Willy Russell's Portrayal of Two Families in Blood Brothers

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Willy Russell's Portrayal of Two Families in Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell is set in Liverpool. The play was

first written in the early 1980s and performed to a secondary school

in 1982.

The play is about two twin brothers who were separated at birth.

Mickey stayed with his birth mother, Mrs Johnstone, and Mrs Lyons

picked Edward. Seven years later they meet up and perform a blood

brothers ritual. When they reach the age of 18 Mickey and Linda are

expecting a baby and get married. Edward still likes Linda. Mickey

does a job for Sammy and gets put away for seven years; Edward helps

and gets Mickey a house and job. Mickey and Edward fall out and it

ends with a bloody end.

Willy Russell shows that families are very different by small details

that you cant pick out but know that they are there. You can see the

differences between the two families throughout the play.

From the very beginning of the play we can see that the mothers are

very different. You can really tell that Mrs Johnstone is a working

class lady and she has aged a lot since her first child, people used

to say she looked like Marilyn Monroe, 'they said the bride looked

lovelier than Marilyn Monroe'. Mrs Johnstone has to work hard to feed

all of her seven children, 'It's such a lovely house and it's a

pleasure to clean'. Mrs Johnstone is also in a little bit of debt with

her catalogues and milkman, 'you owe me three pounds, seventeen and

fourpence'. Whereas Mrs Lyons is middle class as she is a cleaner and

does not have to go out earning as her husband supports the family

with his job, 'mummy will read the story, Edward. I've got to go to

work for an hour'. Mrs Lyons doesn't like Edward to go off for too

long as she is scared about what might happen to her precious child,

'I've told you never to go where that boy- where boys like that live.

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