Mrs Johnston Essay
Essay about Mrs Johnstone
In the play Blood Brothers there are many characters. These characters portray different themes. The play was written around the 1960’s-1980’s. Russell wrote this play as he disagreed with the way the society was. He shows the disadvantages of working class women through Mrs Johnstone. In this essay I am going to focus on the character of Mrs Johnstone.
At the start of Act One the narrator makes Mrs Johnstone out to be a bad person. When he says “An’ did y’ never hear of the mother so cruel, there’s a stone in place of her heart” Even before we meet her in person we already judge her as a not very nice character.
Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnstone having seven children along with showing that she is a very maternal character he is also suggesting that she has some religious ruling against the use of contraception.
Throughout the novel Mrs Johnstone is presented with having a hard life. Most of these examples are in Act One. For example when she sings “By the time I was twenty-five, I looked more like forty-two, with seven hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due, me husband he’d walked out on me” From what she sings we understand what a hard life she has. Mrs Johnstone is also subjected to a hard life as she is from a working class background which means she gets very little money to provide for her big family.
Russell presents Mrs Johnstone as having hardly any money. As she is from a working class background her pay isn’t so high. She is debt several times throughout Blood Brothers. We first come to understand this when the milkman appears in act one stating that “You own me three pounds, seventeen and fourpence,” Another way we understand that she has very little money is when we hear one of her kids ask “How come I’m on free dinners?” This shows the reader that her children are cared for by the state which shows her lack of her money. Russell shows Mrs Johnstone explaining the reason for her debt, her explanation is
In the play Blood Brothers there are many characters. These characters portray different themes. The play was written around the 1960’s-1980’s. Russell wrote this play as he disagreed with the way the society was. He shows the disadvantages of working class women through Mrs Johnstone. In this essay I am going to focus on the character of Mrs Johnstone.
At the start of Act One the narrator makes Mrs Johnstone out to be a bad person. When he says “An’ did y’ never hear of the mother so cruel, there’s a stone in place of her heart” Even before we meet her in person we already judge her as a not very nice character.
Willy Russell presents Mrs Johnstone having seven children along with showing that she is a very maternal character he is also suggesting that she has some religious ruling against the use of contraception.
Throughout the novel Mrs Johnstone is presented with having a hard life. Most of these examples are in Act One. For example when she sings “By the time I was twenty-five, I looked more like forty-two, with seven hungry mouths to feed and one more nearly due, me husband he’d walked out on me” From what she sings we understand what a hard life she has. Mrs Johnstone is also subjected to a hard life as she is from a working class background which means she gets very little money to provide for her big family.
Russell presents Mrs Johnstone as having hardly any money. As she is from a working class background her pay isn’t so high. She is debt several times throughout Blood Brothers. We first come to understand this when the milkman appears in act one stating that “You own me three pounds, seventeen and fourpence,” Another way we understand that she has very little money is when we hear one of her kids ask “How come I’m on free dinners?” This shows the reader that her children are cared for by the state which shows her lack of her money. Russell shows Mrs Johnstone explaining the reason for her debt, her explanation is