1. Blood Brothers Marilyn Monroe

3. Social/Historical context
What information can we glean from the song ‘Marilyn Monroe’ about Mrs Johnstone and her life?
What evidence is there here to suggest she belongs to a particular class?
What is Russell telling the audience about the role of working class women at the time?
What can we understand about the class system in Britain between the 1950s and the 1980s?
What evidence is there in the way Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons speak to set them apart?

4. 1980’s – Margaret Thatcher’s Britain

5. 1980 - John Lennon assassinated

6. 1981 11 April 1981 Racial tensions spark Brixton riots
29 July 1981 Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer

7. 1982 Economic recession leads to high unemployment
Argentina invades the Falkland Islands

8. 1983 1983 Madonna's debut album is released
Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is re-elected by a landslide
1983 Madonna's debut album is released

9. 1984 Twelve-month 'Miners' Strike' begins
IRA bomb Conservative conference in Brighton

10. 1985
3 July Live Aid concerts take place simultaneously in London and Philadelphia to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia

11. 1986
Space shuttle Challenger explodes
Chernobyl nuclear disaster

12. 1987 DNA First Used to Convict Criminals
11 June 1987 Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wins a third term
DNA First Used to Convict Criminals

13. 1988 First ever Red Nose Day for Comic Relief
41 arrested for hooliganism at Arsenal v Millwall game

14. 1989 November 1989 Berlin Wall falls
Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
November 1989 Berlin Wall falls

15. 1990 Introduction of new local taxes sparks 'poll tax' riots in London
Margaret Thatcher resigns and John Major becomes prime minister

16. Homework – for Tuesday 30th June.
1 Family tree
In your book make a family tree for the Johnstone and Lyons families
2 Superstition
Complete the superstition table in your book
3 Mini essay:
How far does superstition have an influence on the events of the play?
You can write up to 500 words, using brief quotes.

17. Timeline for Blood Brothers
Mr and Mrs Johnstone got married probably in the late 1950s (Marilyn Monroe is mentioned in the song)
Mrs Johnstone was probably around 18 when she got married
Mrs Johnstone pregnant with eldest child
She has seven children by the time she is 25 (but looks like 42)
25/26 when the twins are born mid 1960s
She is working for Mrs Lyons who has been married for 10 years so probably aged 30.
Mickey and Eddie meet aged 7 – early 1970s- Sammy is 10
Eddie and Mickey turn 14 (act 2) late 1970s
Edward goes to university aged 18/19 – early to mid 1980s
Linda gets pregnant (about 18)
Mickey gets sent to prison
Linda and Mickey’s daughter, Sarah is at school by the ending – late 1980s

18. How does Willy Russell use the character of Mrs Johnstone to explore ideas about class in Blood Brothers?
Social context of the play – when it is set and when it was written
Political influences on the writer
How Mrs Johnstone and her family represent the ‘working-class’
Superstition used as a tool to manipulate Mrs Johnstone
Living conditions of Mrs Johnstone as an indicator of a rigid class system
Use of speech (dialect) to show differences in class
Contrast to ‘middle class’ values in the story

19. “An did y’ never hear of the mother so cruel,
Mrs Johnstone
“An did y’ never hear of the mother so cruel,
There’s a stone in place of her heart?
Then bring her on and come judge for yourselves
How she came to play this part.”

20. “And do we blame superstition for what came to pass?
Or could it be what we, the English have come to know as class?”