Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell

Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers is a story of a pair of twins who are separated at birth. They are brought up in totally different ways and this is shown through the characters register, body language and reactions to each other. They story is told by various methods such as the use of an interventionist narrator and soliloquy in the form of songs by the characters. In this essay I intend to analyse various techniques and themes which help establish this play to the succesful status it has attained. The Play is written by Willie Russell. Willie Russell was born just outside Liverpool in Whiston, 1947. After leaving school with one English
O-level, he then went on became a ladies hairdresser. In his spare time he would write comical songs but would never sing them in public until one night at his local pub, his friend put him up to sing, and for the first time sang a song he wrote about the 'Kirkby Estate' where he had his audience in 'gales of laughter'.

'Blood Brothers' is set at a crucial time in British history. It is set in Liverpool in the early 1980s at a time when many of the working class were being replaced by machines as it was cheaper. The educated people, though were hardly affected. We see Mrs Johnston a hard-working woman, pregnant, alone with seven children and struggling to pay her debts. Then we see her 'bright and breezy', middle class employer Mrs Lyons. At first glance both women seem different, but they both share similar difficulties.
They both are mostly alone and have been abandoned by their husbands. Mrs
Johnston's husband totally abandoned her when the pressure was too much,

'me husband walked out on me'.

Mrs Lyons has not been totally abandoned by her husband, yet he is always away for long...

... middle of paper ...

...new clothes like Edward who is from the richer middle class. At the beginning Edward is wearing clean shoes, long socks pulled up to his knee. His jumper is well fitted and neat. When they get older Edward wears a university fashion scarf to show that he has had a high education. However Mickey wears a parker jacket that looks thin which shows that he needs warmth. In my opinion I think that Willy Russell’s main intention was by the end of the play was to show the difference in social class. That no matter how similar you are, if you are brought up in separate classes you can be worlds apart. I also think that Willy Russell is trying to get a moral across that brothers and family are always meant to be together. That if they are separated they will always find each other because how close they are in blood relation and that they are never meant to be separated.