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Blood Brothers: Act One on Social Class.

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Look again at the extract on page 24 starting with “Do you want to come and play?” and ending with “now you say after me: ‘I will always defend my brother’.”
With reference to the ways Russell presents the theme of social class in the extract and elsewhere in the novel in act one, show how far you agree that there is no escape from the effects of social class for the characters in the play.

Willy Russell successfully expresses the unfair treatment and inequality of social class by using the families in “Blood Brothers” as a microcosm of the 1980’s British working class. Russell uses a variety of linguistic techniques and dramatic devices such as: dramatic irony, Greek chorus, the foreshadowing of events and much more to establish …show more content…

Mickey refers to his mother as “me mam” whereas Edward refers to “mummy”, even though these words do not have a great difference we can still see that use of “me mam” is very slang like and is indicative of a poor vocabulary and suggests difficulty of self-expression. Throughout this play there are many events when Mrs.Johnstone loses her voice. When talking to the policeman on page 42, Mrs.Johnstone loses her voice suggesting that metaphorically in the ranking of social class her class has no voice in society and their judgement is unwelcome and this is also shown when she “nods”. This is almost dehumanising those of lower class and classifying them as inferior to those above them. With this is mind Mrs. Lyons is able to dominate Mrs.Johnstone whether it is money or her use of power. In act one Mrs. Lyons repeats the word “please” whilst using a cajoling tone forcing Mrs.Johnstone to capitulate to her wishes reinforces the fact that Mrs. Lyons could ‘buy’ anything she wanted in a sense shows her power, but the mere fact she can buy “a baby” presents her as Mephistopheles like character. Mrs.Johnstone is emblematic of Faust; therefore we can allude to the fact that their “pack” is a Faustian pack. The use of biblical references such as “the bible” denotes to the day of reckoning and how “a debt is a debt”. In the scene where all the children are playing, they sing about how “the whole thing is just a game”. The

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