Why is Yosser so special in Yosser story?

‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ is a play written by Alan Bleasdale set in Liverpool in the early 1980’s. At this time many heavy industries were reducing their workforce and therefore unemployment was rising. The play shows the effect of unemployment on various individuals, in the episode ‘Yosser’s Story’, Yosser Hughes is separated from his wife and he has his three children, after a number of problems he loses his children and begins to have a chain of nervous breakdowns from time to time, he gets beaten up by the police. He pits a window through with George and gets arrested having no home to go to after being evicted, he then escapes from the police and tries to commit suicide in the lake where he dreamt his kids drowning, he fails to commit suicide and get arrested again.

One of the main reasons Yosser is so special is that he faces a huge number of problems, for example: Physiological problems, mental issues, he’s in debt, he is receiving no dole money, he feels as if its him Vs the world and that everyone is out to get him, his house gets repossessed and he is separated from his wife. In Yosser’s Story, Alan Bleasdale uses language for a dramatic and entertaining effect. Yosser’s words and catchphrases give a hint as to how desperate he has become, for example he continually says “giz a job”, this shows how hopeless Yosser has become, he could do simple jobs, but is not being given the chance to and is just being told to go on the dole, when he goes to the dole office it is a really fraught situation when he stares the clerk out, who is actually played by the writer Alan Bleasdale. Another example of a catchphrase is “ I can do that”, when the bailiffs come to board up his house, he says to one of them “I can do that” again showing he is in a desperate situation for a job to help support his family and keep his house from being repossessed. By this stage in the story he has already lost his children to social services, been beaten up off the police and has now lost his house. Furthermore, another example of a catchphrase is “everybody knows me, everybody notices me, you’ve noticed that. This alternatively shows that Yosser feels he is rather popular and that everyone knows him, although he is a rather lonely person. Everyone will/may have heard of him because they know he is a ‘loony’ and react to him because he is a sort of bully, when he walks into the bar with his kids and sits next to Graeme Souness he says “I’m Yosser Hughes, everybody knows me, everybody notices me, you’ve noticed that, this is another example of Yosser thinking he is very popular.

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While watching the video ‘Yosser’s Storey’, I became aware of the strong visual impact created by Yosser, for example Yosser has very distinctive features, his face is as white as snow, hair as black as coal and eyes as dark as night, he always looks very profound in a way, he is always wearing a suit, his moustache is one of his other main features, this along with his repetitive catchphrases makes Yosser special in Yosser’s Story. When Yosser talks to a number of people he stares at them with his excruciating eyes, which is what makes him so ‘scary’, people don’t buy him a drink or talk to him because they want to, they do it because they have to, they feel that if they were to ignore him he may go a little off it, during his nervous break down after he loses his kids he goes into the psychiatrics office and starts crying whilst saying “take me to where they are, let me be with them, where are they, let me be with them, put me away too”, this shows how desperate and pathetic Yosser has become in general and even more so without his children. Yosser’s trademark besides his catchphrases is his head butt, he head butts everything and anything, his wife even says he hit her and that’s why she left.

Furthermore we can see how special Yosser is when we see how other people react to him. In ‘Jobs for the boys’ for example Chrissie refers to him as being ‘off his cake’ and there are other example; when Yosser walks into the pub and sits next to Graeme Souness he says “ you’re Graeme Souness, the football player, I’m Yosser Hughes, Graeme Souness and his friends stand up and give Yosser a bottle of champagne and then leave, another example of peoples reactions toward Yosser is when two social workers come to his door, when he still had his house that is, he tells them to go away and says “you better come back with an army”, so they do and he gets beaten up by the police and loses his kids.

Another of the ways in which Bleasdale makes Yosser special is by the use of dramatic and linguistic devices, for example, when Yosser repeatedly uses his catchphrases “I’m Yosser Hughes” and “giz a job”, these are uses of linguistic devices. An example of uses for dramatic devices is when the police come to get Yosser out of the way so that social services can take his children it al goes quiet and into slow motion, as they are fighting, Yosser dives on top of one of the police officers and head butts him/her, this is also an example of juxtaposition.

What makes Yosser so special for me is the repetition of his catchphrases “giz a job” and “I can do that”. Another feature which makes Yosser so special is his facial expressions and his distinctive features, the way in which Bleasdale has obviously had a great deal of time taken to prepare and create his image.

Shane Lightfoot

English

Mr. Fowler

11BV-11T2