Mrs Johnstone is 25 years old at the start of the play and has already had seven children. She is naturally a kind loving mother but finds it hard to discipline her children and keep them under control. In the play her son Sammy burns the school down but she casually jokes around and quotes ‘the silly gets play with magnesium’. Mrs Johnstone is poor and trapped by poverty. This makes it very difficult for her to care for her children and is ultimately the reason that she gives
Edward away to Mrs Lyons. Mrs Johnstone is a woman who makes rash decisions instead of thinking carefully about them, like she buys a lot from a catalogue despite knowing she wont be able to pay for them later which also explains why throughout the play her bills are so expensive.
Mrs Lyons is a lonely wife, with a cold character who finds it difficult to be affectionate towards others. Her and her husband cannot have kids and her husband is at work spending a lot of his time away from home. She is wealthy but depends on her husbands income. Mrs Lyons does not work or do housework, she hires Mrs
Johnstone to do the cleaning for her, whilst she shops for expensive items. Mrs Lyons is a selfish woman who relies on others for her own gain.
When Edward gets handed over to her she becomes an over-protective mother, who likes to keep Edward in the house or in the garden. She keeps Edward away from mickey who is his twin which Mrs Johnstone gave to Mrs Lyons. The reason why Mrs Lyons keeps Edward away from
Mickey is because she doesn’t want him, I quote
‘mixing with boys like that’.
Blood Brothers was a musical and a book both wrote by Willy Russell in 1844. blood Brothers first aired in
Liverpool before Russell transferred it to the west end