NATALIE MONTAGUE
ENGLISH
Page 2
BLOOD BROTHERS
“We were born on the same day…That means we can be blood brothers. Do you want to be my blood brother, Eddie?”
“Blood Brothers” is the story of twin brothers born to a working class deserted mother, Mrs Johnston. One twin is called Mickey and one is called Eddie. Mrs Johnston works as a cleaner in Mrs Lyons’ middle class home. Mrs Lyons is barren and longs for a child very much. She suggests keeping one of Mrs Johnston’s twins and raising it as her own as Mrs Johnston doesn’t have the space or money to support another child. When the children are born they are immediately separated.
Despite their mothers’ best efforts, Eddie and Mickey meet again when they are seven and become best friends and ironically “Blood Brothers.” The twins continue to meet coincidently throughout their lives until the differences in their upbringing force the friendship to end. There is, however, a last meeting where all secrets are revealed and both lives end in tragedy.
“Blood Brothers” is set in Liverpool in the 1970’s, a time of recession and high unemployment. Liverpool was greatly affected by this. Willy Russell lived through this time in a working class family which gave him the background knowledge to write about Mickey, the working class twin.
The first scene I am looking at is act 2, scene 2 and this is the first meeting since their separation at birth. The twins are now seven. We as the audience already know that the twins have met previously and the boys’ obliviousness creates tension and interest to this scene as we have had the advantage of witnessing the “adoption.” The differences between the boys creates humour as one is very bright and willing to share his sweets whereas the other is all too eager to accept the sweets as he rarely gets offered them. He is suspicious of the sweets though because whenever he has been given sweets in the past they have been contaminated by his brother, Sammy, in numerous ways. The language spoken by each boy differs because of their upbringings. To refer to their mothers, Mickey uses “Mam” and Eddie uses “Mummy” for their titles. A swear word to the boys is very humorous and when Eddie says he will look the “F” word up in the dictionary, Mickey is clueless to what the object is.
They became friends through fate. It was inevitable that they would meet again and the fact that they become “Blood Brothers” is ironic as they already share the same blood. Both of the mothers disagree with their friendship because they know that giving or receiving the child was wrong. Mrs Johnston is very superstitious and Mrs Lyons realises this. She uses this superstition to her advantage to trick Mrs Johnston into giving her child away. When the children were younger, the fact that they were from different backgrounds or upbringings didn’t seem to matter to them. As they get older and when money is more of an issue (for Mickey) their friendship weakens. Mickey has had to struggle all his life and Eddie has had it handed to him on a plate which Mickey resents.
The second scene I am analysing is Act 4, scene 2 where Eddie returns from University for Christmas. Between this scene and the first scene I analysed, Mrs Lyons moved Eddie away as she felt that Mrs Johnston regretted giving her son away and was following her. Coincidently, Mrs Johnston had the opportunity to move herself and her children to a new estate near The Lyons’. The twins meet again and continue their friendship along with Linda, Mickey’s friend, until Eddie is sent to University. When Eddie returns at Christmas, Mickey is very cold towards him and when Eddie confronts him about his anger, Mickey reveals that he lost his job and has been walking the streets trying to find a new one for three months.
“Mickey, what’s wrong?”
“You. You’re a dickhead!”
This is the first time one of the twins has shown dislike towards the other. Eddie can’t understand what he has done wrong and he doesn’t realise why Mickey is so angry. Mickey is jealous of Eddie, as he gets everything he wants and needs whereas Mickey was brought up in a working class family, so he understands the concept of money, and its value.
“Look…Come on…I’ve got money, plenty of it”
“No, I don’t want your money, stuff it. Eddie, just do me a favour an’ piss off will y’?”
Mickey snaps at Eddie, because Eddie is being insensitive because to him, money has no value. Eddie tries to thrust money into Mickey’s hands but he won’t accept it. The friendship is no longer there between Eddie and Mickey as they are two completely different people and they cannot continue their friendship with their different backgrounds.
The working world has changed Mickey as he has realised how difficult the responsibilities of relying on a job really are. He has to support his new wife, Linda, and also the baby which is on its way. Eddie doesn’t mean to be insensitive, he just doesn’t realise the value of money as he has always been well provided with it. Mickey is very bitter towards Eddie as he is very bewildered, and doesn’t realise the concept of money.
I believe that Willy Russell wrote this play because he wanted to break stereotypes and that nature is more important than nurture. He believed that the way you are brought up is more important than what you are born with. He wanted people to see that “money gives you choice”.