Mickey is outgoing when he meets Edward and immediately accepts him as a close friend, despite their differences. When he meets Edward, his lack of education and his use of swear words and slang are emphasised by the contrast with his blood brother , who is well educated and does not know any swear words.

In the first half of the play, his role is played almost to the point of caricature. In a way, they both want to be like each other, but for very different reasons. While Eddie wants everything Mickey has, that money can’t buy, Mickey on the other hand wants the material aspects of Eddie’s life.

Mrs Johnstone follows Mickey and tells him that he and Edward are really twins. Mickey tells his mother that he wishes she had given him away instead of Edward.

As an adult, Mickey’s energy and positivity are destroyed by his experience of hopeless unemployment and being unable to support his new wife, Linda, and their child. This leads to him becoming angry and jealous of Edward.

Mickey’s clothes always seem to swamp him. When we first meet Mickey, played by Sean Jones, he is wearing scruffy knee-length shorts, a large green pullover tank-top which is too big and has holes, over a brown short-sleeved t-shirt. He has baggy grey socks and brown canvas trainers. He is also covered in mud.

The main characters in Blood Brothers are the twins Mickey Johnstone and Edward Lyons, and their mothers Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons. Mickey and Edward’s friend Linda, who becomes Mickey’s wife, is also an important character.

Just before Edward leaves for university he makes sure Mickey and Linda get together. Linda becomes pregnant and she and Mickey marry and move in with Mrs Johnstone. Mickey loses his job and is persuaded by Sammy to help with a garage robbery. Sammy shoots the garage attendant and Mickey gets seven years in prison.

Mickey calls round to see Edward but Mrs Lyons sends him away, saying it is Edward’s bedtime. Mrs Lyons realises who Mickey is and scolds Edward for playing with him. Upset and angry, Edward swears inexpertly at his mother. Mrs Lyons hits Edward ‘instinctively’ (p.

The biological mother of Mickey and Edward (as well as a horde of other children, including Sammy and Donna Marie), Mrs. Johnstone is a deeply superstitious woman who is forever scrambling to get by, but has a good heart and a strong sense of right and wrong.

Her superstitions and lack of education enable her employer to take advantage of her. Mrs Johnstone’s poor judgement is also shown in her buying things from the catalogue that she cannot afford. Although Mrs Johnstone is very loving, she does not have control over her children and they cause a lot of trouble.

In the 1950s and 1960s, it was still common for the husband to work while his wife stayed at home to look after the house and children. Mrs Lyons doesn’t work, but she has a cleaner, and no children. At first, we feel sorry for her, because she can’t have children and her husband is distant and unsupportive.

Marilyn Monroe features as a symbol throughout Blood Brothers. Earlier on, she represents freedom and sexiness but towards the end of the play she stands for depression and early death, as her life spiralled out of control, leading to her becoming dependent on prescription medication and dying of an overdose.

Blood Brothers Key Quotes. • You never put new shoes on the table” • “But y’know the devil’s got your number.” The narrator suggests the mothers will be cursed for their unnatural agreement.

Mrs. Johnstone has the twins, and names the two children Michael (known as Mickey throughout the play) and Edward in 1963, but then regrets having agreed to give one away (“Easy Terms”). After keeping her deal with Mrs. Lyons, she lies to her other children, saying that the other baby had died and gone to heaven.

The act of dancing, for example, is used to suggest happiness. At the beginning of Act One, Mrs Johnstone recalls dancing with her husband when they first met and at their wedding. Significantly the dancing stopped when her children were born.

The Narrator serves several purposes in the play. He acts as a social conscience, drawing the audience’s attention to the rights and wrongs of characters’ actions. He also reminds the audience of the mothers’ guilt and the twins’ inevitable death.

The main themes include:

• social class and inequality.
• superstition and fate.
• violence.

Roman Catholic

Johnston with the terrible deed that she committed by strongly stating the fact that “you sold your baby” and labels the whole act as a “crime”. We, the audience sympathize with Mrs. Johnston because she has lost her job and is now unable to provide for her children.

A prank by a couple of rich kids and their socially inferior playmate leads to murder in “Blood Brothers,” a surprisingly uncompelling drama, based on a true story, from freshman helmer Arno Dierickx.

Linda and her affair with Edward carry much responsibility for the deaths of the twins.

In conclusion, the tragedy occurs because Mrs Lyons tries to separated Edward and Michael. As they got older problems happen as she tries to break their relationship and this leads to the death of Edward and Michael. The moral of this story is blood is thicker then water.

It’s a pretty house, isn’t it? It’s a pity it’s so big. I’m finding it rather large at present. We bought such a large house for the – for the children – we thought children would come along.

Mrs Lyons is a very lonely woman, who is the opposite of her employee Mrs Johnstone. At the start of the play, she is alone in her large home as her husband often works away on business – and is away for nine months at this point.

Mr. Lyons gives Edward the present of a toy gun, and then pretends to die. Mrs. Lyons begins to read her husband and son a story, but Mr.

He is presented as anti-social and criminal, threatening a bus conductor with a knife and killing a filling station worker. He has no outlet for his hostile tendencies, he has no job or money.

The answer is: Shooting someone.

Sammy is Mickey’s older brother. Mickey admires him and is ultimately led into criminal activity by him.

Mickey taking the gun and going to find Edward reflects how he has resorted to violence to fight his own lack of control, like Mrs Lyons. However, Mickey shooting Edward is accidental. The repetition of the word explodes reflects the devastating impact that violence has on the play and characters.

The answer is: Sarah.