Blood Brothers Essay
How does Willy Russell use dramatic techniques to portray serious social issues in the play Blood Brothers
At the start of the play The Blood Brothers the Narrator gives us a sneak peak of the end of this musical/gives us a prologue and because of the poetic sentence saying, ‘Till the day they died, when a mother cried, my own two sons lay slain’ it augments the fact that this play is going to end in a tragedy, that it is most likely that someone, presumably one of the main characters is going to die. In the same way, there is also a prologue in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, ‘... A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life...’ this also shows that there is going to be a serious event of the death of someone, this turns the play from a romance to a tragedy. The fact that the lay starts off with a sad song just before the prologue, creates a dismal atmosphere for the spectating audience. Prologue evidently shows that Mrs Johnstone gives away one of her children, hence it results in the audience may be overwhelmed and will consequently question the reason for this and to find out the answer they have to watch the rest of the play. A poor woman, called Mrs Johnstone, takes a job as a housemaid for the Lyons Family, who are a very wealthy family. Mrs Johnstone, who already has several children, finds out that once again she is pregnant, she thinks she only has one child due but as the gynecologist tells her that she is pregnant with twins. She knows that she can't afford to raise them both, and is stressed with the thought of what she is going to do. On the other hand her employer, Mrs Lyons, has been trying to conceive children for a long time with no success and then when Mrs Johnstone tells her, her problem, she deceptively convinces Mrs Johnstone to give up one of her twins. Mrs Johnstone agrees, thinking that she can still raise the child as the maid. Unfortunately, some time after the child is given away, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons get into a disagreement
At the start of the play The Blood Brothers the Narrator gives us a sneak peak of the end of this musical/gives us a prologue and because of the poetic sentence saying, ‘Till the day they died, when a mother cried, my own two sons lay slain’ it augments the fact that this play is going to end in a tragedy, that it is most likely that someone, presumably one of the main characters is going to die. In the same way, there is also a prologue in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, ‘... A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life...’ this also shows that there is going to be a serious event of the death of someone, this turns the play from a romance to a tragedy. The fact that the lay starts off with a sad song just before the prologue, creates a dismal atmosphere for the spectating audience. Prologue evidently shows that Mrs Johnstone gives away one of her children, hence it results in the audience may be overwhelmed and will consequently question the reason for this and to find out the answer they have to watch the rest of the play. A poor woman, called Mrs Johnstone, takes a job as a housemaid for the Lyons Family, who are a very wealthy family. Mrs Johnstone, who already has several children, finds out that once again she is pregnant, she thinks she only has one child due but as the gynecologist tells her that she is pregnant with twins. She knows that she can't afford to raise them both, and is stressed with the thought of what she is going to do. On the other hand her employer, Mrs Lyons, has been trying to conceive children for a long time with no success and then when Mrs Johnstone tells her, her problem, she deceptively convinces Mrs Johnstone to give up one of her twins. Mrs Johnstone agrees, thinking that she can still raise the child as the maid. Unfortunately, some time after the child is given away, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons get into a disagreement