How Does Willy Russell Create Tension In Our Day Out

Analyse how Willy Russell builds a sense of drama and tension in the cliff top scene of ‘Our Day Out’

Our Day Out is about a young vulnerable child called Carol, who embarks on an emotional journey. Willie Russell uses a poor, young emotional child to get the audiences sympathy. Using such characters and emotive language he makes the cliff scene dramatic.

Carol is the small confused child and initially comes across as a naïve girl who seems ungrateful for her lifestyle. She always seems to be dreaming big, of owning houses near the beach, but it is slowly revealed that her dreams are resulting from isolation and poverty and deficiency in her education. A quote to proof this will be "miss I don't like it. It's horrible. I just like sitting here with you, looking at the lake". This quote clearly shows how sweet and innocent Carol seemed when the play started. This seems to be very strange, for a young girl to want to sit in one place and keep watching the lake. This shows that her interests are like older people and that she is mature for her age .

Mr Briggs starts off as an unfriendly individual, and comes across as an unpleasant man who doesn't enjoy having fun and does not want the kids to enjoy themselves "Linda Croxley! If
She is seen as a friend to most of the kids, someone they can confide in. "what's the matter, love? Aren't you enjoying it?" this shows that her attitude towards teaching and the kids is more loving, as she is using words such as "love" to refer to the kids. Yet Mr. Briggs was a stuck up teacher, when they went to the castle "well that's a fine attitude isn't it? That's a fine attitude for a member of the teaching profession to have". This quote portrays Mr. Briggs as being a bossy individual that things he can throw his weight around and be expecting people to listen to his