This document provides an overview and analysis of the play "Blood Brothers" including its themes of class divide, family, hopes and dreams. It summarizes the characters, techniques used in the play like parallel scenes and songs, and roles of the narrator. Key motifs in the play around Marilyn Monroe and guns are also outlined. The document examines how the tragic outcome is portrayed as inevitable from the start and discusses what the play says about class differences in society.

1. 
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Blood
Brothers
Revision

2. Themes
 Class divide
 Family
 Growing up
 Superstition and Fate
 Hopes and Dreams
 Nature versus Nurture
 Love and Marriage
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3. Characters
 Mrs Johnstone
 Mickey
 Other children including Sammy
and Donna-Marie
 Linda
 Mrs Lyons
 Mr Lyons
 Edward Lyons
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Narrator
Chorus to play minor roles such as
Miss Jones

4. Motifs
Marilyn Monroe
Guns - toy and
real
The idea of games
Dancing
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5. Techniques
 Parallel scenes to bring out class differences
 Use of key episodes to give a flavour of life,
since play covers a long period of time
 Use of songs
 Use of motifs
 Narrator and chorus
 Flashback – starts with final scene
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6. Language
 The working class characters speak in Liverpool
dialect, which makes them sound natural, warm
and likeable.
 The middle class characters speak in standard
English, with Received Pronunciation. This is a
cause of humour when the boys first meet.
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7. The Role of the Narrator
 Comments on the action
 Tells the story and involves the audience
 Links episodes together
 Warns of danger by appearing on stage at crucial times
 Points out themes
 Asks audience questions
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8. What do the songs add to the Play?
 Link scenes and draw parallels
 Remind the audience of key themes
 Link the two halves of the play by using some of the
same words / tunes, such as ‘Easy Terms’
 Mood and atmosphere
 Humour and pathos
 Fill in parts of the plot
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9. The tragic outcome is inevitable from the very
start. Discuss.
 Theme of Superstition and Fate
 Starting with final scene
 Continual warnings from the narrator
 The Marilyn Monroe motif
 The gun motif
 Nurture – Johnstone family are in trouble from the start. E.g.
Sammy’s behaviour and Mrs Johnstone’s fears for Mickey
 Class divide
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10. To what extent do you feel sympathy for Mrs
Johnstone?
 At the start, very little: ‘a stone in place of a heart’, but
gradually, as the story unfolds, we feel much more:
 Husband walks out leaving her with little money
 Mrs Lyons pushes her into it
 She does it ‘for the best’
 She’s a loving mother to all her children
 She stays cheerful and makes the best of things
 But do we also feel she could have controlled her children
better, been harder on them?
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11. What does this play have to say about class?
 The class divide is unfair
 Russell shows that two people with identical DNA can
be so different in what they achieve because working
class people were denied the chances to develop
 Russell poses the question: ‘could it be what we, the
English, have come to know as class?’
 Money can’t buy love but it can buy power.
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12. Now you try…
 What has this play to say about mother / child relationships?
 How is the theme of love presented? You may consider family love,
romantic love and married love.
 How far do you think Russell presents the working class characters
in a more favourable light than the middle class characters?
Canyouthinkofanyotherquestions?
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