soical class in the book blood brothers

How does Willy Russell present the theme of social class in the play Blood Brothers? “And do we blame superstition for what has came to pass? or could It be we, the English, have come to know as class?”. Willy Russell successfully expresses the unfair treatment and inequality of social class by using the families in “Blood Brothers” The social divide in the play "Blood Brothers" from Willy Russell links into social class. It all starts with the differences between Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons. Mrs Johnstone is working class and works as a cleaner for the middle class family the Lyons. The play shows how class can change a whole life. Mickey first realises how important class is when Eddie says “I go to university tomorrow." Russell uses a variety of techniques like dramatic irony to foreshadow the events and much more to establish social conflict.
From the very first scene of the play, Russell implies “a mother so cruel” is responsible for the death of the Johnstone brothers. When we hear that “she has a stone in place of the heart” she is portrayed that she is emotionless and cold hearted. However, later on we learn that Mrs Jonhstone loves each child equally, “I’ll even love these two when they come along”. This implies to us that she only gave one of her children away for him to have a better, for filling life then “he wouldn’t have to worry about where his next meal would be coming from”. The reader can see that Mrs Johnstone never had cruelness nor was she heartless or unloving but she was just trying to do the best for herself and her family. The whole play is based on tragedy and empathies. It starts with Mrs Johnstone being forced to give one of her babies away, only because otherwise the government would take them. The point that Mrs Johnstone has to give one of her children away makes the audience feel sympathy for her. Also that she is a single parent and has to feed a lot of children without much money available.
Throughout the play there is a narrator, who foreshadows the tragic death of the two blood Brothers, Mickey and Eddie. The milkman, the catalogue man are all roles set up for the narrator, who always warns and looking over Mrs Johnstone. "The Devil's got your number" is a frightening quote, because it is a major quote in the whole act and foreshadows something bad.
In the end, they find out all the differences and similarities of their life, such as the differences in their social classes, and then when Mickey finds out that Eddie was always his real Blood Brother. Mickey wishes that "he could have been Edward", as his life would have been different. The death of the two brothers has always been flash forwarded throughout the whole play "If they ever find out, they will die!" devastated
The lyrics of the songs in the play, makes the entire play seem like a never ending flow of words. Thes structure of the songs are cyclical, it’s a never ending battle against the differences of social class. The play both starts and finished with the song, “tell me it’s not true”, this portrays to me the death of Mickey and Eddie. This also implies that both families want a fresh start and they wanted things to be different, not be the way they are now.
One of Russell’s aims is to show that there are disadvantages of being working class such as less opportunities, no money for food, clothes or toys and the lack of education. The social divide in classes is underlined by several factors. Firstly, the location of the two houses of the brothers, Eddie is not allowed to go "down" to Mickey's area. The use of the word “down” implies that Mrs Lyons and her family are higher and too good for anyone that is below them. Secondly, the language the two boys talk in, Mickey speaks more slang and informal language “cus me mam says” and “I might do but I’m not playing now ‘cos I’m pissed off”. Whilst Eddie speaks more Standard English and a bit more formal “pissed off? You say some smashing things don’t you?”.
The education plays a very big role in this play. Russell expresses that your social class and your placement in society is judged, for example when Mickey questions Edward, “In the what” referring to the dictionary. This provides us with a display of how Mickey’s upbringing and social division limits him from certain aspects of middle class. What is shocking but not surprising is that Mickey does not know what a dictionary is. This is because Eddie has better equipment for learning than Mickey, as Mrs Lyons can afford privileges like dictionaries for Eddie to learn from.
The attitudes towards both families are hugely different, this is shown when Eddie, Mickey and Linda get in trouble with the police. The policeman’s response to Mrs Johnstone is treated with very little respect, it is like he was looking down on them as they are in debt and cannot afford many new things. Due to being working class they get treated unfairly by the policeman as he issues her with treats and warnings “there’ll be no more bloody warnings from now on. Either you keep them in order, missis, or it’ll be the courts for you, or worse, won’t it”?. The policeman treats Mrs Johnstone very differently to Mrs Lyons, “and he was about to commit a serious crime, love”. The use of the word “love” implies he is being patronising towards Mrs Johnstone. As the Lyons are middle class they get treated with more respect, this is shown when the narrator says “the policeman has removed his helmet and holds a glass of scotch” this implies to us that he thinks of them as being equal. He uses humor towards Mrs Lyons “he’s a good lad, aren’t you Adolph?” this tells us that the policeman thinks of them as being friends and he doesn’t have to be as strict on the Lyons as he was on the Johnston’s. Another reason the reader may think that the policeman treats them with more respect is because he only gives advice and not threats, “I’m not sure I’d let him mix with the likes of them in the future”. The word “them” represents that they think they are better than the working class, that they are worth more and are better people.
Russell portrays working class people as more down to earth and more understanding about things, this is shown when Sammy burns the school down “but it’s very easily done. If they let silly gets play with magnesium”. Russell then portrays middle class people as more cold-hearted, this is shown when Mrs Johnstone asks if she could still see the child everyday if she went through with it, Mrs Lyons then agreed. However after she had took Eddie home, she made a decision to stop Mrs Johnstone from coming round “we both think it would be easier if you left”. Russell represents middle class people as manipulative as she reminds Mrs Jonhstone that she has done a bad thing, and if anyone finds out she will suffer the consequences of losing her children, by being locked up.
Middle class people are thought of as being well educated where working class are not. This could be frown upon also could be wrongly judged, I think this as people have labelled working class people as lower than middle class when they should be treated as equals and more fairly in the society to get the same amount of opportunities.