About the Writer Willy Russell
William Russell was born in Whiston - just outside Liverpool, in 1947.
At primary school he enjoyed reading, football and gardening, these
were the only subjects he likes, but at secondary school he was
consigned to the factory fodder D stream. It was in this surprising
environment that he conceived the idea of being a writer. His only
experience of factory work caused him to fail to obtain a printing
apprenticeship, so his mother suggested he trained to be a women's
hairdresser. He trained and worked as a women's hairdresser for five
years, eventually running his own salon. After this he was seeking a
career that would give him a greater opportunity and understanding of
being a writer. He decided to become a student, having now passed O
level English at night classes. No local education authority would
give him a bursary, so he spent some time girder cleaning at Fords in
order to fund his college O & A level studies. He only did this long
enough so that he could afford the course; he spent no time extra
doing this job as climbing up on dirty, oily girders was a very
dangerous job which many of his colleagues were injured on.
You can see in the play that Russell is commenting on society as
Russell is almost like Rita, she lives near Liverpool with little
education and works in a hairdresser, trying to get the opportunity to
have choice by getting an education. During the play, Russell shows
that the class system is a part of modern society and Rita wants to
change classes, from working to middle, but has little education. She
wants Equal opportunities in that the way that women are expected to
have babies and stay at home all day, but in his play Rita breaks away
from everyone else and gets an education and he shows in the play, how
hard it really is to get an education and all the troubles that
someone of a lower class has to go through to achieve there goals.
I think that Russell wrote this play because he had a hard time in his
own life, and he wanted to express to other people that you need to
have a choice or you will begin to experience a feeling of being
trapped in society. I think that Russell used humour in his play
because it would make the audience watching the play understand the
issues brought up. I think the play runs better as a comedy, with the
humour aspects of the play rather than a more serious drama.
The Stage Techniques Used By Willy Russell To Keep The Audiences Attention In His Play Blood Brothers
perspective in the play. His character is presented as one who is blind to the truth, and
In conclusion, Russell uses many devices to invite his audience to sympathise with Shirley. He relates to the society’s concept on different aspects of people’s life and most of the audiences could relate to situations in the screenplay. Russell’s own life has influenced a lot of things that went on in the play. Russell’s working class background has helped a lot of Shirley’s problems look realistic as he himself had experienced many of these problems that Shirley faced. This has made the text very effective and that really helped gain sympathy from the audience towards Shirley.
Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.
school, due to his father’s lies and influence. Since he could not go to the University of Virginia
the University of Missouri until his father forced him to quit and go to work for his
aims in writing the play was to show his support for the king and that
He just wrote this play as you see it at face value; it could be an
I think Russell is trying to show us about class in the play that the
The three family members are adults at the time of this play, struggling to be individuals, and yet, very enmeshed and codependent with one another. The overbearing and domineering mother, Amanda, spends much of her time reliving the past; her days as a southern belle. She desperately hopes her daughter, Laura, will marry. Laura suffers from an inferiority complex partially due to a minor disability that she perceives as a major one. She has difficulty coping with life outside of the apartment, her cherished glass animal collection, and her Victrola. Tom, Amanda's son, resents his role as provider for the family, yearns to be free from him mother's constant nagging, and longs to pursue his own dreams. A futile attempt is made to match Laura with Jim, an old high school acquaintance and one of Tom's work mates.
lets her son play with Travis and he become hurt and confused. Walter has to
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
...to make opinions and observations about them. It also makes us as readers and viewers think about true love and what it means. I found this play to be incredibly interesting, insightful, and an overall wonderful text to read and analyze.
Robert B. Heilman in “The Role We Give Shakespeare” explores some of the psychological aspects of the play and concludes that it is psychologically “whole”:
of interest to the play making it a great play to read and also act