Blood Brothers

Willy Russell · 1983 · Paper 2 Section A

6-Part Quote Analysis

6 quotes with full 6-part analysis

Theme Sheets

4 printable A4 theme analysis sheets

Writer’s Toolkit

6 sections · 73 techniques · A4 printable

Exam Practice

6 practice questions with timed writing

Context

First performed in 1983, the musical was written during Thatcher's Britain when mass unemployment, deindustrialisation, and the North-South divide were devastating working-class communities. Russell, himself from a Liverpool working-class background, uses the twin conceit to argue that class — not genetics — determines life outcomes, making it a powerful socialist parable.

Key Themes

Social Class & InequalityNature vs NurtureFate & SuperstitionMotherhood & SacrificeFriendship & BetrayalUnemployment & PovertyIdentity & Belonging

Characters

Mrs Johnstone

Working-class mother forced to give up one of her twins; warm, superstitious, and self-sacrificing

Mickey

Twin raised by Mrs Johnstone; spirited as a child but destroyed by poverty and unemployment

Edward (Eddie)

Twin raised by the Lyons family; privileged, confident, and well-educated

Mrs Lyons

Wealthy, neurotic woman who raises Edward; increasingly paranoid and manipulative

Linda

Mickey's childhood sweetheart and wife; trapped between loyalty and despair

The Narrator

Omniscient chorus figure who foreshadows doom and comments on fate and class

Sammy

Mickey's older brother; represents the criminal path poverty can force

Quotes

“Tell me it's not true. Say it's just a story”

IMPERATIVE PLEA / METATHEATRE

“If we were of the same class, would we have been treated the same?”

CONDITIONAL RHETORICAL QUESTION

“The devil's got your number, y'know he's gonna find y'”

COLLOQUIAL THREAT / REFRAIN

“I could have been him!”

MODAL VERB — 'COULD' AS LOST POSSIBILITY

“We went dancing”

SIMPLE PAST TENSE — IRRETRIEVABLE LOSS

“always a price to be paid”

APHORISTIC WARNING / ECONOMIC METAPHOR