Mrs. Lyons and that is why they were actually there.
I think that if we go back to the beginning of the play, the first thing that resulting into this event taking place is Mrs. Lyons making up the superstition in the first place. If we go to the other extreme and see the last thing resulting into the loss of the brothers is that Mrs. Lyons actually shooting them, she was the murderer. That is why I think Mrs. Lyons is most to blame.
The audience reactions will be the same as mine; they will feel strongly about Mrs. Lyons being the real murderer as the event that most sticks out in watching the play is the last ten seconds where she pulls out her weapon and fires two bullets, one at Eddie and the other at Mickey. This is why the audience blames her most for the deaths in “Blood Brothers”
