Yosser’s Story In Yosser’s story from Boys from the Black Stuff, our first impressions of Yosser are that he is an ill minded and crazy man. This is due to the loss of his job and his failed marriage. As the play moves on, our views on Yosser change as we develop to see the more sensitive side of him as he shows all his affection for his three children. Yosser cares very much for his children that he would do anything for them in order to make them happy. Scene two starts with Yosser’s dream. In this dream Yosser and his three children begin to walk into a lake. One by one Yosser begins to lose all of his children, and desperately trying to save them but to no success. All the people who he use like know like, Loggo, George, Maureen and Chrissie are all in boats on the lake rowing past Yosser. He is desperately shouting at them asking to help but they just carry on rowing past. This dream shows us that Yosser has a great fear of loosing his children and he knows that no one can help him if he does. Scene eight is where Yosser and his three children are sitting in a park watching what looks like a very happy family playing together in a playground. Yosser finds this very frustrating as he would love to have a happy family and just have a happy lifestyle. Also in this scene the mum and dad from the happy family are showing affection to each other, Yosser would find this annoying as he has lost his partner, Maureen. The contrast between these two families makes us feel sorry for Yosser and his family, because that we realise he cannot be like the happy family. We see one magpie take off from the floor, and then Yosser turns and head butts a tree four times. In scene ten it starts at Moey's flat. Maureen is pleading with Moey to do something about Yosser who is standing outside the flat. We see
The characters address the audience; the fast movement from scene to scene juxtaposing past and present and prevents us from identifying with particular characters, forcing us to assess their points of view; there are few characters who fail to repel us, as they display truly human complexity and fallibility. That fallibility is usually associated with greed and a ruthless disregard for the needs of others. Emotional needs are rarely acknowledged by those most concerned with taking what they maintain is theirs, and this confusion of feeling and finance contributes to the play's ultimate bleak mood.
the play. It looks at the person he is and the person he becomes. It
it is with his death that we know the play to be a tragedy. He is one
The scenes, which cover thirty years of the characters’ lives from eight to thirty-eight, each revolve around an injury that Doug has acquired through his accident prone life. The play progresses in five year intervals, jumping backwards and forwards, in a nonlinear progression. As they travel and run into each other’s lives, the two characters face new injuries. As the play progresses every five years, a new injury is added to one or both characters. Their lives intersect through these injuries, leading them to compare their wounds, both physical (Doug) and emotional (Kayleen), and drawing them closer together. With each new scene, old injuries and problems may have gotten better or resolved, but some became permanent. Yet, through these experiences, they are bonded together through bloodstains, cuts, and bandages.
his own life how he wishes, even if it will damage health or lead to
he often lets the family down. There are many flashbacks in the novel to the time
and adding his father’s death at the end of the play completely ended any hope for sanity to
faced with his own demise, grasps at any concept of freedom and safety to help him cope
...accepts his wife’s life of royalty, and assimilates into an unfamiliar family, ending his journey.
His position in life can be regarded as symbolic of every black male struggling to provide for his family by any means necessary. Although Walter has a job, it seems inadequate for his survival. As a result, he has become frustrated and lacks good judgement. Throughout this play, Walter searches for the key ingredient that will make his life blissful. His frustrations stem from him not being able to act as a man and provide for his family and grasp hold of his ideals to watch them manifest into a positive situation.
changing attitudes toward life and the other characters in the play, particularly the women; and his reflection on the
... from Asgaurd due to his arrogance and immaturity. He has realizations; he changes from arrogant, capricious, and boastful to a mature leader which leads to him returning home to Asgaurd.
...He no longer practiced medicine and he was not helping Nicole get any better. His drinking went on to cause him further unhappiness by making things with Nicole even worse, and was the reason that he lost both his social standing and his career.
The main theme expressed in the play is change and the characters' inability to cope with this. Like many working-class people from this time the characters in the play are fairly uneducated and because of this, they do not have an understanding of the growing old process, they cling onto what they know best, which is youth and this brings about their downfall. Olive is the classic dreamer. She is thirty-nine but still continues to live as though she's a teenager. She has extremely strong ideals, which she refuses to let go of. She wants excitement; she wants "five months of heaven every year." She doesn't want the monotony and responsibility of married life. Roo and Barney, who once were fit young men, come down from the lay-off this year, dragging their ever-increasing age with them. Roo is not as fit and healthy as he used to be - he has a bad back - his pride also holds him back from realizing that he is getting older and that life is changing for him. Time is catching up with Barney as well and he is no longer the epitome of male prowess that he believed he once was. Underneath the smiling, joking façade he really is a fairly pathetic man who doesn't truly understand what is happ...
to the suicide of a girl called Eva Smith and how everyone in the play