Blood brothers
Themes: the contextual
Characters:
Mrs Johnstone: A loving
mother who must give
away a child because of
poverty. She wants the
best for her children but
doesn’t have much to
offer.
Mrs Lyons: a rich woman
who gets Mrs johnstone’s
baby. Her guilt leads to
her ill mental health.
Mickey: loving but very
protective. He is seen as
an immature boy at the
start but matures as he
grows up.
Eddie: He was given away
as a baby to the rich Mrs
Lyons and lived a good
childhood (apart from his
loneliness). He gets to go
to a private school and
university; he inherits his
father’s company.
Events:
1.mrs johnstone starts work
as a cleaner for mrs lyons
2. mrs johnstone becomes
pregnant with twins and gives
her child to mrs Lyons
3. The boys get older and
meet each other. They
become blood brothers.
4. Eddie and mickey move to
the country.
5. the boys fall in love with
Linda. Eddie goes away to uni
and when he gets back he
finds out that mickey and
linda are married and with
child.
6. mickey gets a job and a
house thanks to eddie (but he
doesn’t realise that)
7. Both the boys are shot by
mrs lyons as mrs johnstone
told them they were twins.
information:
Superstition -Mrs
Johnstone is 1980s Liverpool:
superstitious which unemployment
leads to her being reached 25%
manipulated by Mrs
At the time of the play
Lyons
factories were closing
Class divide (hierarchy)- so many people were
we see the difference of on the dole (like
life between eddie and Sammy, mickey’s older
mickey brother)
Friendship- the There was a lot of
connection between the poverty and
two boys redundancy. There was
under-achievement at
Nature vs nurture- your school as many poorer
DNA versus how you are families were not
raised passing the 11 +
Family- the two Lower class families
protagonists family life lived in council houses
Growing up- the boys which didn’t have
getting older and having much luxury and were
a very different lifestyle quite small
There were many
strikes because of jobs.
The government was
conservative. There
was also a divide in
schooling as higher-
class children went to
better schools
 Willy Russell wants the audience to feel sad by the ending so that they will go and think about it. He
uses the technique of checkovs gun- If a gun is introduced throughout the play it must lead to later on
in the narrative ( In blood brothers a gun is introduced from the very beginning and used as the murder
weapon at the end) he wanted the character to think about the ending and how different their lives
could’ve been if the boys weren’t told or weren’t separated. He wanted the audience to feel the pain of
the characters in different scenes and feel the warmth and happiness in other scenes

Quotes

Mickey: “you’re dead,mam.”- showing violence and foreshadowing “Is that our new house there mam”- they’re moving
to a council house in the country “since you left I’ve been walking around all day, every day, looking for a job”- mickey
lost his job while eddie was at uni

Eddie: “I haven’t been to so many parties in my life”- eddie is away partying at university while mickey is worrying
about money “Don’t you know what a dictionary is?”- eddie lives a different life to mickey “me? oh ,yes, of course”
eddie lies about having a girlfriend to fit in with mickey

Mrs Johnstone (the mother): “you never put new shoes on a table”- the mother is superstitious “the corporation don’t
build houses like that”- Mrs Johnstone has to depend on the corporation for housing “mickey…don’t. He’s your
brother!” – the mother tells the boys they are twins.

Mrs Lyons: “they say that if either twin learns he was once a pair they shall both die immediately!”- Mrs Lyons
manipulates the mother “she’s following…”- Mrs Lyons gets mentally ill “you told them. I knew you would. You’re a
witch. But you see it didn’t come true. I’ll still have Edward.”- the end scene where Mrs Lyons is about to kill both the
boys