Mrs Johnstone

• Sympathetic character


  She sings a song telling audiences her husband left her for a younger woman when she was 25 because she looks 42

  She explains she has seven children and has another on the way

  Unable to pay bills or feed the children she is still hopeful about her new job

  She struggles to discipline her children yet is loving and warm hearted: “I love the bones of every one of them”
• Vulnerable


  She attempts to fight for her twins but is persuaded by Mrs Lyons threats that the child welfare agency will take her children if you cannot feed them all

  this could suggest Mrs. Johnstone feels threatened by the social care system.

  Mrs Johnstones situation is highlighted as a dilemma with either choice presenting huge challenges.
• Moral and honest

  She refuses the money Mrs Lyon’s attempts to bribe her with

  She admits her weaknesses and flaws easily
• Fatalistic and impulsive 


  She sings a song about living in the “never never”

  She realises that everything she has can be lost very quickly suggesting a sense of powerlessness in her unstable circumstances

  Her superstitious nature is the reason Mrs Lyon’s convinces her to separate the twins and the narrator warns audiences this will not be forgiven

  Although she ignores the superstition at the end of the play the brothers die and the superstition comes true; she is unable to escape her past
• Discrimination against working class mothers

  The narrator acting as a voice of the public judges her as a cruel and heartless for giving up her son

  The policeman tells her he will take her to court if her boys get into anymore trouble

  The towns people celebrate when her family leaves for Skelmersdale