Blood Brothers
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- Created on: 19-09-23 23:06
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- The Context of Blood Brothers
- Marilyn Monroe - an iconic symbol of the mid 20th century
- Comparisons with Marilyn Monroe can form unintentional foreshadowing
- Before 1972 the school leaving age was 15. It was common for working class students to leave school without qualifications.
- Blood Brothers takes place at a time where education was split between selective grammar schools and secondary modern schools.
- Violence has a presence in the working class characters’ lives from a young age. When we first meet Mickey as a seven year old, he has a toy gun and he plays games involving imaginary guns with his friends and neighbours
- One way of defining class is through the ownership of resources and labour.
- The violence escalates as the play progresses, culminating in the tragic death of Mickey and Edward
- Violence reflects a lack of control; when
characters start to lose power in some
way, they become more violent
- Mrs Johnstone is working class: she sells her labour to survive.
- There are several significant references in the play to Marilyn Monroe,
the actress and film star who epitomised glamour and sexuality but
died of a drugs overdose in 1963
- These references to the romance and glamour of Hollywood – and the reality behind it – create a stark comparison between Mrs Johnstone’s romanticised hopes of a Hollywood ending and the reality that she must face
- There are several significant references in the play to Marilyn Monroe,
the actress and film star who epitomised glamour and sexuality but
died of a drugs overdose in 1963
- Mrs Johnstone is working class: she sells her labour to survive.
- Mrs Johnstone is working class: she sells her labour to survive.
- There are several significant references in the play to Marilyn Monroe,
the actress and film star who epitomised glamour and sexuality but
died of a drugs overdose in 1963
- These references to the romance and glamour of Hollywood – and the reality behind it – create a stark comparison between Mrs Johnstone’s romanticised hopes of a Hollywood ending and the reality that she must face
- There are several significant references in the play to Marilyn Monroe,
the actress and film star who epitomised glamour and sexuality but
died of a drugs overdose in 1963
- Their differing levels of wealth and class-privilege give the Lyons and Johnstone families different ideas about what counts as "normal".
- Mrs Lyons is callous in using Mrs Johnstone’s fears against her
- She shows a lack of empathy for the poorer woman and instead is focused on getting what she wants
- The pressure to conform to expectations can lead to destructive behaviour among the middle class characters.
- "There’s a black cat stalking and a woman who’s afraid" suggests superstition
- We see Edward & Mickey evolve from infants, to boys, to teenagers, to young men, and at each point playwright Willy Russell makes sure to show us the unique difficulties and preoccupations of that stage of life.
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