Educating Rita Essay Example for Free

Educating Rita Essay Willy Russell was born just outside Liverpool, but at the age of 5, moved to Knowsley. Academically he was a failure at school, but it was during English silent reading lessons that he realized he wanted to be a writer. He left school with an English O level as his only qualification to work for six years as a hairdresser. The plays he has written include: Our Day Out, Educating Rita, Blood Brothers. Blood Brothers was a musical written in the 1980s about twin brothers who are separated at birth, but in later years become friends. They are friends throughout their childhood and always look out for each other. The play starts at the end, then goes back and tells the events that lead to the situations. Class was a major issue covered in the play the Lyons family was upper class and the Johnson family was lower class. If this class system wasnt in the play then the meeting of Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Lyons would not have happened, Mrs. Lyons employed Mrs. Johnson to clean her house so if the two different classes werent addressed in the play then Edward would have stayed with Mrs. Johnson, so this issue was also a theme that had a useful part in the play. The play is also built upon the theme of the superstition that if twins are separated at birth then they will die on the day that they discover that they are twins. This theme is reinforced throughout the play by the words of the narrator to keep the audience thinking about what will happen. The first time we see the theme of superstition is when the narrator first begins to speak and he says, So did you hear the story of the Johnston twins? How one was kept and one Given away Never knowing that they shared one name till the day they died At the end of the play the narrators last few lines are do we blame superstition for what came to pass or could it be what we, the English come to know as class. I think this is a very true statement that the class system is what killed them. Also the themes of love and friendship were in the play, this was between Eddy and Mickey who where blood brothers and Linda was in love with Mickey. The narrators songs had verses in most of the songs that stuck in my head, these were the lines to do with superstition like shoes on the table and the devils got your number. Act 2, Scene 2 shows the first meeting between the two boys. This is where Willy Russell explores class difference. He does this by contrasting the backgrounds that the boys were brought up in. Mickey, the twin that was kept, was brought up in a working class background with little money and uses slang terms and vulgar language, Im pissed off. Whereas Edward was brought up in a family that had a car, a nice house and plenty of money. This meant that he would have a better education and therefore have better opportunities in life. He also speaks very well and posh. Eddie is absolutely fascinated by the way that Mickey speaks as the people he is around dont usually speak like that, You say smashing things dont you? . My initial opinion of Eddie is hat he is friendly and confident, Are you going to come and play there again? , because he just goes over and starts talking to Mickey. Mickeys initial reaction is that he is suspicious of why Eddie started talking to him. Another time that Mickey is suspicious is when Eddie offers him some sweets. His reaction is one of shock, Are you soft? . I think he reacts like this because the people he grew up with had little as are poor and cant share what they do have. He also worries that people may have tampered with it, if Sammy gives you a sweet hes usually weed on it first. Ironically this is the scene where the two boys make a pact to become Blood Brothers. In Act 4, Scene 2 the difference in class becomes more apparent. Eddie returns at Christmas from university while Mickey is struggling to provide a living for his family. The brotherly bond between them seems to have disappeared.