Nature vs. Nurture in Blood Brothers

Nature vs. Nurture in Blood Brothers

As the play goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that Willie

Russell believes that nurture has a lot more to do with the outcome of

someone that nature. He presents this by splitting two twins at birth

and tells of how they were brought up in very different ways, one in a

rich and posh family, Eddie, and one in a big, poor family, Mickey.

He does not go into any detail about how exactly they are brought up,

however, it is quite clear that Eddie has been to a private school and

has had a lot of attention in the first seven years of his life. On

the other hand, Mickey appears to have not received much attention and

would almost definitely have gone to a poor school.

When they meet, the simple fact that they do not realise that they’re

twins, especially when they find out that their birthdays are on the

same day, shows that their physical appearances must have been changed

quite a lot by their parents and environment.

Mickey: “When’s your birthday?”

Eddie: “December 12th”.

Mickey: “So is mine.”

It does not give any specific images of any of their appearances but

you would expect Eddie to have a side parting, clean face and may be

chubbier that Mickey due to a better diet and he would have been more

knowledgeable about hygiene. Mickey would probably be quite a grubby

boy and perhaps not as tall as Eddie but he will probably be stronger

that Eddie because of the amount of time spent outside playing. Eddie

would probably have watched the TV or played on a computer because it

was available to him.

Their language, accent and ability to use language contrasts greatly.

Mickey appears to have a posh accent, or just a lot more posh than

Mickey’s. When they ...

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...a lot

more.

Later on in their lives, Eddie achieves a lot more financially that

Mickey does. This is almost purely due to do with his family because

he takes over the job from his dad. Mickey later finds out that the

job that he has at the moment is only his because Eddie got it for

him, otherwise he would probably be unemployed. However, Mickey is

married and has lot more friends that Eddie. For example when they

are talking in the factory:

Eddie: …..”What’s wrong?”

Mickey: “Look it’s …… its the other lads …. They’re looking”.

Here, Mickey doesn’t want to be seen with Eddie because he’s the boss

and his friends don’t like him talking to him.

Generally, Willy Russell puts over his views about the nature/nurture

debate very clearly. Mickey has a poor upbringing and becomes poor

whereas Eddie has a good upbringing and becomes very successful.