BLOOD BROTHERS

• So did y’hear the story of the johnstone twins, As like each other as two new pins


  Russell utilises narrator as source of alienation throughout play – here, narrator breaks fourth wall by using direct address + reminds audience they are watching a work of fiction

  • Noun ‘story’: Reinforces alienation effect - setting narrative up as a "story" creates fable-like atmosphere, one that will continue throughout play.

  Strengthened by word ‘slain’ to describe twins’ death + serves to remind us that there is a moral message to play = injustices of an unequal society

  • Parallelism ‘two new pins’: Establishes sense of parallelism between Johnstone twins. They are clearly two halves of same whole even though their fates differ vastly + forces audience to consider why this is the case
• An’ did y’ never hear of a mother, so cruel, there’s a stone in place of her heart?’


  metaphor comparing Mrs J’s heart to a ‘stone’ suggests she lacks maternal care + juxtaposes with feminine expectations. This prejudices us against Mrs J before

  meeting her + therefore reflects society’s preconceived ideas about those living in poverty

  • The parenthesis ‘so cruel’ emphasises ‘cruelty’ of Mrs Johnstone

  • Colloquial language + direct address : narrator acts as a gossiping voice of the public to mirror prevalent prejudiced attitudes in society
• Then come, judge for

  yourselves how she

  came to play this part


  “Judge”: The direct address also encourages us to take an

  active role in the play and strengthens the sense of society’s prejudice

  • Language of theatre: Reinforces the idea that we are watching fiction and jolts us out of the spell of theatre –

  encourages us to consider the injustices that these characters represent
• He said my eyes were deep blue pools/ my skin as soft as snow. He told me I was sexier than Marilyn Monroe.’


  Metaphor & simile: objectification of women and shows how easily Mrs J is flattered and therefore taken advantage of. Mrs J appears naive and impressionable and not the ‘cruel’ mother described in the prologue

  • Comparative ‘sexier’ and motif ‘Marilyn Monroe’: objectification of women. MM was an emblem of sexuality and the epitome of Hollywood glamour and womanhood. This creates a contrast between glamour and the harsh

  realities of Mrs Johnstone’s life in poverty, but foreshadows the tragic end
• “By the time I was 25,/ I

  looked like I was 42”

  “He’s feeling 15 years

  older“


  Russell uses premature aging (both physically and emotionally) of Mrs Johnstone + Mickey to highlight destructive impact of poverty

  • For Mrs Johnstone, this helps to create empathy for her by showing how poverty saps her of strength + beauty, juxtaposing Narrator’s encouragement to ‘judge’ her in the opening of play + reminding us how often society judge those who do not fit conventional expectations

  • The repetition of premature aging for Mickey in Act 2 highlights the inescapable cycle of poverty
• Listen, love, I’m up to here with hard-luck

  stories […] I will be forced to cut off your deliveries


  Patronising language ‘love’: Forces Mrs Johnstone to feel inferior to men + establishes male superiority

  • Symbol: ‘milk’ for life’s necessities. Criticises an increasingly unfair society (Thatcher – milk policy)

  • Modal verb ‘will’ + verb ‘forced’: Capitalism drives decisions + is more important than helping a single mother feed her children: lack of empathy for her situation

  • As an omniscient narrator, Narrator takes on minor parts which represent roles in society – these are frequently harsh, unsympathetic male characters: the negative voices of institutions who treat those in poverty unfairly and behave hypocritically
• It’s a pretty house, isn’t it? It’s a pity it’s so big. I’m finding it rather large at present


  Adjective ‘pretty’: reminder of pampered life Mrs Lyons lives as a middle-class woman

  • Metaphor: large, empty house could represent Mrs Lyons’ womb + her inability to have a child + therefore fulfil the expectations of society. Mrs Lyons is

  used as a vehicle to reveal money cannot buy happiness. Despite having finances to purchase a ‘big’ house, she is living a lonely + l unfulfilled existence
• ‘The thought conceived in this very room grew as surely as a seed in a mother’s womb.’

  ‘There’s a pact been sealed, there’s a deal been born


  Imagery linked to growth + pregnancy: Narrator compares development of idea to growth of a child in a woman to show its rapid transformation. It also returns to image of an unborn child, which is the

  motivating force = criticises societal expectations

  • The certainty of idea reveals how money + class can give you leverage to exploit others (particularly Mrs Johnstone who is impressionable and easily influenced. Her superstitious nature makes her vulnerable to

  manipulation
• Silver trays to take meals on.’

  ‘A bike with both wheels on?


  From song ‘My Child’: duets in play are used to represent jealousy for another character’s life: here material goods available to a child growing up in a middle-class home

  • Contrast between material goods highlights financial differences in their families

  • Mrs Lyons can provide financial + material benefits for a child, but not necessarily what is required for a successful and loving upbringing
• Living on the never, never constant as the changing weather, never sure who’s

  at the door, or the price I’ll have to pay’


  Easy Terms: to be close to someone, but also a way of paying a debt back of a long period of time (idiom ‘never, never – live on loans we never pay back)

  • ‘Changing weather’: lack of stability

  • Monetary language: links to her lack of financial security, reminds us her decision was motivated by financial issues + foreshadows consequences of such debt
• Sammy leaps out in front of them, gun in hand

  ‘I got y’/ I shot y’ and you bloody know I did’

  ‘You shot him, You shot him.’/ ‘I know I bloody did


  Sammy associated with gun from beginning: he linked to chaos + destruction + foreshadows later

  events when he says he is ‘going to get a real one soon”

  Kids Game: Here motif of guns reflect the fun + innocence of childhood, where there are no consequences to actions, + you can just ‘cross your fingers’. ‘kids’ don't understand implications of guns, violence or their own mortality. Foreshadows how the Johnstone twins are doomed to a violent death

  Mirrors Kids’ Game from Act 1 – but now motif of guns turn sinister when Sammy uses a gun in the robbery.

  Here, childhood is over, + this moment reflects the impact of normalised violence as a child and the havoc that can be caused by such violence
• “mam” “pissed off”

  “mummy” “smashing things” “super fun”


  Russel highlights importance of education that children receive at home. Age 7, Edward already has educational advantage + boys’ language is used to

  expose differences in social class from young age:

  • Mickey: language informal + full of uncertainty (false starts, imprecise language, elision) . It is full of colloquialisms, slang and swear words (see dictionary quotation)

  • Edward: language formal, + it reflects confidence that a middle-class upbringing affords him. He uses middle class words + speaks in received

  pronunciation
• The dictionary. Don’t you know what a dictionary is?’

  ‘Course I do… It’s a, it’s a thingy, innit?


  Edward ahead of Mickey in terms of education even at 7 years old. is reinforced later in stage directions describing Lyons’ household when Mrs Lyons calls Edward over with ‘storybook’ + Edward ‘leafs’ through a dictionary reflecting his confidence and

  knowledge, whereas Mickey is ignorant to such knowledge
• ‘Y’ know the devil’s got your number / Y’ know he’s gonna find y’’

  ‘price to pay”


  Refrain: of ‘the devil’s got your number’ which is peppered throughout play, reminds us of tragic ending + adds ominous atmosphere of foreboding. He

  foreshadows that past will come back to haunt mothers + consequences of their actions
• He was about to commit a

  serious crime, love”

  It was more of a prank really… I’m not sure I’d let him mix with the likes of them in the future’


  Sequential scenes denounce unfair treatment of diff social classes by those in authority (the Policemen is representative of instructions and forms of authority in society)

  • Confrontational tone: ‘serious crime’ reveals that law + authority is prejudiced against working classes. policeman speaks in a patronising tone towards Mrs Johnstone who is a victim of social prejudice. Mrs Johnstone doesn’t speak, reflecting her powerlessness in face of authority

  • Agreeable demeanour: He is subservient + polite to Mr Lyons and dismisses the event as a ‘prank’ juxtaposing his response to Mrs Johnstone. His advice not to let the classes ‘mix’ exposes how working classes are stigmatised
• Our Sammy burnt the school down/ But it’s very easily done


  Sammy's behaviour spirals + becomes increasingly dangerous + deviant as play progresses

  • Action could be symbolic of his rejection of education & of his anger at social structures which left him

  feeling disenfranchised.

  • Revealing about Mrs Johnston’s attitude towards education: she blames the teachers rather than Sammy
• Our Donna Marie’s already got three/she’s a bit like me that way.’

  ‘Linda’s pregnant.


  Linda’s life mirrors pattern of Mrs Johnstone + Donna Marie + symbolises inescapable cycle of poverty many working class women found themselves in

  • Linda becomes pregnant almost as soon as she + Mickey start dating. may be a result of poor education

  about contraception. At this time, unmarried pregnant women were expected to marry the father of their child as soon as possible. Linda then becomes a housewife
• Talk of Oxbridge.


  Oxbridge’ is a blend of ‘Oxford’ and ‘Cambridge’, two prestigious universities. Statement demonstrates how Oxbridge is a normal conversation topic amongst the rich, highlighting how they can easily access higher education
• a class is in a secondary

  modern school is

  formed-all boredom and

  futility


  Nouns ‘boredom’, ‘futility’: the education afforded to working classes fails to fulfil their and denies them opportunities of their middle-class peers (keen students

  are shut down = ‘shut up Perkins y’borin little turd
• And it will really help me

  to get a job if I know what

  some soddin’ Pygmies in

  Africa have for their

  dinner


  Contrast: Mickey is expected to get a job, highlighting different expectations of the classes: Edward’s home and school education prepare him for university and a career after he graduates
• ‘I curse the day I met you.

  You ruined me’ […]

  ‘Witch”


  Verb ‘curse’ + noun ‘witch’: As the play progresses, Mrs Lyons becomes paranoid as her feelings of powerlessness increase. In a complete reversal, Mrs. Lyons, once so sceptical of superstitious beliefs, now believes that Mrs. Johnstone has supernatural powers, + even attempts a curse of her own. She's become consumed by guilt, fear,

  and paranoia. Here, Russell critiques the pressure placed on women to be mothers, but also to highlight way that middle class respond to a challenge to their power within society, even resorting to criminality if needed
• Who’d tell the girl in the middle of the pair/ The price she’ll pay just for

  being there

  “And who’d dare tell the lambs in Spring, What fate the laterseasons bring”


  audience is repeatedly reminded of tragic outcome that will unfold + Linda’s powerlessness in the face of this

  • Image: of the ‘lamb’ reminds us about the innocence associated with childhood and how the injustice of the

  class system results in the sacrifice of this. Creates a sense of foreboding and foreshadows the death of their friendship and the twins
• Why is a job so

  important? […] tilt my hat

  to the world and say

  ‘screw you’

  ‘I don’t wear a hat that I

  could tilt at the world


  Question: Edward’s question highlights the ignorance of middle classes to the realities of working-class life

  • Metaphor: The ‘hat’ symbolises the privileges that are afforded to the middle classes – Edward is therefore

  carefree & naive. Mickey has not been afforded these advantages and is forced to grow up quickly and take on

  responsibilities. As the boys grow up, the injustices between two classes become more pronounced
• There’s a girl inside the woman / Who’s waiting to get free / She’s washed a

  million dishes / She’s always making tea.


  Metaphor: Narrator sings about Linda’s limited life, trapped to a housewife role with no sign of escape. image of ‘girl inside’ waiting for freedom evokes ideas of entrapment + reminds audience of how imprisoned Linda is in her role as a working-class housewife – Linda is

  desperate to escape

  • Hyperbole: ‘million dishes’ and ‘always’ repeating mundane household tasks like making tea, create the image of a cycle of domestic drudgery. Just like Mickey, her life is repetitive with no hope of change
• And do we blame superstition for what came to pass, or it is what we, the English, have come to know as class


  Direct address & rhetorical question: Narrator asks us to consider causes of tragedy. question forces audience to really think about answer

  • Russell uses alienation effect to provoke social change. narrator acts as our social conscience reminding us of the role that society has played in the tragic events

  • Repeating the word ‘we’ involves the audience directly and makes us question our own roles in society. Despite his frequent mentions of fate + superstition, at the end of play Narrator encourages us to recognise that it was

  class, and not fate, that caused the tragedy that the audience has just witnessed