Comparison Of Deaths Of Mickey And Edward In Willy Russell's Blood Brothers

Deaths of Mickey and Edward in Willy Russell's Blood Brothers

"And do we blame superstition for what came to pass? Or could it be what we, the English, have came to know as class?"

Blood Brothers is a play set in Liverpool, Willy Russell wrote it in

1983. Willy Russell has wrote plays based in Liverpool because this is where he was brought up as a kid in a working class family, Blood

Brothers relates to this and aspects of class that he would have experienced when he lived there. Willy Russell grew up just outside

Liverpool, he left school when he was only 15 to become a hairdresser, it was in his early twenties when he decided to go back to school and take his O levels. His plays were about everyday circumstances and his

The main sources of superstition revolve around Mrs Johnstone because she is the character who believes that when certain things happen consequences will unfold due to this. Willy Russell points these superstitious events out to the audience, by using one of the characters to mention this or a song will be used to show something superstitious happening. At these stages in the play he is already asking the audience whether they believe in superstition.

The first incidence of superstition comes at the beginning after the opening song; this is when the audience finds out that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious and that superstition may appear later in the play.

Mrs Lyons enters Mrs Johnstone's house and then there is a stage direction saying that Mrs Lyons puts her new shoes on the table, Mrs

Johnstone replies to this angrily "Jesus Christ, Mrs Lyons, what are y' trying to do?" At the bottom of the page where this happens the narrator says "There's shoes upon the table an' a joker in the pack, the salts been spilled and the looking glass cracked, there's one lone magpie overhead." The narrator is giving us examples of superstitions.

Here he is trying to hint that something bad is going follow

Mrs Lyons threatens Mrs Johnstone in the one way that she thinks Mrs Johnstone will never let out this secret because she knows that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious after the shoes were placed on the table. Mrs Lyons says, "They say…they say that if either twin learns that he was once a pair, they shall both immediately die." Even though this superstition is made up the consequences of it are true and the narrator asks the title question to the audience because they already know that the twins will die from the beginning of the play so he is asking them whether they believe this superstition could be responsible for their deaths or whether it could be something else. The question of whether Mrs Lyons is to be blame for creating this superstition could also be asked. The song called "Shoes upon the table" follows this and an atmosphere is created. This will keep the audience waiting to find out how they die so that they can make a judgement on whether superstition is to blame.

These are the two main sources of superstition affecting the outcome of the play and they both affect Mrs Johnstone who is the only character who believes in superstition, she has twins unexpectedly