How Does Willy Russell Show the Differences Between Mickey and Eddie in Blood Brothers?

The musical Blood Brothers tells the story of twins, Mickey and Eddie, brothers separated at birth who reunite and become friends in their childhood. Blood Brothers explores the lives of the Johnson and Lyons families, exposing class differences. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Lyons are two extremly different women, yet are unable to avoid each other due to the connection the boys share. The differences in lifestyle, values and morals of these two families are stark and tangible. Circle in the Water values this opportunity to explore society and relationships identifying themes that resonate with Hong Kong life.

This play is about a boy named Romeo and girl named Juliet. Their family are mortal enemies so that means that they are always fighting with one another. At a Capulet party Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time not knowing who each other are, until later that night that they are enemies. They begin to fall in love with each other and get married after meeting for one night. Then the drama gets to their head and they kill themselves. In Romeo and Juliet Capulet’s and Montague’s, Friar Lawrence, and Balthasar are responsible for the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

busy working- "I know it's hard on all you kids, but try and get some

think for themselves and to “seize the day.” With the boys having a new way of viewing life,

Parenting played a big role in shaping the two boys lives. Having a parental mentor is important because they assist and guide children to take the right decisions about their lives. The author had his two parents at the beginning of his life. Also, the author’s parents, especially his mother, tried to raise him in an effective way wanting him to know the right from wrong at an early age. “No mommy loves you, like I love you, she just wants you to do the right thing” (Moore 11). This quote was a live example of the author’s life with his parents. It reflected the different ways his parents used to teach him “the right thing.” Though his mother was upset from his action toward his sister, his father

The relationship between the two fathers and the two sons is a very important theme in this book. Because of their different backgrounds, Reb Saunders and David Malters approached raising a child from two totally different perspectives.

This obviously immediately gives us the impression that Edward is from a middle or upper class family because he uses so much formal language, even when saying bad things. By using this strong language in their first meeting it gives the audience a clear view of the extremes in the classes. The audience can find the first meeting quite funny because the actors play the two extremes in quite humorous ways. Initially this can make the difference in class seem quite a light subject when really, as we find out later in the play, it is an enormously important subject. I think Russell is positively biased towards Mickey in this first meeting of the boys, possibly because Mickey is from a lower class family and so was Russell. I think Russell is biased because Mickey is bragging for the small things he loves to play with. However, even though Edward probably has more than Mickey he doesn’t make a show of it.

Since the story is about two brothers who are very different from one another, this helps set the tone of the story.

Still, through this, the mother sees the children, especially her own son, as fairly innocuous, only posturing as men, but still calm, like "a room full of small bankers". They may be men, she seems to say, but they are gentlemen, and harmless at that. The macho posturing becomes more tangible and tense when one older boy says to a younger one "I could beat you up". This statement puts the reader and the speaker on guard, aware that a change is taking place. One can almost see the mother perk up her ears.

This movie hits viewers in the heart with real children. He uses five children ranging from first to eighth grade that have hit hard times, and are simply trying to secure a better future for themselves.

Throughout this movie, we learn how relationships are formed and maintained, and how our perceived self, and presenting self can be very different. The boys continually use identity management to jockey for position in the group, however each one knows where they actually belong. It is only when they encounter a difficult situation, that they show their true emotions and feelings. They do stick up for each other, and show true concern and caring when the need arises, however, in the presenting face, they play it much more cool, and even somewhat unconcerned for each other's feelings.

After he completed his alcohol treatment, his son Billy died on March 12, he was thirty-six years old. He had trouble with his heart. That brought Mickey back to drinking.

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.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy that involves young lovers, their “untimely death,” and a feud between their two families. The Capulets and the Montagues war against each other. The feud continues to escalate and provides the background for the story of these “two star-crossed lovers.” This literary masterpiece is still relevant today since it involves parental ambition, family fighting, and young love.

One of the ways Russell uses the characters of Mickie and Edward to show the differences through their lives is grammar. In the quote “Yeah I know loads of words like that. You know like the F word.” Mickie uses Sammy as a role model so he uses the same words as him. He doesn’t socialize with middle class people like Edward so he has no one to look up to. He is not fully aware of the words he says and the impact it has on anyone because he has no education because he was brought up in working class. For example Edward quotes ”Don’t you know what a dictionary is.” Mickie isn’t aware of a dictionary because he has no education and he has never used one. This diverges with Edward because he goes to a good school and he has a good education.