GCSE 2019-2020 LIT PAPER 2 SECTION A Page | 1
KEY QUOTATIONS
BLOOD BROTHERS
Name: ___________________________
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The difference between the Johnstone and. Lyons families draws attention to the impact that a person's social class can have on their opportunities in life.
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KEY QUOTATIONS
BLOOD BROTHERS
Name: ___________________________
CONTENTS:
1 Superstition & Fate
2 Social Class
3 Nature Vs Nurture
4 Teenagers
5 Violence
6 Mrs Johnstone
7 Mrs Lyons
8 Mickey
9 Edward
10 Narrator
11 Setting & Context
1 Superstition & Fate
Narrator
“There’s shoes on the table an’ a joker in the pack”
“Someone broke the lookin’ glass”
“Now y’ know the devil’s got your number, y’ know he’s gonna find
y’, y’ know he’s right behind y’”
“the salt’s been spilled”
“You’re walking on pavement cracks”
“The dealers dealt the cards, and he won’t take them back”
“There’s a black cat stalking and a woman who’s afraid”
Mrs Johnstone
“Oh God, Mrs Lyons, never put new shoes on a table…You never
know what’ll happen”
“I’m not superstitious”
Mrs Lyons
“they say that if either twin learns that he was once a pair, they
shall both immediately die”
Edward
“It’s just a secret, everybody has secrets, don’t you have secrets?”
Mrs Johnstone: “You never put new shoes on the table”
Narrator:
“A debt is a debt
and must be paid”
The difference between the Johnstone and Lyons families draws attention to the impact that a person’s social class can have on their opportunities in life. Edward: “Why…why is a job so important? If I couldn’t get a job I just say, sod it and draw the dole, live like a bohemian”
3 Nature Vs Nurture
Mrs Johnstone
“And when he grew up / He could never be told / To stand and
queue up / For hours on end at the dole / He’d grow up to be / A
credit to me”
Narrator
“There’s a pact been sealed, there’s a deal been born”
Mickey
“Ey, we were born on the same day…that means we can be
blood brothers”
Mrs Lyons
“You learn filth from them and behave like this like a, like a
horrible little boy, like them. But you are not like them. You are
my son, mine, and you won’t, you won’t ever…”
“It’s just…it’s these people…these people that Edward has started
mixing with. Can’t you see how he’s drawn to them?”
“Afraid he might eventually have forgotten you? On no. There’s
no chance of that”
“I started…just for a while I came to believe that he was actually
mine”
Mickey
“Why didn’t you give me away? I could have been…I could have
been him!”
4 Teenagers
Mickey
“If I was like him I’d know all the right words”
“Naked knockers with nipples…”
“She’s a fuckin’ head case.”
“she even says she loves me all over the place, but it’s just like
dead difficult”
Edward
“His hair’s dark and wavy, mine’s mousey to fair”
“Tennis with tits. Will Wimbledon ever be the same?”
“We have been undergoing a remarkable celluloid experience!”
“I love it when we’re together, the three of us, don’t you?”
“If I was him I’d bring you flowers and ask you to dance”
“Even if we had to live some worlds apart”
Narrator
“Life has no ending when you’re sweet sixteen”
“Everything is possible, the world’s within your reach”
“And only if the three of them could stay like that forever”
“And only if we could predict no changes in the weather”
“And only if we didn’t live in life, as well as dreams”
“And only if we could stop and be forever, just eighteen”
We see Edward & Mickey evolve from infants, to boys, to
teenagers, to young men, and at each point playwright
Willy Russell makes sure to show us the unique difficulties
and preoccupations of that stage of life.
There’s a few bob in your pocket and
you’ve got good friends,
And it seems that Summer’s never coming
to an end,
Young, free and innocent, you haven’t
got a care,
Apart from decidin’ on the clothes
you’re gonna wear.
The street’s turned into Paradise, the
radio’s singing dreams
You’re innocent, immortal, you’re just
fifteen
Violence has a presence in the working class characters’ lives from a young age. When we first meet Mickey as a seven year old, he has a toy gun and he plays games involving imaginary guns with his friends and neighbours. The violence escalates as the play progresses, culminating in the tragic death of Mickey and Edward. Violence reflects a lack of control; when characters start to lose power in some way, they become more violent.
6 Mrs Johnstone
“Once I had a husband, / You know the sort of chap”
“He told me I was sexier than Marilyn Monroe”
“The Welfare have already been on to me”
“kids can’t live on love alone”
“A bike withboth wheels on?”
“they’re a pair, they go together”
“But keep it a secret eh, Eddie? Just our secret, between you an’
me”
“We’re getting’ out, / We’re movin’ house, / We’re starting all over
again”
“Do you still keep that locket I gave y’?”
“I don’t want your money”
“you’ve not had much of a life with me, have y’?”
“Tell me it’s not true, / Say it’s just a story”
There are several significant references in the play to Marilyn Monroe,
the actress and film star who epitomised glamour and sexuality but
died of a drugs overdose in 1963. These references to the romance and
glamour of Hollywood – and the reality behind it – create a stark
comparison between Mrs Johnstone’s romanticised hopes of a
Hollywood ending and the reality that she must face.
7 Mrs Lyons
“I believe that an adopted child can become one’s own”
“We bought such a large house for the – for the children – we
thought children would come along”
“Already you’ve been threatened by the Welfare People”
“Mrs J, nobody must ever know. Therefore, we have to have an
agreement”
“You swore on the bible”
“You won’t tell anyone about this, Mrs Johnstone, because if you
do, you will kill them”
“I’m talking about thousands if you want it. And think what you
could do with money like that”
“Wherever I go you’ll be just behind me”
“I curse the day I met you. You ruined me” – “I curse you. Witch!”
“I took him. But I never made him mine”
“Even when – when he was a tiny baby I’d see him looking
straight at me and I’d think, he knows…he knows”
Mrs Lyons is callous in using Mrs Johnstone’s fears against her. She shows a lack of empathy for the poorer woman and instead is focused on getting what she wants. Mrs Lyons also reveals her lack of understanding of Mrs Johnstone’s life, as saying ‘the Welfare people’ suggests she is unfamiliar with the term.